2014 has already come and gone and I have yet to share with you my favorite reads of the year. For those who don’t follow me on social media, the answer as to why is simple: I was dying of the plague. Okay, not really. I REALLY had the flu. And not just one. I had TWO different strands. So for my Christmas vacation, I spent 16 days in bed. Sleeping. Barely moving. Barely reading—which is the real tragedy. But now that we have enjoyed a full two weeks of 2015, let me share with you my favorite reads of 2014. First, I met my Goodreads goal of 115 books. As a matter of fact, I didn’t meet it—I spanked it. By year’s end I read 144 books (mostly YA and mysteries). I really like rounded up numbers, so I am bummed I didn’t reach 145, but hey, since I spanked my original goal, I will take it. Of those 144 boys, below I am sharing with you 15 of my favorite tween/YA reads in no particular order. Enjoy! ‘The Impossible Knife of Memory’ – Laurie Halse Anderson I did...
Happenings in Hodgensville is me sharing a piece of my non-reading self with you. It's usually related to what's happening in my classroom or my sharing my latest StitchFix with you. Today, I want to talk Instagram in a secondary classroom. I received an email asking me for tips on how to use it in a secondary classroom, and I responded. I decided then to create a blog post about it as well. Use Instagram in my secondary classroom?! Absolutely. I love social media for a lot of reasons, but most especially for the way I am able to communicate with my students. Instagram is something I love using. Pictures tell stories on many levels. I use my account to share a bit of myself, my classroom, my interests, etc. While some have very focused accounts, mine is a bit of a hodgepodge of life. If you’re on Instagram and are a secondary teacher, you’ve probably noticed that there seems to be an absence of us. There are some of us sharing what we do in our classrooms, but there could be m...
