Wednesday, May 7, 2008

All About Me


Hi! My Names Justine Sgarlato. I was born in Wayne, New Jersey but have lived in Naples for 11 years. I attended a elementary school in Wayne, New Jersey called Randall Carter and had some of the most influential teachers that I remember to this day. My favorite was my first grade teacher who I can still rememer, and all the neat things we did in that class. I have kept in touch with her throughout the years and I will be taking some of her strategies with me when I am in my own classroom. When I attended Barron Collier High School in Naples I was a member of the Marching Band which I had one of the greatest band directors ever, who influenced my life in a great way. He made me want to teach my students with such great passion like he did every single day. I have been interested in teaching since I was a little girl and never let anyone change my mind about it. I have not only worked as a counsler for a summer camp, but have done tons of volunteering for different teachers across the Naples area. I look foward to working with students and helping to make a difference in their lives like my teachers did for me. I hope to learn more information from this course in order to better my knowledge to become a future teacher.

My Love For Disney



One of my favorite places in the whole entire world is Disney World. Every chance I get I visit and feel like a kid again. To me, Disney is the Happiest Place in the World! If you didnt already notice... My blog title is Wishing Upon a Star! I Love Tinkerbell and hope to share my love of Disney with my students one day!

My All Time Favorite Book!

My All Time Favorite Book!
From the first mishap in the early morning when he wakes up with last night's chewed gum stuck in his hair, to the final indignity of being rejected by the cat (who wants to sleep with his brother Anthony, not with him), with umpteen mishaps and misfortunes in between (lima beans for supper? Yuck. Kissing on TV? Double-yuck!), Alexander's day just gets worse and worse. If you had a day like that, wouldn't you want to hop the first jet to Australia?

Want to read some really neat Picture & Literature books? Check These out!

  • Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story; By: Tomie Paola --There's no pumpkin coach or glass slipper in sight, but Cinderella fans will find much to like in dePaola's (26 Fairmount Avenue) original twist, infused with Mexican warmth and color. Following her father's sudden death, Adelita is left to suffer the abuse of her cruel stepmother and stepsisters.
  • Dark Day in the Deep Sea; By: Mary Pope Osbourne--DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA tells of Jack and Annie, who have to find one of the four secrets of happiness to help save Merlin the magician. But when they find themselves on a misty island, they wonder how they can find anything - and when a pirate ship turns out to be the world's first floating science lab, an even more exciting expedition results.
  • Johnny Apple seed; By: Reeve Lindbergh--Johnny Appleseed's story through the perspective of one woman who observed his odd career over the course of her lifetime. "She saw him first", so the poem goes, when she was just a little girl and he visited her familie's frontier cabin in the woods. All her life, as she grew and with her the country, turning from rough frontier into settled lands, she heard the tales of Johnny's journeys as civilization's ambassador as he spread his gift of apple trees. "She saw him last" as well, when as an old woman she welcomed the aged Johnny at her neat little farm house surounded by apple trees. And she kept alive his legend when he was gone, by telling his stories to her grandchildren every year at apple harvest time.

For the Modern Fantasy Lovers.... & Poetry From the Heart!

  • Pieces: A year of Poems and Quilts; By: Anna Hines-Would-be quilters can be encouraged because not all of the piecing is perfect (& therefore intimidating!). Each turning page brings a new kaleidescopic "ballet" of color, from the dark crows in the cedar tree to the changing palette of an early Spring sky. The words of previously published "Just When I Thought" are wonderfully appropriate at the time of year when skies are moody and change so poetically. -
  • The Well at the World's End; By: William Morris--The Well at the World's End was among the very first of its kind--it is an epic romance of duplicity, machination, passion, and wizardry, and is, in short, a vast odyssey into the weird. It is a beautifully rich fantasy, a vibrant fairy tale without fairies. It is the most entrancing of William Morris's late romances--part futuristic fantasy novel, part old-fashioned fairy tale. Morris writes his magic love story with a sense of color and pattern, and the sheer imaginative fervor of one of the most brilliant decorative artists that has ever lived.
  • The Warrior Heir; By: Cinda Williams Chima--An apparently ordinary 16-year-old boy turns out to have magical powers that make him a target of a covert society of wizards, enchanters, and warriors called the Weir. Jack's small-town world in Ohio begins to unravel when he starts to unleash unintentional bursts of wizardry. When he recovers a powerful sword from an ancestor's grave, he begins to realize how different he really is.

Attention History& Contemporary Fans! Historical Fiction & ContemporaryRealistic Books You'll Love!

  • Happily Ever After; By: Anna Quindlen--Eight-year-old Kate is a tomboy, but not your typical tomboy. She loves baseball and hates wearing dresses, but she can often be found in her room reading a good old fairy tale and imagining herself as the beautiful princess. One day, while dreamily staring at the princess's crown, Kate magically wishes herself into the fairy tale. Now Kate is the princess and she will soon find out that being royalty isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
  • Nowhere to call home; By: Cynthia DeFelice-This realistic rags-to-riches (and back again) tale set in the time of Hoovervilles and bread lines follows a girl who takes up a hobos life.-
  • The Worry Website; By: Jacqueline Wilson--Here are six wonderful short stories about the members of Mr. Speed’s primary school class where lots of the children have something to worry about. From a new stepmom, to coping with math, everyone has their own private concerns and it’s sometimes difficult to discuss them -- even when you need advice. So Mr. Speed sets up the Worry Website on the classroom computer. Anybody in the class can anonymously enter their worry and anyone else can type in advice to help out. Also included is a prize-winning story by a 12-year-old fan who entered a competition to write a companion story to Jacqueline’s.-
  • Bully Trouble; By: Joanna Cole--Arlo and Robby were good friends. They hanged out together but they also encountered a bully together. The story gives insight to children that life still moves on even if they are bullied. Reading the story, children learn to deal with bully troubles through support from their friendship.