#ABrunchofBooks July meeting was a huge success! #Becoming is a life-changing read, no matter which side of the political spectrum you lean towards. George, you can join us for book club anytime you want, and we’ll definitely be back to try this Lucky Charms waffle. 😘 Plus, brunch followed by @constellationicecream was perfect. New fav. spot! Who knew @michelleobama ate the most important meal of the day at @hashtag.denver. 😂🤷♀️ Next month is dinner and a movie for Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
Read 29 of 2019: #AnAnonymousGirl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Synopsis:
Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’s experiments blurs.
Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking… and what she’s hiding.
Jessica’s behavior will not only be monitored, but manipulated.
Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be.
Insta Review:
Aside from the fact that I was a psych major and had serious concerns for the ethical decisions Dr. Shields makes throughout the book, I could NOT put this one down. I liked The Wife Between Us, their first book, better, and I thought this was somewhat predictable, but I read it in only a couple of sittings. I highly recommend this if you like psychological thrillers! This author duo is now added to my auto-buy authors list. Loved it!
Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookstagram #marchreads #bookreview #bookrecommendations #englishteacher #booksofig #psychologicalthriller #thrillerbooks #thrillerbook #plottwist #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofig #bookclub #abrunchofbooks
I keep meaning to share a little more about myself, but I don’t really like posting selfies! 🤣🤷♀️ Anyway, hi! Here’s a little introduction in case you’re new around here.
👱♀️My name is Ashlee, but almost everyone who knows me calls me by my last name—Tripp. 🧁I’ll be 34 on November 25th. Nobody has ever correctly guessed my age if they didn’t know it beforehand.
🌄 I live in Denver, Colorado, and I’m not sure you could pay me to live anywhere else. 🍎 I teach high school English: AP Lit, College Comp, and Young Adult Lit elective to juniors and seniors. They’re my people. 🇺🇸 I love to travel, and I’ve been to every state physically attached to the US... along with a handful of other countries.
🛫 Flying terrifies me. I obsessively research plane crashes even though I know I shouldn’t. Same with serial killers.
😎 I’m 100% an introvert and am super awkward in large groups. I never feel like my batteries recharge, and I’m bad at initiating plans. I’m an INTP and enneagram 5. 🌒 I’m a Sagittarius sun, Taurus moon, and Cancer rising; I get a kick out of reading my horoscope and reading fortune cookies. 😻 My cat has social anxiety. She probably got it from her momma. My brother makes enough crazy cat lady jokes for everyone, thank you.
👧🏽 My niece is 2, and I could listen to her say “Auntie Ashlee” on repeat for days.
🥤 I have an unhealthy addiction to Coca-Cola, but I love it. Stop telling me to give it up.
📚 I love reading, and I’ll read pretty much anything as long as I can read it on paper. I try to read 100 books a year to decrease my screen time (have you read the recent research?! 😱). Thrillers, YA, & Romance are 😍.
📎 I have an irrational fear that I’ll run out of office supplies.
⚡️ I grew up on Harry Potter, and I think it is magical. I’m a Ravenclaw.
🎧 I’ve been to so many concerts I’ve lost track—over 1,000. 🍴I have a VIP skip the wait card at P. F. Chang’s.
🧩 I’m super analytical and conceptual.
📓 I love bullet journaling, painting, playing the Sims, writing, researching, swimming, tubing, wakeboarding, playing piano, going to musicals, and organizing.
👩🏫If I could be a college student forever, I would be.
🎻 Someday I’ll learn.
Sometimes, in the middle of summer, I get really sad about not spending my days in this space, but then I remember that I will spend more than half of my time here over the next 10 months. Teachers (and students) enjoy your summers! Only work on school stuff or classroom stuff if you feel like it (or if you’re doing your super awesome summer reading for my class! 😉🤣). DO 100% spend the time to develop both personally and professionally while you have a few moments to steal, though. And when you get the urge to go grab that one book off your bookshelf, remember that the library is closer and you already have 87 books checked out and 400 more unread on your shelves at home! 🤣 I haven’t gone in once this summer. See you in 3 weeks, F110.
And if you’re a new teacher or if you’ve been teaching for 55 years and your classroom does not look like mine or you don’t want it to look like mine, then that is totally okay! If your classroom does look like mine, don’t let all those negative Insta teachers who have been going off all week shame you into thinking you’re less of a teacher or not a good one because you put time and money into a space you spend the majority of your time in. I get made fun of a lot by teachers in my own building for this classroom (I think they’re joking?!), but kids love it and I love it, and that is all that matters! 🤷♀️ You do you.
I had a request to talk a little bit more about my #APLitBookofKnowledge that I’m attempting for next year... so here’s a story.
My first year teaching English I, a brilliant veteran teacher introduced me to what she called her English I Book of Knowledge. It consisted of notes, foldables, graphic organizers, etc. for the entire year. Then I switched schools and lecturing/note-taking wasn’t viewed very highly by admin, and the focus was on Cornell notes IF/WHEN we took notes. I’ve never been a huge fan of taking notes that way myself, so I rarely had kids take notes, and I filed my book of knowledge away into my filing cabinet.
Last year during AP test prep, a group of AP kids asked for a reminder on the elements of characterization during a book club discussion. I got out my E1 BoK, turned it to the characterization page, and they immediately asked why we didn’t make notebooks like that in AP Lit to use to study for the exam. 🤦♀️ DUH! BRILLIANT! I polled my kids, and the majority of them (and some incoming Litters) agreed it would be helpful.
SO, I am working on reimagining my E1 BoK to include the depth of knowledge students will need for the AP exam next May. It will include note pages, background and activities that will help them better remember and conceptualize the texts they read all year, and practice writing and close reading pages. It’s a work in progress!
I still haven’t decided whether I will collect and grade these, make them a rounding grade, or make them totally optional, but my vision for these this year is mostly flipped for notes (taking notes via video lecture at home or via picture the night before) and in class for close reading and writing practice with a balance of both for texts we read.
I grabbed a 2-subject notebook... hopefully it will be big enough 😂🤷♀️ Current/future kids who follow me: I’m posting my sketchnotes for the Introduction chapter in #howtoreadliteraturelikeaprofessor because I had a request from another teacher to post it. I’m cool if you copy it, but you’re on your own for the rest of the chapters! Remember, notes are optional, but you can use them on the closed book test AND the escape room.
Read 28 of 2019: #GirlStopApologizing by Rachel Hollis
Synopsis:
Rachel Hollis has seen it too often: women not living into their full potential. They feel a tugging on their hearts for something more, but they’re afraid of embarrassment, of falling short of perfection, of not being enough.
In Girl, Stop Apologizing, #1 New York Times bestselling author and founder of a multimillion-dollar media company, Rachel Hollis sounds a wake-up call. She knows that many women have been taught to define themselves in light of other people—whether as wife, mother, daughter, or employee—instead of learning how to own who they are and what they want. With a challenge to women everywhere to stop talking themselves out of their dreams, Hollis identifies the excuses to let go of, the behaviors to adopt, and the skills to acquire on the path to growth, confidence, and believing in yourself.
Insta Review:
I know there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding this author online, but I don’t follow any of her accounts or her blog, and I’m largely unaware of anything other than one quote she typed up without citing. That said, I liked her first book and decided to give this a try when it came off my holds from the library. I definitely skimmed through some chapters, but I could identify with setting goals and then finding excuses to not meet them or talking myself down because I didn’t feel good enough. I still never feel good enough in my job, with my friends, with my family, etc., and I am always of the belief that you can learn at least something that will benefit you from any self help book you read. This certainly won’t be for everyone, but I liked it well enough. I need to learn to focus more on one goal before setting 5,000 every month and wearing myself down.
Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
#bookstagram #marchreads #bookreview #bookrecommendations #englishteacher #booksofig #ireadselfhelp #selfhelp #selfhelpbooks #goalsettingtips
Read 27 of 2019: #MarchBookThree by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Synopsis:
By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense: Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression: "One Man, One Vote." To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television.
With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.
Insta Review:
When creating American Lit curriculum, I once suggested a unit on civil disobedience with Thoreau, Emerson, Ghandi, MLK Jr., and the Freedom Riders along with Civil Rights and Jim Crow. I was questioned on why I would do this unit and include excerpts from these particular writers, and I dropped it. I regret that so much. These graphic novels embody all of the principles set forth in the philosophies of so many transcendentalists, and you should absolutely teach them together. I can wait to use these in a unit on social justice! I learned more about the Civil Rights Movement (a time period in which I am hoping to learn even more) from this series, and I just can’t help but be appalled at the history of this country (or current news). What other CRM books should I read?
Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
#bookstagram #marchreads #bookreview #bookrecommendations #englishteacher #booksofig #ireadya #yalit #graphicnovels #civilrights
