My Classroom is a Coffee Shop?

Today, some of my students (periods one and two) and I did a fun thing. We had a read-aloud party!

What's a read-aloud party, you ask? Well, it's when the teacher (that's me!) brings her books to school and the students bring snacks to school and then the teacher reads aloud to the students while they eat their snacks. How fun!

I read the backs of all the books to my students and then each class chose what they wanted to hear. Period one was all about The Way Back. Mr. Personality was like, "Yo, Miss. I think the first one be what we wanna hear. I ain't sure about that last one... but that first one? Yeah. You read it to us! Go, girl!" So I read the first chapter of The Way Back, with HILARIOUS commentary from Mr. Personality the whole way through, and then when I got to the end of that, My Name's A State said, "I think you should read a chapter from every one of your books, Ms. Meeson. In order." So we moved onto Like A Flip Turn and got as far as that initial introduction between Jenny and Petey Goode *Swoon!* before the bell rang.

I let the kids who were interested enter their names in a raffle to receive a signed copy of The Way Back and I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised that so many of my students wanted to win a copy of my book! (I told them they could only enter if they actually promised to read it this summer.)

In period two, the kids voted to hear the first chapter of Running Through the Words, and when I reached the end of Chapter One, they voted to hear Chapter Two. How fun is that? Period two got to meet Sebastian *Swoon!* and Lucy, so that was very fun. And then Extra Vowels in Her Name was like, "You should let me borrow that book for the summer." But I didn't... because that's my copy and if my Buddy ever buys copies of it for the school library, Extra Vowels in Her Name can borrow it there.

I drew the name of the winner after all of the kids from periods one and two entered, and I was soooooo pleased with the girl who is receiving the free copy because she tried to bring this amazing watermelon-strawberry punch to school today and on the walk between her house and the building, the container she was carrying broke (it was glass) and so she had to get rid of the beverage. (Drinking shards of glass is a bad idea.) And it looked so delicious! So I hope that even though Walking Smoothie had a rough start to her day, the free book helps.

Anyway, that was a fun start to my day. And a couple times later in the afternoon, while standing in the hallway, a students would walk by and say, "I love your writing, Ms. Meeson!" It was just really nice, you know? I feel as though I shared something pretty personal and very cool with these teenagers who have been in my life for the past nine months and they were really kind and receptive. It was nice. It made me feel really good about myself and my job and my writing. ❤️