Meeting Gordon Korman

When I was in elementary school, my favorite author was Beverly Cleary. I read every book she wrote. I still love her books and am thrilled that Trevor now considers her to be HIS favorite author. (If you missed them before, here are the Ramona Owls Trevor and I made based on "Ramona the Brave.")

In middle school, I discovered Canadian author Gordon Korman. I read two of his books before learning something that blew me away - he is only 9 years older than me and wrote his first book when he was 12. He sent his 7th grade language arts project, a book called "This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall" to Scholastic, along with his class' monthly book order. (His classroom job was Book Order Monitor.) They published it. There I was, 9 years later, as a 12-year old, reading a book written by a 12-year old. I LOVED the book and his sense of humor. Throughout middle school, I read every Gordon Korman book I could find.

By high school, I wasn't reading new Gordon Korman books anymore. It didn't occur to me to visit the Young Adult section of the public library. Once I was a teacher, his books were a bit above the reading level of most of my students, so I never got to teach his books. Yet, anytime I was asked to name my favorite author, I didn't hesitate: Gordon Korman.

And then one day, three years ago, I heard the most incredible news: Gordon Korman himself would be visiting our public library. The time was not convenient, as it fell during 3 year old Trevor's naptime, but I didn't care. I was going to meet Gordon Korman!

Let me assure you, he did not disappoint. His talk was absolutely fascinating. He answered every question from the audience and had all the time in the world for us. I can't remember what I asked, but I do remember telling him that he had been my favorite author for the past 25 years! After the talk, Trevor and I stood in line to have him autograph our books. He signed my ratty, decades-old copies of his classics, then gave Trevor a brand-new copy of "Schooled."  

I pasted the picture I took of the signing inside the front cover. As a 3-year old, Trevor didn't appreciate or even understand what was going on, but I hope in a few years he realizes how incredibly cool this is:

Here's the layout I made back in 2009 about meeting Gordon Korman.

 

So why bring this up now?  I just finished reading Gordon Korman's latest book, "Ungifted." And it was AWESOME. I absolutely loved it.   

"Ungifted" is the story of an impulsive, reckless middle school boy named Donovan who is accidentally transferred to the district's academy for gifted students. Being of average intelligence and used to "normal" school, Donovan doesn't fit in with the gifted kids, to say the least. But he brings something none of them have - a glimpse at what it would be to be ungifted, which is to say, normal. 

As a product of gifted education, I didn't go to a special school, but I certainly recognized some of the habits, concerns, and mannerisms of former classmates (ok, and maybe myself too....) amongst the characters in the book. Of course, that made it even funnier. I won't name names, but I'm hoping some of my classmates will read the book so that we can giggle privately about ourselves and our friends in middle school.  

Thank you, Gordon Korman, for another outstanding book. At the risk of sounding a bit crazy (I swear I'm not), I'm your biggest fan.

Civil War Camp and the Best Apple Crisp in the World

Back when I was a 5th grade teacher, my students and I participated in a Civil War Living History Program on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. For 24 hours, we lived the life of Civil War soldiers - we dressed in uniform, hiked to camp carrying all our supplies, and cooked our meals on an authentic wood stove. We used semaphore to send messages, compasses for orienteering, cleaned and fired muskets, and shot an actual Civil War cannon. The program is absolutely amazing and without a doubt one of the coolest things I've done in my life. (Here are more of the coolest things I did as a teacher. It's one of my favorite blog posts of all time.)

Check out the bottom left picture. That's me with my back to the camera and my soldiers (students) at attention. If you look carefully, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. If this camp weren't cool enough already, try waking up to that view. Amazing.

Here are some of my kids with their muskets. I love the bottom picture where you can see just how large Civil War-era muskets were.... taller than many of the kids!

 

The kids did all the food prep, including tending the wood fire.  

We hiked a minimum of 10 miles in 24 hours, much of it uphill and much of it carrying gear. When mealtime came, the kids were STARVING.  

They absolutely stuffed themselves with the delicious beef stew and bread they had spent the day making. And when it seemed like no one could eat another bite, out came the apple crisp they'd made. It smelled amazing and tasted even better. Over and over I heard, "This is the best apple crisp in the world!" So true.  

I hadn't had The Best Apple Crisp in the World for over six years. Steve and Trevor had never had it. So when my mom gave me 15 pounds of apples from their tree, the first thing I did was go to the file cabinet and dig out the recipe from Civil War Camp. The only problem... the recipe made 44 generous servings!

I decided that 44 servings of apple crisp would probably not be the correct amount for our family of 3. But 11 servings was reasonable. As I was dividing amounts like 2 1/4 cups by 4, it made me smile.  ll those 5th graders over the years who asked when we'd ever divide fractions in real life? Well, here you go!

Once I did the math and rounded quantities to reasonable amounts, Trevor and I got to work. 

 

Here it is, The Best Apple Crisp in the World!

  

Apple Crisp

                                              3 lbs. apples                                            1 c. flour

                                              juice from one lemon                            1 c. oats

                                              2 T. cinnamon                                         1/2 c. butter, softened

                                              1 c. brown sugar

Peel and slice apples. Pour the juice from one lemon over the top of the apples and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon over apples and toss again. Place in ungreased baking pan. Combine brown sugar, flour and oats. Stir in softened butter and mix until thoroughly combined. Spread topping evenly over apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until apples are soft and topping is crisp and golden.

I may not ever actually go back to Civil War Camp, but this apple crisp brings back so many wonderful memories.

Yosemite

If you've ever tried to get a camping reservation for Yosemite in the summer, you know that it is not easy.  So when friends of ours got an August reservation and invited us to camp with them, we really wanted to go.  Yosemite is gorgeous and the weather would be great.  We love camping and hadn't been yet in 2012.  And all three of us absolutely love spending time with Larry, Suzzi and Ronan.

However, there were a few things to consider.  We'd need a bunnysitter for Trouble.  The reservation was for Sunday through Tuesday - Steve had just started a new job and Trevor started school that Wednesday morning.  Did it really make sense for Steve to take off work so soon after starting?  Would Trevor be starting school exhausted from a fun-filled camping trip?  And then there was the fact that we still haven't confirmed exactly what caused Trevor's allergic reaction that cut our last camping trip short. Would he have another reaction?  Where was the nearest hospital?

In the end, we decided to go.  I'm so glad we did.  We had an absolute blast hiking, geocaching, exploring, playing, competing, wading, relaxing, and stargazing.  And we didn't need a hospital.

As usual for trips, I made a 2-page layout featuring a bunch of photos (18, to be exact).  I kept it very simple so that the focus would be on the pictures.  I used my super-trendy Studio Calico woodgrain stickers for the title, hand-cut some trees from cardstock scraps, and used some ancient Paper Loft patterned paper for the background.  

Witch Craft

We've been a one-car family for a few weeks, which requires a bit of coordination to make sure both of us can use the car when we need it. Steve needed the car, so he hollered from the other room, "What are you doing right now?" I hollered back, "Witch craft!" His expression as he walked into the room was pretty funny, but maybe you had to be there.

Here's what Trevor and I were doing. As I said, witch craft.

This is another project from artsy_T's Flickr page. She made these witches with 5th graders, so I wasn't sure how much adapting I'd need to do for my 1st grader to be successful. As it turned out, not much.

Supplies: various colors of cardstock (or construction paper), scissors, lace, and glue.  

 

First, Trevor and I each drew witch shoes on scraps of black paper. I was able to hold two pieces together and cut them simultaneously in order to get two shoes, but Trevor couldn't do that. So I attached a binder clip to his paper, which made it simple for him to cut the two pieces at once. As he cut a section, I could move the binder clip as necessary.

We placed the shoes on yellow background paper, then cut a skirt shape from more black cardstock. Nothing is glued at this point.

Next, we cut legs from a bright color and put them in the correct location. We used a second bright color to create stripes.

 

Once the stripes were cut, we glued them to the stockings. Then we glued the shoes over the stockings and glued the legs to the background paper. Finally, we glued lace to the back of the skirt hem, then glued the skirt in place.  

Here is Trevor's finished witch:

I made two. The one at the top of the post was the sample I made so that I could figure out what adaptions might be needed for Trevor. This is the one I made while he was making his:

Here are all three, now displayed on our wall.

I am in love with these. These would look so cool displayed down a long school hallway. What a fun way to use up cardstock scraps!

A Birthday Layout

Here's another UFO that was sitting on my desk partially done for a really long time.  

Months ago, I'd adhered the pictures to the cream cardstock and chosen the blue and confetti patterned papers.  I'd left the upper right section empty, with plans to divide it horizontally once I decided on my title treatment.  The title would go on top and journaling would be underneath.  

And then I noticed that the "Happy Birth Day" sticker would make a great title.  This meant dividing the section vertically instead of horizontally.  And that meant that the space I'd planned for my journaling wouldn't work anymore.  Which is why it was sitting on my desk undone.

I debated where to squeeze in the journaling and even toyed with hidden journaling. Eventually, I settled on the location on the left.  I added the star to bring attention to both the journaling and the accent photo.  

So glad to have that off my desk and into the album!