Sunday Salon, September 27

Sculpture at Orta San Giulio, 2014, ©ABennett

Weather: blue skies and crisp autumn air this morning.

Cue the music. This week the music is the thing rather than the video. Cue the music and have a listen while you read the rest of my blog. It is lovely and soft. Very melancholy. From the French movie Amelie, which I haven't seen.


 Busy week but what did I do? Lots of unmemorable things with a few exceptions:

• RHS Book Club-We discussed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. This book was recommended to us by a small bookstore owner when we held our meeting in her shop. We all readily agreed it sounded good and yet most of it didn't like it. The first part of the book is quite fast-paced and riveting but not the last half.
• Back-to-School Night- All teachers have to psych up for these events and I am no exception. This time attendance was so poor by parents, however, it almost felt pointless.
• First library lesson using iPads. I showed students how to locate a resource list on the library catalog then asked them to select a few books that look promising and go to the shelves to find them. (Thanks Sandy W-B for the idea. It worked great.) 

BSD 2016 Mock Printz list published- The librarians at the other district high schools and I sat down on Wednesday during a district late start meeting and selected our Mock Printz reading list for the year. All the books are YA and published in 2015, making them eligible for consideration by the Printz Award Committee (American Library Association.) We try to figure out what books are the winners by having our students read books of a pre-selected list we create. There are some really good books this year. I predict the committee will have a hard time narrowing it down. Click the link to check out the list.

Swiss Alps, 2014, ©ABennett

Don in Eugene for Duck football: Bah. The Oregon boys did not do well. In fact they got blown out. This year will not be a repeat of last year.

Book completed this week:

• Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardine. It is a horror/paranormal book on our Mock Printz list. It is geared toward younger YA students but I think students will like it if they aren't thrown off by its length, 400+ pages.

Currently reading all YA books:

• Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier---set in Australia in the 1930s centered around a crime-ridden area of Sydney. Audiobook select.  Love those Aussie accents. 60% completed.
• Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash---a graphic memoir about an early experience that imprinted. LGBT themed. 20% completed.
• Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin---nonfiction account of details surround The Pentagon Papers. The writing is geared toward teen but I'm not sure how interested they are in reading about it. We'll see. 2 % completed, ha!

Bridge at Depoe Bay, September 2015, ©ABennett

Best new App: notice my photos recreated into watercolors? The iPhone Waterlogue App transformed the photos into art! I had so much fun with it yesterday.

Muffy during healthier days.,©ABennett

Update on Muffy: she is still barely putting weight on her hind legs and we have to use a sling to get her around.  We are pretty worried. It doesn't seem like she is making the progress we were hoping or expecting by this stage. She has been able to hold her bladder all week, so that is something good.