I just love Mondays. The week ahead has so many amazing possibilities. If our students come in on Monday morning and see a giant smile on our face, we are setting them up for an awesome day.

I keep forgetting to make Saturday morning videos. Had a few minutes this morning, so . I made one where I talk about the great books I’ve been reading.

Books featured in this video:

Ben Franklin’s In My Bathroom by Candace Fleming and Mark Fearing

Most People by Michael Leannah and Jennifer E. Morris

A Different Pond by Bao Phi and Thi Bui

The more I teach, the more I realize that the quality of our day in the classroom is extremely dependent on me. If I am off, the kids will be off. If I’m awesome, the kids will be awesome. We can come with every excuse in the book for why our days don’t go well, but it can pretty much always be improved if we do a better job, bring more energy, and create a school day where kids are super engaged.

My students are getting so much better at book talks. Hooray!

I forgot to do any filming the afternoon or after school, so this episode is super short.

Jillian Heise is awesome. She is an amazing educator that cares tremendously about putting books into the hands of young readers. I am so glad that she agreed to answer my question about using picture book in middle and high school classrooms.

Teaching is exhausting. I’m sure a lot of jobs are really tiring, and I am not saying that teaching is harder than those jobs. I’m just saying that a day of teaching and evening of parent/teacher conferences sure can take a lot out of you.

I have always loved celebrating kids, talking about how to help them reach their potential, and listening to parents during conferences.

Today’s VLOG probably doesn’t contain anything that is going to rock someone’s world. That’s okay. Teaching is about putting everything you have into each and every day. Some days may be a little more interesting than others, but ever day matters. Each and every day could be the most important day of the year for one of our students, and we must give them everything we have.

My students love the Scholastic Book Fair. It rolls into town a couple of times a year, and for those 10 school days, my students get their only taste of something that resembles a bookshop. Watching them explore the shelves with excitement and wonder brings my heart joy.

Be sure to check out my other VLOGs from the 2017-2018 school year.

I created a podcast using Anchor. It is a super simple platform, that has allowed me to reflect in real time about my school year. I’m loving it. Anchor even takes care of sending the show to various podcast sites. Pretty cool. Check out my show on iTunes by clicking on the image below.

Yesterday, I read my students one of my favorite 2017 picture books: Come With Me. It is a beautiful picture book that helps young readers think about their place in today’s divided and scary world.

Check out the rest of my 2017-2018 VLOGs in the playlist below.

I’ve been having a ton of fun exploring with the audio platform Anchor. Check out my channel below.

Brad Wilson is one of my all-time favorite people. He spent a lot of time working in the ed tech field, and he has a deep understanding of best practices in the world of teaching reading and writing.

Brad spent a good chunk of the day on Tuesday with me and my students. It was a great day.

I really appreciate you checking out my videos. Be sure to subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss any episodes.

Dan Santat is an extremely talented author and illustrator. His books are always very popular with my students. He is so popular that we named our class tortoise after his character Beekle. Dan was kind enough to answer my question: Why did you dedicate After The Fall to your wife?

Dan’s response blew me away. I’ve never heard anyone talk about anxiety and postpartum depression so openly and honestly. I think this video is important, and I hope you’ll share it far and wide.

Thank you so much for watching.

Check out the book trailer for Dan’s latest picture book After The Fall.

Catch up on previous episodes of One Question With Mr. Sharp.