The School Year Does in Fact Draw to a Close

The school year ends--should Daniel and I go to the end-of-year party or the fair? Or both? Such difficult decisions!

The end of the year also means decisions in the library: what are the most important projects to finish, which ones can wait until August, and in my case, nevermind because the laptop is 99 percent dead and unless the local heroes can resurrect it, there'll be no culminating projects for me!

But there will continue to be reading, summer reading to be particular, and I want all the kids to be doing as much as they can this summer. I still believe Trelease when he says that talking about a book is the way to go. I wonder whether there would be a way to stay in touch with a blog or something. We've been working on getting a Google group together for the district group and it keeps having glitches. Bet the kids could work around it. I am going to talk to a principal or two and get a sense.

In the meantime, I have to tell you about The One about the Kid Who Nearly Fell to His Death and Landed in California. Junior High content but quite excellent.


Jill

Too Rad

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Teaching with Technology

One thing I have learned is that learning can be controversial, at least it's difficult for all of us educators to agree on what exactly precipitates "getting our learn on."

See this video about technology in the classroom: http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/view/221/35/. Not everyone on the listserv loved it, and there was some good debate about using technology for technology's sake. My take is that this is probably a great time to err on the side of too much rather than not enough, and it'll still be less than the students would prefer.

The learning curve is not always comfortable for us teachers but we have an obligation to meet our digital kids a good part of the way. Yes, it's fair to say that it's tough to teach kids with a game boy attention span. What doesn't make sense to me is believing that somehow this might change and we'll be back to our pre-game boy selves, here, soon. I am going to do better, I am.

On an up note, you gotta see Mrs. Burk rap about measurement on TeacherTube: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9e471f4d180b08d62b00

Lucy Rose Here's the Thing About Me (by Katy Kelly)

Great book, one-day read, cute as can be. Lucy Rose is a little older than Junie B. and a little wiser, too.

Just look at the way she works the guinea pig angle with her teacher, Mr. Welsh. Break after break, she watches the pig travel to her classmates' homes rather than her own. Finally, a well-written letter does the trick and Jake travels to his rightful (if temporary) home.

But don't expect a whole lot of fluff with Lucy Rose. She's dealing with some seriously tough stuff, not the least of which her parents' seperation, which means a cross-country move away from her father. Lucky for Lucy Rose, she has a fabulous extended family waiting in Washington D.C., complete with an agony aunt for a grandmother.

Illustrations by Adam Rex were certainly a welcome surprise. There are very few books that have captivated me for the length of time that Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich has. That man has more talent in human form than seems rightfully fair.

This book managed to fully cheer me up today after a freak accident with a butcher knife which translated into two hours in prompt care with five stitches on my heel (not delicious).

That in itself should be review enough.

The KidLit Blogosphere

Let's just say it's a bit busy. And I feel behind. Constantly. And a little ADD while I'm at it, reading review after review, popping titles into orders, watching videos (I think Mr. Rogers from Fuse8 was the real reason I started this bloomin' thing, anyway, thanks go to both parties).

But the Kidlit Blogosphere is also a beautiful land, a land where it's implied that children are an important subset of this rather challenged society of ours--an important group of people (albeit a bit small in stature) that can actually help us all along if we would only give them some neat tools to do so. I'm seeing some awfully smart people who are reading an awful lot of text out here, despite all those freaky end-of-the-printed-word warnings we've been hearing on and off since the introduction of the printing press. I'm pretty comforted by this fact.

Books help children help us, of this much I am sure. I feel like there is nothing more beautiful feeling (aside from smelling flowers, maybe, I'm a huge fan of flowers) than reading to a child or having a child read to you--or best yet, having a child read a book and be moved enough to discuss it with you, or--control my dopamine--with another child.

Oprah that book, says Trelease, and you've got it made. Kids do what feels good, adults are no different. Give them books that feel good to read and they will naturally return for more. You'll see a lot of Jim Trelease in this blog now and in the future--he has had such an effect on my practice that I was willing to have several mini-strokes in bringing him to Chico this past January. Listening to him speak to three audiences for a combined 5 hours certainly made it worth the effort. Listening to teachers report back with changes in their classroom as a result of his visit obviously undoes any mental damage done. I even have one school site that has installed raingutters as a direct result of Jim's visit. See what I'm talking about here: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah_chpt6_p4.html#rain-gutter.

Off to school at this point. I can easily see how this blogging thing can get a touch addictive.

Quite a Shock, really

I find it awe-inspiring that an ordinary Jill such as myself can go ahead and create a blogger account and, well, start.

Here I am, starting.

And hoping that I can make someone read more this year, even if it's only me.

Cheers to readers everywhere, especially readers who read to children in a loving way.

You're going to heaven!