Reading on my Snow Day

Being a new teacher has been a very exciting experience.  My students are quickly adjusting to meet my expectations for their behavior and quality of work.   Going into my first full time position I knew that early on I would not have much down time.  I knew I would have to spend much of my time outside the classroom learning the curriculum and planning everything for the next day.  Coming into my teaching position at the middle of the school year made the task a little more daunting, as I would not have the summer to get my classroom set up how I wanted.  After three weeks at American International Academy I have seen great improvements in my own ability to plan for the next day, and even greater improvements in my students’ behavior and work ethic.  I still have a lot of time I need to put into organizing and decorating my classroom.  All the little things I need to do have taken time out of one of my favorite activities at home: READING!  I have found time to read out of a book at least a little bit each day, but not nearly as much as I would like.  Luckily, the excessive amount of snow days I have had since I began teaching first grade have given me extra time to plan/prep and to read!

Finishing my Book

After our staff meeting Monday we learned we would have a snow day on Tuesday due to extreme wind-chill temperatures.  This was awesome news!  I was all but done with my report cards, and parent-teacher conference scheduling so I knew I could spend Monday night finishing the magnificent second book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, Insurgent.  Divergent is similar to the Hunger Games series in that it is set in a dystopian society.  I never thought I’d find a series I enjoyed more than Hunger Games, but Divergent is just that in my opinion.  It’s fast paced and the twists and turns always keep you wanting to read more so you can learn how it ends.  I had a feeling I liked Divergent a little better than Hunger Games (which was hard for me to admit with my love for Hunger Games), but it was not until I finished Insurgent that I realized I definitely put the series just above Hunger Games.  As I read the last sentence of Insurgent I experienced something no book has ever done to me before.  Many great books have left me with the feeling of the below picture:

With Insurgent this experience was multiplied.  As I read the final words unexpected chills/goosebumps covered my body and for an unexplainable reason my eyes were teary.  I was blown away by Veronica Roth’s ability to capture my attention for the past 850 pages of her first two books and leaving me yearning for more with the final book of the series.   I wish I had the writing ability she has, in order to better describe the feeling the end of Insurgent gave me.  I cannot wait to finish the series and look for another amazing book to leave me feeling like the above picture. So thankful my most recent snow day allowed me to have such a wonderful, and much needed, Monday night filled with reading.