Meet The Teacher, Book/Reading Club K-1, and Literacy Knight

I hope to see everyone at our Meet the Teacher night this Thursday.  Meet the Teacher is from 5:30-6:30, and the PTO meeting begins at 6:30 to be immediately followed by an Ice Cream Social.  Unfortunately, The Reading Reef is “under construction” until I am able to get all of our excellent reading resources organized, so I won’t be showing anyone around.  However, I have decorated my door.  You won’t be able to miss it!  I will be in the hall near my door during meet the teacher if you would like to stop by and say hi.  I will have a home visit sign-up sheet.  If you would like me to join your child’s teacher when they visit your home I would love to.

      

This school year is off to a wonderful start!  This has been a busy week here at The Reading Reef.  I have  spent some time with kindergarten, first, and second Grades.  I have had fun seeing “old” friends and getting to know new ones.  I have only visited briefly with my third, fourth, and fifth grade friends.  Hopefully I will be able to spend a little more time with them before the week is over.

 

On Monday, I met with my Book Reading Club K-1 for the first time.  They are great kids, and I look forward to reading many good books with them.  We began by putting our heads together to come up with a theme for our club.  We talked about the kinds of books they enjoy, and they are equally interested in reading books about princesses and funny books more than anything else.  I have given this some thought and decided to combine the ideas.  We will be reading funny stories about not only princesses but knights, dragons, and other medieval characters.  We will call the members of our club "Reading Royalty."  Partially because I enjoy the alliterative aspect of it and partially because we will be able to stretch the word royalty a little to include whichever medieval character each child identifies with.  I believe this will be fun for everyone! 

If your child happens to be in my Book Reading Club K-1, please take a few moments to remind him/her before each meeting how important it is to follow directions and school rules (even during after school clubs) in order for everyone to be safe and enjoy a positive experience.     

In my quest to find stories for my newly named friends, I came across a wonderful idea and have been inspired for our school wide October literacy night.  You guessed it!  It will be Literacy Knight!  I am so excited about the whole idea.  If you would like to make any donations we would really appreciate anything pertaining to castles, kings, queens, princesses, princes, knights, dragons, and any other (appropriate) medieval themed thing you can think of.  

Meet Ms. Blangger

My pride and joy

Charlie wearing the scarf and leg warmers Mrs. Meck gave her

About Ms. Blangger

Hello!  My name is Mechelle Blangger.  I love teaching, reading, and helping my little friends learn to read!!  I have four nieces and one nephew.  The oldest is 21, and the youngest is 8.  I taught my two oldest nieces to read very well, long before they started school.  They are both in college, but I love parenting them now just as much as I did when they were tiny babies.  We have so many good times together.  They are my pride and joy!  I also have a little brown dog named Charlie.  She is a papichi (or chion), because she is a papillon/chihuahua mix.  She loves to play with her toys and wear clothes!

Teaching Experience

I am currently the Reading Interventionist at Harmony School of Innovation- Dallas.  I attended Stephen F. Austin State University where I earned degrees in Elementary Education, English, and Early Childhood Education.  My teaching certifications include English, Language Arts, and Reading grades 4-8, Generalist EC-4, and ESL.  I have been a teacher in some capacity for the past twelve years.  Most recently I have taught Kindergarten (2009-2010) and First Grade (2010-2012) here at HSI.  I am looking forward to new "adventures" as I work to create the reading resource room that I have lovingly dubbed the "The Reading Reef."  I truly hope and am confident that, with the patience and support of all, it will eventually become an invaluable resource for teachers and students as well as parents.


Hobbies

I love to read and write.  When I was a little girl I read almost everything I could get my hands on constantly, and I still do (when I have time ; )!  I write when I feel passionately about something.  Sometimes my subjects are of very little consequence, but I am suddenly overcome with joy or some other emotion and the words quickly fall into place in my mind.  I just have to find a scrap of paper and write them down!

I collect turtles- the more unique the better. Some of my turtles are made of glass, crystal, porcelain, paper... I have magnets, pens, cups... I even have a turtle-shaped, tabletop nightlight.

I also love visiting the Texas Renaissance Festival.  I never know what adventures it will bring.  The only thing I love better is going to the beach to swim in the ocean.  There is nothing like being immersed in the sight of the horizon, waves crashing on the shore, salty air with every breath, and sand beneath my feet to bring clear perspective rushing back to engulf me.  This summer, Evan (the three year old I babysit on the weekends) and I saw a dolphin swimming about six feet from us.  It was amazing!