Yippee-ki-yeah... Reading is Fun!

Each year at my school, our building media specialist (more commonly referred to as "the librarian") organizes an opportunity for teachers to have their picture taken reading a book. This is all in the interest of show illustrating for students that reading is life-long passion to be nurtured, not just an activity to slavishly be completed until getting out of school.

The image above is my contribution for this year. While most teachers have their photo taken alone, I choose to have mine taken with a collection of my students each year, usually with one of the books we'll be reading at some point. This year's poster is based on The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, an excerpt of which we will be reading later in the year.of course, the real irony here is that the story deals with the themes of male rites of passage and the only students who had the spirit to come with their props (plaid shirt, bandannas and hats) were the young ladies...

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Keepin' It Real: School, Running, Family

This week started with such promise: a return to work (school) after a pleasant President's Week Recess, the hope of returning to some light road work after seven days rest, the addition of a revamped writer's workshop in my seventh grade Language Arts classes after having had it fall by the wayside while we were preparing for New York State's standardized tests, my kids would be home from the mother's after having been busy with activities at her home...

All is definitely not lost, but as I revisit the feelings of anticipation I had felt on Monday, I can't help but recognize that I have fallen short of my expectations. I don't feeling liek I'm being a downer, just trying to "keep it real":

1) my classes started out very strong as the students and I prepared for the final literature circle of the unit we are currently completing (Theme: Liberty & Justice, Novels: Johnny Tremain, My Brother Sam Is Dead, The Fighting Ground--all set during parts of the American Revolutionary War). By mid-week I was well on my way to implementing a revamped writing workshop based on the work of Nancy Atwell's Lesson that Change Writers, when two of my less manageable classes were unable to handle to independent nature of this set-up. I had miscalculated their preparedness for the step.

2)I ran 2.75 miles on Wednesday, suffered through aches and pains on Thursday, and now, at 5:00 a.m. Friday, I'm looking forward to calling my doctor for a referral to a specialist. I suppose I could run a short distance every other day for a short period of time, but that i no way to really train. I may have miscalculated by readiness to go back at it.

3)On the bright side, although their stay was cut short by a day due to my own (over)commitments to the school's production of High School Musical, it was great having my son and daughter home this week and to share some moments with them, my wife, and her son. The simpler pleasures, which are often complicated, are making things much more bearable.

To paraphrase an old (real old) song, grey skies are gonna clear up," so I'll "put on a happy face,"and prepare to greet the weekend and the new start next Monday will allow me...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Boring Committee Work Leads to Kewl Books!

I've often thought to myself that working with students and parents is NOT the most challenging part of my job. (Heck, in most cases, its a downright blast! See pic to right which is a poster from our school's annual literacy intiative--I've pixalized the faces and names to protect the innocent, and me!) The toughest thing educators, regardless of position, need to deal with is the seemingly pointless bureaucracy that creates an environment in which there are minuscule gains for enormous effort. For example, committee work. By my estimate, nearly 87.5% of all committee work is an exercise in listening to many people discuss their opinions, only to have one or two people, generally those "in charge," initiate their intentions while creating the "feeling" that all stakeholders had a role. In the end, they turn out to have been a waste of time.

Today I am happy to share an example of the 12.5% of the time committee work... well, works!

Although I have been on vacation, and away from, school for the past seven days, some of my responsibilities back at work have not been far from my thoughts. (Well, my fleeting, "nothing to worry about" thoughts, anyway.) Yesterday morning, I took the opportunity to drop into school to complete one such "job": to verify a shipment of books I had received on behalf of the seventh grade Language Arts department, and divvy them up for distribution. "Seventh Grade Language Arts Department" sounds much more important than it really is--there are three teachers including myself!

When I arrived to my classroom, I had four large-ish boxes which needed to be unpacked, the contents checked against the requisition, and organized into three equal piles. As I read through the titles I became very excited for my students, some of whom would have the opportunity to read them! You see, in our school, students are permitted twenty minutes for lunch before being ushered back into classrooms for Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). In the classroom, students are expected to read self-selected materials for twenty minutes. This is a tremendous challenge for some seventh graders, to be sure!

Up until this point, the only "classroom libraries" teachers had were limited to what could be found at discount stores and/or purchased by the teacher with their own funds. Consequently, those folks who taught other disciplines, like Math or Science, had few options for students, many of whom would not bring their own things to read. But, now...

Thanks to the participation of myself and two other colleagues on a district-wide classroom libraries committee, we had used a paltry grant to procure a fairly exciting (albeit small) collection of high interest books for students at a variety of reading levels (abilities).

Huzzah!

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

NOTE: Two more pics are posted at My Magic Lantern. Check 'em out!