"You, My Friend, Have Potential."

The first time I remember seeing my mother cry was not from an injury or from a death but from a book.  A book.  Not just any book but Bridge to Terabithia.  It was summer time and I can still picture the sunlight coming through the window and hear the words of Katherine Paterson.
Jesse and Leslie...the rope swing.  

Every year in my third grade class, I used to read Because of Winn Dixie.  Every year, I would tell my students, "at some point in this book, I am going to cry."  Their little faces would watch patiently just waiting to see their teacher cry.  Then Winn Dixie would go missing in the thunderstorm and Opal and the Preacher would have the argument in the rain and my voice would break.

The August before I started at Cooper, I read Wonder in the car driving back from Traverse City.  I got to the part where the principal is giving his speech at the end of the year.  You know the one.  "Always be kinder than necessary."  I was sobbing.  Big, fat, ugly tears.  I couldn't even hide it from my husband.

The gift of the cold day on Thursday allowed me to finish The One and Only Ivan, our Young Adult Book Club novel for February.  I found it to be both an extremely sad and beautiful book.  Yet, what I appreciated more than Katherine Applegate's Newbery Award winning novel was her Newbery Award acceptance speech.  It's hidden in the back of the book and it's beautiful.

Katherine describes how a parent questioned a bookstore about the sadness of the book.  Katherine states,
"The bookstore, to its credit, reassured her thusly: absolutely, it will make them cry.  And, oh, by the way-that's a good thing.
We live in a world where children are bullied into despair, and even suicide; where armed guards in a school hallway are considered desirable; where libraries are padlocked because of budget cuts; where breakfasts and backpacks, for too many children are unaffordable luxuries.
Children know all about sadness.  We can't hide it from them.  We can only teach them how to cope with its inevitability and to harness their imaginations in the search for joy and wonder.
Nothing, nothing in the word, can do that better than a book."

The power of a book.  That is what Sally and I have hoped to empower everyone with through the Young Adult Book Club.  We've had these discussions.  This book is too sad.  That book is too deep.  Yet, for one child, that book might be just the right book at the right time.  As Katherine Applegate so eloquently concluded her speech, "Every time you book-talk a new title, every time you wander the stacks trying to find that elusive, well-thumbed series paperback, every time you give just the right book to just the right child, you're saying, "You, my friend, have potential."

Keep reading.  Keep sharing.  Keep inspiring because you, my friends, have potential.

Big Rocks: 
Thank you to Robin, Judy, and Victoria for leading the Illuminate training and to Wendy for leading the MAISA training last Tuesday.  Great job ladies!

Thank you to Bill, Tara, Shawn, Wendy, and Michelle K for taking the time to share and brainstorm best practices in Math last Wednesday.  There were some great ideas being shared.

The Triad concert is Monday at 7 pm.  Band-o-rama was set for this Wednesday but is being rescheduled for Thursday, March 5.  Thank you to Karen and Sandy for all of the hard work you do to prepare our Cooper musicians.  

Schedule for February 23, 2015:
Monday: 1:30 Reading in the Content Areas meeting @ Coolidge (Sarah)
                7:00 Triad Concert
Tuesday: 8:00-3:45 Formative Assessment meeting @ CO (Sarah)
                 3:45 Lighthouse
Wednesday: 8:00 Center EPT
                     3:45 Planning
Thursday: 8:00-11:00 Literacy Leader meeting (Sarah, Sally, Wendy)
                   8:00 Staff meeting
Friday: 8:00-11:00 Title I Meeting
              8:00 Rescheduled Young Adult Book Club -READ THE SPEECH! :)