Muslim Woman in Amman

One of my favorite parts about working in a school library is choosing books to read aloud to the younger years. I want to share 5 books I read this semester to kindergarten and grade one. The first book I read this year was If You Ever Want to Bring a Circus to the Library DON'T. It's about a girl who decides since the poster in the library says you can do anything in the Library she decides to bring a circus. I read this book at the beginning of the year because I thought it would be a great way to start a discussion about proper behavior in the Library. It set off a fun tone but also reminded students about how to respect the Library. Another great book I read in the first half of the school year was One Day. The End.  It's about a little girl that is sharing small moments from her life. The problem is she only has the first line and the last line of the story but if you look at the pictures she leaves out some of the best parts. This is a great way to start a writing u...

 The year is finally at an end and I think we are all happy to see 2020 in our rearview mirror. I especially need a new start in my reading life. After my success in 2019, I was ready to go even further in 2020. My goals for 2020 were:  Read 366 books one book a day and because I read a lot of picture books for work I thought I could totally nail this challenge. Finish Around the year in 52 books. Finish the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge. Did I complete these challenges? Nope! I completed none of them. 366 books? Nope! I got up to 235 books which percentage-wise is 64% Around the year in 52 books? Nope! I read 46 out of 52 which puts me at 88% Ultimate POP Sugar Challenge? Nope! I read 26 out of 50 books which is around 52% Is this going to discourage me from trying again in 2021 Nope!Nope! Double nope because I'm going to get it done this year not only that I'm going to up my game and read 40 books before my 40th. I turn 40 in 2022 so I want to mark the occasion by read...

  This summer Allah blessed me with the opportunity to purchase a chalet down in the Dead Sea area. It is a two-story two-bedroom house with a pool.  It looks over the Jordan Valley and it's not clear in this photo but you can see the Dead Sea just at the edge of the horizon.   Currently, we are working on making it even more beautiful; with plants and furniture. It already had some citrus trees like this pomelo tree and it also has a lemon tree and a Seville orange tree plus a guava tree. Our Seville orange has little tiny fruit on it, but the Guava and lemon haven't fruited, we are waiting for spring. The previous owners left us some furniture. In the living room, there were some hedious orange cushions on a nice rattan furniture set. Luckily I unzipped the orange cushions and found pretty beige cushions underneath with some stains that could easily be washed out. They also left this ugly lamp that I'm currently repainting and hope it will look much better. Lastly,...

It's been a while since I made an education post so I thought I'd go back to my roots and present to you a Unit plan I wrote for my Master's Course. We were assigned to write a Unit Plan that takes into account the Design thinking model of Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype,  and Test. I even had to make an infographic to show how they are all connected which I'm sharing with you.  I created this plan for Librarians to help supplement a Homeroom teacher's own research unit. I used a template for Understanding by Design because that is what our school uses in our curriculum design process. Because this is to support a homeroom teacher and isn't meant as a complete all-encompassing unit some pieces were left out. In particular a topic for the research project as well as summative assessment information. Sadly I'll probably never use this unit in my own work because that isn't how we conduct lessons in the Library at my school but I really thought it soun...

YouTube is a great place to learn things, interact with others around the world, and just have a lot of fun. My weekends are usually devoted to watching different YouTubers and for different reasons. I watch knitting podcasts, BookTubers, and some self-help YouTubers and some fun entertainment videos. I would like to share some of my favorite content creators, and now with us, all being stuck at home during the COVID-19 crisis now is a good time to learn about some new YouTubers Knitting  I only recently got into watching knitting podcasts and there are two that I enjoy the most. The first is the Grocery Girls Knit. Those sisters are knitting inspirations and are just a joy to listen to. And if I didn't live in Jordan I would totally buy some of Mrs. Brown's project bags. Another podcast I enjoy watching is Wet Coast Wools. I love listening to them and looking at their amazing work. I wish I was able to actually visit their store. BookTube I am subscribed t...

Ms.Bixby's Last Day OMG! This is my first 5 star read of 2020. It was such a beautiful and moving book about three boys going on an adventure to say goodbye to their teacher on her last day in town. I recommend you read this book in honor of your favorite teacher who you'll never forget. I will warn you that their are some trigger warnings and you might want to have a tissue ready as you read it. On to my thoughts...

Last year I found out about Popsugar Challenge and the Around the Year in 52 Books(ATY) on GoodReads. I started my Challenge on December 2018 with plans to end by December 2019. I actually finished both challenges before that so I'm all good. But one thing that annoyed me about starting the challenges early is the my dedicated shelves say that I didn't complete the challenge. It really is bothering me so for 2020 I am not starting till January 1st despite winter break starting on December 20th. Also Half way through last year I learnt about tracking the challenges on spreadsheets which was awesome because you can see how many books you have completed and what percentage you've completed. For the ATY one of the mods ( Emily Bourque ) created a community spreadsheet so that everyone could fill it in with the books they've read and they can also see what others have read for the same prompt. I really liked how she had set it up so I made a very basic one ...