While my true love is literature, I also have a soft spot for history, which explains why I seem to gravitate towards primary sources. I especially love when primary sources help tell a story, or provide background information to make a story I’m reading come alive for me. Books like Port Chicago 50, Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, and […]
Social Studies
Website Review: Voki
Voki is an oldie but a goodie! I keep coming back to this uber fun technology tool. My personal children and I spent five minutes creating a Voki for a book we read and about 15 minutes playing with it and laughing! Of all the tools I have shared with teachers this has been a […]
Book Review: A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson
Why I Picked It Up: I originally picked up this picture book thinking it would be a biography. Sherry and I are always working on expanding our popular session Historical Fusions, and so we are continuously searching for quality biographies to add to our collection. Why I Finished It: This book is different from any I have […]
App Review: ChatterPix Kids
I am a firm believer that, when it comes to your toolbox of apps for the classroom, less is more. I’ll spare you the soapbox this time (you can read about it in this blog post if you are really interested!) and just tell you that this is one of the apps on my shortlist. ChatterPix lets […]
Book Review: Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin
Why I Picked It Up: There were several things that came together to confirm that I’d made a good choice when I picked up this book. I found out about it during a session at the recent Texas Council for Teachers of English Language Arts and Reading (TCTELA) conference about non-fiction. The cover flashed up on the […]
Book Review: The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires
Why I Picked It Up: I will have to come clean here. I honestly don’t remember why I have this one. It probably came in a package of multiple books that I ordered one late night, when I probably shouldn’t have. It was a surprise when the books arrived, because I couldn’t remember everything I had ordered! […]