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Sunday Salon: June 17, 2018


My life in books: 




Challenges progress:
  • Non-fiction--My goal is 20 books and I've read 25. 
  • Literary Voyage around the world--Read books set in as many countries as possible. I have read in 25 countries so far, recently adding Cuba, Germany, and Ghana.
  • Literary Escapes--Track the US states. I have read books set in 21 states so far and in the past weeks added Florida and South Carolina.
  • Read all of the ALA YA Award Winners--I have already read 6 of these winners.
  • Motif Reading Challenge--The June motif is Crack the Case (mysteries) so I did that with Blackout by Alex Segura.

My life outside books:
Working:
This past week was our district's professional development week and I led three days of workshops: student-centered learning for social studies teachers; enhancing curriculum with technology; and a Google Level 1 and 2 Bootcamp. All very successful, but also draining. I am officially done for the summer, but have scheduled at least 3 days during the summer to work with teachers on curriculum.

Our sucky 2017-2018 school year (devastating fire and debris flow, teachers out with major medical issues and chemical spill burns, and student suicides) ended on a very sad note when one of our district principals died the day before graduation. Her memorial was yesterday and it was a wonderful event. I think we're all glad this school year is over and done!

Personal:
It's great having my daughter home for the summer! We're just going to hang out in Santa Barbara for the next couple of months getting ready for her to go off to college.

It's Father's Day here in the US, but our family isn't really big on these "days" since we all live in the same house and see and appreciate each other every day. But, mother nature has been good to us and it rained a bit this morning; that NEVER happens here in June and since we're in a drought we'll take all the moisture we can get.

I don't normally post about politics on this blog, but I am so ashamed and angry that we have become a nation that separates children from their parents and then locks them up. I am not sure why no one in authority is doing anything about this. What can we do?
2 baby hawks a couple weeks ago

About 6 weeks ago I discovered a red shouldered hawk's nest in the eucalyptus tree at the end of our driveway. It has been so wonderful to watch them go from sitting on eggs to the two babies learning to feed themselves. My guess is that they will fledge in the next 10 days. We set up my dad's birding scope each day around 4:30pm and take turns watching them for about an hour. The video is of the mama hawk feeding her two babies who are now quite big at about a month old.

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