How do you spell fun?

B-O-O-K T-A-L-K-S!

Man, in my ten years of teaching, few days have been as fun as the past few. 8th graders on Team 8-2 have been talking about books, book talking, sharing stories, recommending their favorites, and I can only hope the discussion continues. Those book talk days went beyond my expectations...it's how we are going to spend a handful more of our days together.

Was it me, or did 8th graders use some of the most persuasive, creative, and descriptive language you've heard? It was awesome. I can't wait to get them on the iPods...and Ms. Lang thinks we might be able to get them on the school website even! With their author's permission, of course...

Anyway, here's a shout out to all of the kids who gave books talks (all but 5 kids on Team 8-2 at this point). Some of you had only finished one book, some of you weren't excited about sharing it in front of the class, some of you forgot to write as many drafts as I requested, but YOU DID IT!

I love a book talk. Thanks for 140+ of them!

KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING (good work, Burky, Hannah, Lizzie...and the others too).
Kindly,
Stenson

What's your 2008 Reading Resolution?

Happy New Year, everyone. It's kind of exciting to think about everything that's possible in this new year. Just think---What will this year bring in terms of books, reading, and stories?

I've started out the year with a book about Baghdad immediately after the U.S. occupation. It's called Imperial Life in the Emerald City, but because the books I've reserved at the library keep showing up, I've also squeezed in a few adolescent lit. books.

I think I told most of you about 13 Reasons Why and how much it intrigued me. Jay Asher is the author, but if you can't find a copy, let me know.

I also read most of Twisted; the most recent Laurie Halse Anderson book. She wrote Speak. She is a brilliant writer who knows teenagers and the ways in which they can be their most honest and their most real.

Anyway, in 2008, one of my goals is to start keep tracking of a "Someday" book list. Books that I hear about, read about, or discover that I really hope to read "someday". I've always just kept an informal list in my head, but my 2008 reading resolution is to actually keep a list in a notebook of my "someday" books.

That's my Reading Resolution...what's yours?

One thing before I go: check out this site. It looks like a reliable site-
http://bookburger.typepad.com/

May 2008 be one of your best yet-

Stenson

p.s. I will try to get our media center to get a copy of Slam! I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

Turn the alarm off!

That's the thing I'm most excited to do this break. Turn the alarm off and get up when my eyelids pop open on their own. I'm also fired up about all the time, space, and room I'll have to read this next week-and-a-half. Oh, Winter Break, you arrived just in time...

There is the pile of books (especially Nat'l Book Award Nominee Inexcusable by Chris Lynch),
magazines (I need to find a copy of last week's New Yorker),
newspapers (it's been a month since I've sat down with the Sunday paper),
articles (I actually tore out an article from a magazine in the doctor's office that I just couldn't bear not to read),
and blogs (I've recently heard about a couple of blogs I'd like to check out) waiting patiently in my backpack and on my bedside table. I can't wait to get my hands on them,every last one of them.

Oh my little apples, I'm excited. The words! The stories! The poetry! The human experience! The knowledge! The exposure!

It's been a great year, Huskies. I'm grateful for this chance to read and share with you all. You make me even MORE excited about reading than I've ever been, and I just didn't know that was possible. But that's what you do. You are readers.

Let's blog and share and read together this winter break. I'll check in, and I'm hoping you'll do the same.

See you in '08.
Talk soon.
Keep reading.
Stenson

Big Questions to Help You Review

Post your answers to three of the five BIG QUESTIONS from the sheet in class.

Good books and Cool Quotes

Fearless Blogging 8LA Readers, how are you?

On Thanksgiving, I read a book cover to cover. It was filled with memorable quotes and lines. If I included them all in this post, the post would just roll on and on like the Mississippi, so let me pick just one to share...somewhere in the first part of the book, the author writes:

The truth kept insisting itself to me.

What a glorious way to put it, to give "truth" the action of being so bold and obvious that it MUST be acknowledged. This a concept much different than Ponyboy's "I lie to myself all the time", but I know both feelings well.

So, anyway, I started a new blog for "well-said words". If you stumble across a phrase, sentence, passage that really moves you, than post it.

The link to this separate blog is at the bottom of the page with my profile on it. Look to the left, click on "view my complete profile" and scroll to the bottom. It's titled "Stay Gold" (yep, that oh-so-memorable quote from The Outsiders).

Hope to see you there. Hope to grow quite a collection of quotes. Hope you are all safe and warm in this winter wonderland-


Stenson

Welcome Back!

Hello Caitlin, Jade, and other former studens! It's lovely to hear from you.

Please let us know here in 8LA, Room 203 at OGMS, what are you reading now that you are big ol' high school students? Please, please, please tell me that you are reading something! Looking forward to hearing about your book adventures!

Thanks for checking in!
Stenson

p.s. If you are in 8LA right now, why don't you take a moment to share what you are reading now that we have all finished The Outsiders.

"Houston, we have a problem."

We all have problems. They make us tougher, smarter, and kinder.

In class, we've discussed the concept of conflict. I want you to blog about it. Remember the three types: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself, and answer the questions below:

1. What is the most common type of conflict in the lives of 8th graders?
2. What type of conflict is the most difficult to deal with?
3. What can you learn from conflict?

You can talk about The Outsiders if it helps you answer the questions, but mostly, draw on your own worldly experience.

Looking forward to reading your answers,
Stenson