Highlights from Week 1

Week 1 of graduate school is completed. The overwhelming feeling has passed. Many more weeks to go. I have realized that this program is certainly what it was advertised to be. It rids you of your social life. As it did me and mine.

But I'm pumped because we've been having fun doing projects, reading kids' books, and learning about many aspects of being a teacher. Lots and lots of reading. I'm glad I'm enjoying the material! Textbooks as well as kids' literature. Here are a couple highlights from my first week:

The Donut Chef is such a cute picture book that I randomly found on the shelf in the library. It was published just last year and all the illustrations were done with computer graphics. Beautifully designed images. The book is about a chef that starts a donut shop, another chef opens his donut shop next door, and they go head to head trying to out-do each other. Great book about competition and learning that sometimes quality is better than quantity. And the book rhymes too!

My Friend Rabbit is a Caldecott winner, published in 2002. It is a very simple picture book that tells of the importance of staying loyal to a good friend even though trouble follows him. There are very few words in the book--just about 11 sentences total--which allows for great storytelling through the illustrations. A quick read, fun story, and clear life lesson at the end makes this a keeper.