Sunday Salon: November 6, 2016

My life in books: 

In the past two weeks I've read the following books (definitely fewer than I've been doing):

  

• Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse--YA Holocaust story set in the Netherlands. I liked this one.
• Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco--Adult graphic novel about the war in Bosnia. It is intense, but interesting.
• Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez--Adult novel. I wasn't as wowed by this as I had hoped, but it was good.
• I started to read If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien, but then got distracted when I went shopping at our local independent bookstore, Chaucer's. They had a 20% off sale so I bought books and I wanted to read one of them. So I read...
• Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton--YA and a fun read with a deeper message that is worth teens reading

As soon as I finished Diplomatic Immunity, I jumped into the latest John Grisham, The Whistler, which I also just purchased. 

My life outside books:

This week I feel like things are getting turned upside down a bit. And I'm not even talking about the upcoming election. Let's stick with that for a moment. I am a political junkie and super interested in things political (in fact, I walked 10,000 steps when I was out canvassing for our Congressional candidate today). However, this presidential election is too much even for me; I just want it to be over. I am also scared for it to be over because what if the person I voted for doesn't win. Disaster. I am afraid to say how I want it to go since this isn't a political blog and I don't want to start a whole thing. So, I'll just say, I hope she does well Tuesday night. :-)

Ben, my boss

Back to why this week felt crazy. We found out my boss (our Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education) is leaving as of January 1. I've only reported to him since the end of August, but he is a really nice guy, which means that I am happy for him going to a new and exciting job, but I am worried for those of us who work with/for him. Who will replace him? The unknown is always tough. And all the subject-TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment) were told this week that we're probably moving. To where? We currently work in the basement of our district office so a move could be good. Or not. It depends. More unknown.

The positive is that this past Monday was our first all-Social Studies professional development day and I was in charge! 60 teachers plus 11 student teachers is a big group and I definitely felt the pressure to make the day worthwhile for them. I had them fill in an exit ticket and only 3 people said the day wasn't good so I will take that as a resounding success!

I hope you are having a great weekend!