The Secret School

It's Tuesday again, so you know what that means...blog post time!

Unlike last week, I really enjoyed the book that I read this week. I read The Secret School by Avi when I was in elementary. Actually, one of my fifth-grade teachers read this book to my class. I remember loving the journey through this book and immediately begged by parents to buy it for me once we were done reading it in class. Since it had been so long since the last time I had read this story, it was almost like reading a brand new book. I remembered bits and pieces, but overall, it was a fun journey to venture on. I highly recommend this book to others!

In April 1925, in Elk Valley, Colorado, eight children were attending school in a one-room schoolhouse under the direction of Miss Fletcher. Much to the students' dismay, Miss Fletcher's mother had become ill and she had to leave to go stay with her mother. Mr. Jordan, the head of the school board, informed the students that school would be closed for the rest of the year, and it would resume next fall. Those in eighth grade who had to take their exit exams to enter into high school would have to wait another year. This could not be so, thought Ida Bidson, a fourteen-year-old student of the schoolhouse. She was dismayed at this news, but her eighth-grade classmate, Tom, had a better idea - Ida should become the teacher. How could this work? A fourteen-year-old teacher? If all students, including herself, wanted this past school year to count, they would have to continue the school in secret - hence, the start of "the secret school." Thus, Ida Bidson officially became Miss Bidson at the age of fourteen.

Can a fourteen-year-old really teach a whole classroom? Do Tom and Ida make it into high school? I will not spoil the rest of the story so you will have to read to find out if this plan works.

I would love to read this story to my future classroom. I feel that it has the potential to teach students about the value of perseverance and confidence. Sometimes, we have to step out of our comfort zone in order to succeed. There is a poem that is recited throughout this book several times. It states:
"Do what conscience says is right; Do what reason says is best; Do with all your mind and might; Do your duty, and be blest." What a great, encouraging poem! This shows students that if they pursue a dream, of course doing what is right along the way, their chances of pursuing that dream are high.

I hope you take the time to consider reading this book. I truly enjoyed it! Have a wonderful week!

Ashton Schimmelfpennig

The Music of Dolphins

Happy Tuesday!

This week's blog post will not be like my last couple of blog posts. Unfortunately, the book that I chose to read this week for my 20 Book Challenge was not exactly my cup of tea. This was a book that I found at my parents' house from my childhood, and I vividly remember not being very interested in the book when I was younger. After beginning the book this time, I quickly remembered why I did not enjoy it. The idea of a story about a girl raised by dolphins transforming into a human was a good thought, but the story plot did not make this book very interesting. It was rather dry.

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse is a children's fiction book recommended for grades 6-12. Mila, a teenage girl, was discovered in the ocean by rescuers. Many years prior, Mila, along with her mother and brother, had been on a plane that crashed in this very ocean. Once the rescuers found her, they took her to a hospital where she began to be observed by a few doctors, mainly Dr. Beck and Sandy. They came to realize that Mila was a feral child who had been raised by dolphins. They try to transform Mila into a human by teaching her English, having her listen to music, and helping her develop survival skills so she can live on land. In return, Dr. Beck wishes to learn dolphin language. Mila tries her best to learn about the human way of life, and she does to a degree, but in the end, she returns to missing her dolphin family.

One thing I did like about this story is how the author differentiated the language and font between when Mila could only speak dolphin to when she was relatively fluent in English, much like a human. At the beginning, when Mila still longs for her dolphin family, the language is very broken English and the font size is large. As the book progresses and Mila becomes more fluent in English and accustomed to human life, the font size gradually decreases and becomes complete sentences. At the end, when she again wishes to return to her dolphin family and is tired of human life, the font becomes large again, also returning to broken English. This was a neat way to be able to establish where Mila was in her progress of adapting to human life.

Another aspect that I liked about the book was the fact that it emphasized the same theme as Ralph S. Mouse did in last week's post - Your family will always be there through thick and thin. "They will not leave, they will not turn. I know them. They are my family." This quote stood out to me the most as the theme of the book. Even though I disliked the book, I feel that the author did a good job at showing how no matter where life takes us, there will be no place like home and no people like our family.

Maybe this book seems interesting to you, maybe not? Though I expressed that I did not like this book, I tried not to be overly biased in telling you about this story. If you choose to read this book, let me know what you think!

Have a great week,

Ashton Schimmelpfennig

Ralph S. Mouse

Happy Valentine's Day!

Instead of celebrating a romantic, lovely evening with my husband being all "mushy-gushy," I am at home doing homework while he is at work, and we are both eating leftovers from yesterday's dinner. Ahh, the life of a married college student. (I am not complaining. It really is great, I promise!)

This week, I dove into one of my favorite books from my childhood, Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary. I am a fan of this whole series actually! I found myself having a hard time putting this book down, just like when I was an elementary student. Even though I despise mice, this little mouse has captured my heart, and I have enjoyed going on many adventures with him and his motorcycle!

In this book, Ralph decides that he is tired of living at the hotel with his annoying family. He coaxes his human friend, Ryan, into taking him to school, where he stays for about a week. During that week, Ryan's class studied Ralph, but Ralph discovered that he hated all of the attention put on him for just being a mouse. He also did not like being alone at the school. In all honesty, he admitted that he was missing the hotel, his true home. Finally, he gets to go home with Ryan and is reunited with his family and friends. Also, because of a prior accident that happens to his motorcycle earlier in the story, he is also excited to show off his new sports car.

I think that this is a great book to read together as a class. It gives students the opportunity to go on an adventurous journey with a mouse, but it also teaches them that family and friends are so important in our lives. It also has the underlying theme of "there's no place like home." How fun would it be for students to write their own stories about Ralph S. Mouse and his adventures? I think that this would be a great extension activity to accompany this book.

If you have not read this book or the other books in this series, I highly encourage it!

Until next week,

Ashton

The Lemonade War

I recently read the book The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies which is a realistic fiction book recommended for children ages 8-12. This book was given to me to read in order to prepare for an event at my current field placement school. To be honest, I figured I would read this book just because I had to complete it; however, to my surprise, I ended up really loving this book and enjoying the storyline. So much so, I have the desire to continue reading the series! 

To give a little background about this book, I will provide just a short overview of the book to help demonstrate some of my favorite aspects of this book. The main characters are Evan and Jessie Treski who are brother and sister. They are at the end of their summer break, and Evan is frustrated with Jessie because she is skipping third grade and moving into the fourth grade with him at the beginning of the new school year. Evan secretly feels embarrassed because he thinks that Jessie is so much smarter than him and that the other students will tease him that his younger sister is more intelligent. This frustration causes some unnecessary fights until there is a full-blown lemonade war between the siblings. They each have friends help them sell lemonade, and whoever makes the most money at the end of the summer wins the war! I won't include the ending, so I encourage you to read it for yourself to find out who wins the lemonade war and what happens with all of the money they make!

One of my favorite parts about this book is that Davies includes a vocabulary word and its' definition at the beginning of each chapter. This gives the reader a clue as to what might happen in the chapter. For a lesson idea, if a class were to read this together, each student could make a journal entry with a prediction of what might happen in each chapter based off of the vocabulary word listed at the beginning.

Another one of my favorite parts of this book is that it lists valuable information and tips about how to have a successful business. Jessie pulls these tips from her mother's book "Ten Bright Ideas to Light Up Your Sales". These are dispersed throughout the book when the particular information is needed most to increase sales during the lemonade war. This could be a fun project idea for students to demonstrate what they learned from the book. They could each come up with an easy item to sell, even if it is just erasers, pencils, or paper. They could be put into teams to see who uses their new-found tips to make their items most appealing to buyers.

Overall, I feel that this book teaches students that no matter what, they are each special and smart in their own individual way. It is okay for one student to be good at math but not as strong in reading as another student. This does not mean that one student is smarter than the other, but that their strengths are in different school subjects. They each can come together to help each other. For example, at the end of this book, Evan is telling Jessie why he is embarrassed about her being in class with him: "I never have the right answer in math. And I read slower than everyone else when I read out loud. And I make mistakes. All the time. And now with you in the class, it's going to be worse. They'll all say, 'Wow, he's even dumber than his little sister'" (166-7).  Is it not sad how students compare themselves to each other so much these days because the education system has become such a competition? This book teaches students that they are each a unique person and should not compare themselves to someone else. No matter what their strengths, they are intelligent and an important individual.

Until next week,

Ashton Schimmelpfennig