Asia was the winning continent for our cultural awareness read around the world data collection second quarter. Each time a student read about a setting in another country, we added a tack to the map. Author Jeff Stone's Five Ancestors series help bring Asia to the winning continent. :)

For my first official duty as Kansas Teacher of the Year. I had the chance to toss a football to the Missouri of the Year. They let me keep the football, so Monday everyone can check it out. Yay!

We had the amazing privilege to visits this remarkable memorial today in Valley Center. The students toured a museum, see the wall up close, look for names, and speak with Vietnam veterans. This opportunity was an experience many of us will never forget.

This week We are analyzing how one character perceives another. To better understand the concept of "perspective", we staged our own perspective photos from different angles and even played with forced perspective. Here are a few that students staged.

We have been collecting data on the different genres of books we read this quarter. Romance had a strong lead this quarter, but Action-Adventure took over the top spot. On a different note, we had a surprising showing of Sci-fi thanks to a couple of popular series such as the Matched Series and the new Divergent series.

Scholastic sponsored a webcast today of JK Rowling reading Harry Potter to the world. Such a great opportunity for students to hear this amazing author share how she is inspired to write.

Came into school this week and had this message waiting at my desk. How awesome is this?! Love my students!

To help us build confidence in public speaking, we hold improv games now an fhen in class. Today one student did an awesome job playing a martial arts instructor.