KeepOnSinging wrote:

april6263 wrote:

JetmamaDiDi wrote:

 
HAHA, April!! That is hilarious the piglet slept with you!! Since a granddaughter broke her own finger recently by stepping on it while going for a soccer ball (!!), I figured that might be something you had done!!

I do have to ask: how have you had ANY time to read books? Unless you read while you and Niecey are in the hospital?!

I have to think up my truths and lie....give me a few minutes. I wasn't expecting to win!!! LOL

LOL....I have always been a reader and I read quickly.......I haven't had as much time to read since Niecey got sick but I still fit it in when I can ....my hubby and kids tease me though because I still prefer to carry and read  a "real" book to reading one electronically.....they tell me I could down load books on my tablet but to me its not the same...LOL

A woman after my own heart. And I'll bet that you are not alone in this on this board.  I too much prefer a "real" book to reading one electronically.  And I recently read that there is evidence that it is better for your eyes to read a "real" book, especially if you do a lot of reading.  If the students I had when I switched to requiring them to read a book a week to qualify for an A kept up that habit, which some of them have, they would have read over a 1000 books by now.  I made this a hallmark of my teaching when I got depressed over the research that showed time after time that we forget 70% of what we learned the year before within three months.  I still remember walking down our English corridor, and asking myself what I was doing when people were going to forget 70% of it in three months.  And I thought, I can teach a habit.  I never dreamed that the class that began it all would become the single most popular Literature Elective at our high school.   I firmly believe that a large part of the success is that students came to realize that they had control over the grade they earned.  In fact doing this did  transform my classrooms in that students began taking full ownership for the grade they earned:  18 books for an A, 14 for a B and 10 for a C; D's and F's became a thing of the past.  I was stunned.  It worked both with freshman and upperclassmen.  Cheating also became a thing of the past. That was, in part, because for every book a student read, he or she had to meet with me and two or three other students who were ready with a book, for a book conference.  It is much harder to look classmates and your teacher in the eye and lie than it is to lie in a book report.  I did this with Shakespeare, with American Lit, with world lit and with the class that began it all, Modern Mythology where we focused on some of the 19th nad 20th century writers of science fiction, myth and fairy tales: George MacDonald, Ursula Le Guin, C.S. Lewis, J.R,R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, Katherine Kurtz, etc., etc., etc.  New books got added as students recommended them from their own reading. I also realized after awhile that to make this a success the teacher had to keep up with the class as new books got added to the list. Students still had tests and still had writing but never the fear they had had before they learned that actually reading the book, then having an in depth discussion about it followed by a written assignment went a long way towards dispelling anxiety about tests which I called response reports.       

I to prefer reading a real book and magazine...not that I wouldn't use a tablet to read under certain conditions but there is something about holding that book in your hand...call me still a bit old fashion!

UPDATED: Health officials urgently request blood donation in wake of mass shootingby Jessica Bryce Young June 12, 2016 at 9:26 AM

• image via oneblood.org

The number of wounded victims after the shooting in Pulse Nightclub has created an urgent need for blood and plasma. Any type will be welcomed, but particularly the universal blood types O-negative, O-positive or AB are needed. 
Orlando Regional Medical Center on South Orange Avenue is nearest Pulse, and many victims were taken there; however, please keep in mind that the streets around Pulse are blocked off, so travel may be impacted. The OneBlood donation center at 345 W. Michigan St. is open today, and will stay open past its usual 2 p.m. close time to accept donations.

UPDATE: Many more OneBlood donation centers will be open today, and their donation buses will be out. Call 1-888-936-6283 to find out where.

Last edited by CEK40 (6/12/2016 10:23 pm)