antique and first edition books

A mother of two high school students collects antique and first edition books. She brought some in (wrapped and packed safely) one afternoon and I oogled over them!

The book covers and illustrations inside were really beautiful to see. So much detail -- even in the edging and design on some of the book spines!

The illustrations in this book were actually glued onto each page:

First Stop Back in Denver - The LIBRARY!

My first stop once reaching Denver is usually one of two things: a trip to the public library to pick up my books on hold OR a meal at Benny's for Mexican food! My Denver trip around the New Year turned out to be the library first. I usually go through my list of To-Read books and put as many as I can on hold at the library one week before going home (that's how long they'll let them sit on the shelf before moving them on again). I love going in and having a huge pile of new books waiting for me. -- Especially since living abroad and not having the ease of access to new English books like I do when I'm in the States.

My almost-annual library book picture with Koura! THIS means I'm HOME.    : D

Koura was pretty worn out from our major road trip and lost interest in my library books pretty quickly.

I make daily trips to the library. One of the days I sat for a while and read through some of the newer picture books that I've seen good reviews on:

BOOK FACE

Well... school is out for another year! I have just completed my sixth year of teaching and it was a good year - full of new challenges and growth.

A fun initiative that Angela (the elementary librarian) and I did this year was Book Face. It began with just one or two and then we kept going. It was a lot of fun... and even more fun to see teachers and students stop to look at them in the library.

Book Faces displayed in the library:

more fun in the ASM Library

We've been busy in the ASM Library!  (...always...)     : )

Angela and I started taking pictures of various teachers and students with "Book Face"... and we are loving it! A fun side project that we're still working on but here are some of the results so far...

email to students and staff at ASM yesterday...

Subject: BLIND DATE...

[begin email]

...WITH A BOOK!

Fall in love with a good book -- just in time for Valentine's Day... 

Come by the Library anytime next week to mysteriously choose a book based on only a few clues. ...You might end up falling in love!

Good reasons to do so:

• Blind dates usually aren't fun... but this kind is!
• Have a date with a good book! (...whether you have a real date for Valentine's Day or not).
• Who doesn't enjoy unwrapping a present?? (...but remember to return it to the Library in a couple of weeks!)
• Reading is relaxing, fun, and beneficial for you in so many ways!
• Your real Valentine won't be upset if you also date a book.

When you begin to date someone, you should give the person a chance, right?! ...Go on a couple dates with him/her before possibly deciding you don't want to spend more time with that person. ...Same with a book! -- when you check a book out, please give it a chance; read at least a few chapters! You might be surprised : )

Love a book lover,

Ms. Stacia

[end email]

Wow. So... first of all - I crack myself up! Hahaha. I thought this was so cute and tried to make the email a bit funny (hopefully the students were able to read the email with my 'voice' and get what I was going for). I wasn't really sure how this was going to work out but figured I'd go for it.

I read about this idea last year but it was a bit late to implement in time for Valentine's Day. Then... I remembered mid-week this past week and thought, I still have time!

The email was sent just before upper school's two lunch periods... and when I returned from my lunch, Angela (elementary librarian) said that it was a MOB SCENE! (YESSSS!) I found a group of middle school girls in the elementary reading corner  each holding a book or two, exclaiming which book they got, which books of their friends' that they already love, and discarded wrapping paper was all over. SUCCESS!

One of the coolest parts is that, most of the books that each girl ended up choosing from just a few clues on the front, I would have personally chosen for them myself! Very cool. The girls were actually excited to begin reading their books... and are already asking if they can come back next week for more (Ummm... YES!).

So... middle school girls were won over by the Blind Date with a Book initiative. Perrrrrfect.

THEN... as I'm rapidly trying to wrap more books and restock the display... HIGH SCHOOL girls begin coming in. They love the idea, love the display, and each want to choose a book! WIN!

Some boys (middle AND high school) came by as well. They were all about the "Horror... not love" hinted books. A few went for other genres and all walked away happy. 

This. Feels. Awesome.   : )

Potsdam, Germany

We spent most of one day in Potsdam.

We began the morning at a lovely villa in Wannsee - The Wannsee House Memorial Site... where a horrific meeting took place.

The Wannsee Conference included a group of Nazi officials, meeting to determine how to best go about their "final solution" of deporting and killing millions of people. The villa is beautiful... today it is a great museum... but the aura in the conference room is crazy. We had a great tour guide here and the students took a lot in. What a powerful learning experience... to take a week from school... fly to another country... and learn about a piece of history by visiting the actual places. Incredible.

Walking up to the villa:

The villa is on a lake... it's really pretty (and coincides drastically with what took place here in 1942).

We then had time to enjoy and explore the city of Potsdam. It is a very cute city (I think of it more as a town, at least from what I saw of the center)... very walk-able. We enjoyed lunch, a coffee, and walking around...

The Potsdam Conference took place inside Cecilienhof Palace ...leaders from the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States (...Stalin, Churchill, and Truman) met here and made major decisions about WWII (such as how to punish the Nazi Germany). The students are walking to the palace in the photo below... the palace has a park of grounds surrounding it - these grounds were the king's hunting grounds.

It was pretty incredible to go inside the Cecilienhof Palace and stand in the room where these leaders sat and discussed.

After our tour inside the Cecilienhof Palace, one of the other teachers asked me if I had taken any photos... [Yes]... of the students... Uhhhh... I took photos of books on bookshelves! Haha