Where Is My Summer Going?!?

Just last week we celebrated our nation's independence with picnics and fireworks.  The stores celebrated the holiday with Fourth of July sales, only to be closely followed with Back to School sales.  Haven't checked your newspaper flyers lately?  I can assure you...it's begun.  This week's Target ad has a two-page spread with specials on lunchboxes, lunchbox containers, backpacks, notebooks, and writing utensils.  Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart also has a flyer out this week solely dedicated to all things school, whether that school is college or K-12.  As my daughter said when the flyers came, "I just want to enjoy my summer!" 

Ditto.

I feel like my summer just began.  I finished school (with students) on June 10th, was away for a conference that following week, took four days of teacher inservice courses the week after that, and served as preschool director for my church's Vacation Bible School the week after that.  And now the papers are advertising for school supplies. 

Just. So. Sad. 

I know some of you have been planning for the next school year already, but I figure I'll give myself another week or so before I really get into it.  In the meantime, I am undertaking a new adventure.  I'll be trying my hand at being a freelance education writer for Suite 101!  This is pretty exciting because I can write about what I do and I can do so whenever I choose.  If you don't remember, I worked in the writing field for a number of years before changing careers to be a teacher.

I know what you're thinking:  Aren't you busy enough?  Yes and no.  This year my husband and I will not be full-time weekend houseparents at the facility for underprivileged children.  It was too hard on my children, who missed out on a lot of their own activities (like sports) because we were on duty every other weekend.  We are still on the on-call list, but we are not obligated to go in just because there's a need.  The second reason we are not working full time on the weekend has to do with me; I have to take some courses in order to attain my next level in teacher certification for my state.  There is just not enough time in a week to get everything done.

So what am I doing in the meantime?  I'm reviewing and previewing academic skills with my children, catching up on my personal reading, running when my knee permits, and enjoying my family.  I can think about school in another week or so...as long as I don't look at any more flyers in the paper! 

(Day 3 of Scholastic Trip #2)

Okay, so Day 3 wasn't really a full day.  Actually, it wasn't even part of the original plan for the trip, but one of the members of the editorial team asked if any of us would be available Thursday morning to talk about the focus of publishing from the standpoint of the teacher. 

I got up and showered, ordered and ate breakfast, finished packing for the trip home, checked my bag at the front desk and ordered my cab to the train station to be ready when I got back from the meeting, and met the three remaining advisors for our trip over to Scholastic.

Breakfast.  Fuel for the day.

We met with a member of the editorial team who talked with us for about an hour.  We talked about how well the books fit into the curriculum, what areas and levels still need materials, how to address the needs when state standards are so different (although the new Common Core Standards may help with that issue), and how test preparation materials fit into the grand picture of things.  There should be more materials in social studies and science coming for the lower grades; one of my complaints was that the materials offered for the lower grades are either too simplistic or too far above grade level for the students to understand.  We'll see what happens.   We also found out how to submit our own material if we so choose.  There's no guarantee we'll be published, but it's nice to know the option is there.

After our meeting, I went back to the hotel, picked up my bag, and got into the cab.  My cab ride to Penn Station was just as harrowing as the one I took the night I arrived. I was glad to get out of the taxi!  An hour later, after a purchase of a french toast bagel with cream cheese (and a drink), I was on my way home. 

Ahh.  Home.  

(Day 2 of Scholastic Trip #2)

Day 2 began much the same as the first: meeting Carol in the lobby, walking to Scholastic headquarters, and having breakfast.  The meetings for the day covered changes to the teacher reward (bonus point) program, back-to-school promotions, some new web applications, and a preview of the new bonus catalog.  Lots of exciting things in store!

One of the things I am excited about is the change to the bonus point system.  We had complained in the February meeting that sometimes it was hard to reach that minimum requirement to get the 5X bonus points for that month (or whatever the promotion was in any particular month).  Many of us stated that we were guilty of padding our classroom orders just to reach the minimum dollar amount threshold.  (I suspect many of you do the same thing.)  Well, there is good news:  Beginning this fall, all bonus points will be lumped together, no matter which book club/flier you use.  No more minimum dollar amounts!  Your bonus points will be awarded based on the total number of dollars for your order.  (There will be a chart explaining how the new system works in the teacher portion of the flier.)  I don't know about you, but I use my bonus points A LOT.  And to know that I won't have to pad orders anymore and still get the benefit, well, that's just icing.

Another exciting aspect is this year's back-to-school promotion to get children excited about reading.  I can't tell you all of the details, but I can tell you it has something to do with a partnership with Wal-Mart and Kellogg's.  Just keep your eyes peeled!

Some of the new web applications being put into place (besides easier navigation of the company site and book order links) include a link where teachers and parents can rate books according to specified criteria.  The idea behind this application is sort of like Pandora Radio;  readers can rate books and move books into categories by title, author, series, skill sets, illustrations, message, age group, etc.  There would also be a place to solicit feedback or leave a comment about a book.  You know as well as I do that sometimes books can be used for more purposes than the publishing company thinks of or lists on the description/book jacket.  Sometimes just a snippet of a book is perfect for supplementing a lesson or a series of similar stories is just right for a concept study.  This new site would allow people that are using the books add to the details and description of the book.  An example would be the Junie B. Jones series.  One of the other advisors uses snippets of the books to do grammar studies.  I would never have thought of using the series that way.  Through the site, those ideas would be available to whoever clicks on the link.

For those of you who are fans of Book Talk, there are plans to have five new titles from the book clubs highlighted each month.  There would be book highlights from preschool to high school.  Scholastic plans to have some of the editors and writers do short videos about the highlighted books.  Teachers would also have the ability to link to those videos through their personal, class, or school web pages.  The book videos would also be archived for later reference.

Regarding the book club fliers themselves, our meeting with the design team revealed quite a few changes. The team has reworked the fliers so that they are going to be less cluttered, a larger section will be available for your class online ordering code, there will be a highlight page featuring authors or series in each, there will be a section for book reviews from the teacher advisors (much like those we do for the Scholastic Facebook page), the layout of the order form on the last page will be MUCH easier to read, and there will be a section with preview pages from different book levels to help parents and children choose "Just Right" books.

I know it's a lot to take in, but it was a busy day.  So busy that we had a "working lunch" that day; lunch was brought to the room and we continued on.  Our day of meetings ended at 5:30.  We had about half an hour to freshen up and/or walk around Soho before we left for dinner.

Dinner that night was held at the Mercer Kitchen.  The restaurant had little menus made up for us to choose our three courses.  I had the fried calamari with spicy mayo for my appetizer, the Mercer burger for my entree (delicious, and I'm not a burger person), and the sour cream cheesecake with cherries for dessert. 
Just. So. Good.


Sorry about the flash.  This is one of the windows out front.



Our menu cover.

Our menu options for dinner.

During dinner I sat near the guru of the bonus catalog, Tanya.  I just have to tell you; when you get the catalog in the fall with your beginning-of-the-year Scholastic materials, HANG ON TO IT!  There are SO many good things in there!  (And I'm not saying so because I helped choose some of the items, but because there are a lot of neat things in there.  My bonus points are already spent for this year!)

After dinner we said goodbye to those folks who were heading out early the next morning.  Several of us were going to hang around the next morning before our departures to have an informal meeting with one of the editors from the book club division.  More on that to come.

Stay tuned.