The Literate Teacher's Manifesto

I have sadly neglected my blog lately.  With the onset of Christmas festivities, school-ending necessities, and other such shenanigans, I simply haven't been in the best of mindsets to write about education.  I hope this posting finds everyone well and happy at the ending of the Christmas season, but I have to be honest, I'm still  NOT back on school focus just yet. I had an exceedingly difficult time finding my Christmas spirit this year.  I don't really know why.  It should have been easy to come by, as my husband and I split time between his family and mine every other year, and this was our year to stay here in NC (where we live), have Christmas with my family, and be in our own house for the holidays.  Sadly, it was less than a week before Christmas and my holiday cheer was still MIA, so I went on a quest to find it.  My first idea was to search for the holiday spirit through the magic of holiday movies, and lo and behold, I found it! I realiz...

One of my heroes/ role models in education and curriculum writing is Michael Clay Thompson (as if anyone who knows me is unaware of that fact).  I first heard him speak four (?) years ago at the NC Association for the Gifted and Talented Conference.  It was a game-changer for me.  I immediately began reading every piece of his curriculum and writing that I could get my hands on.  See, for a long time I had felt that there was something missing from my instruction.  My kids seemed to enjoy my class, I had generally good results, my test scores were good enough to keep me under the radar, but something was missing.  I didn't really feel as though I was making any sort of difference, long-term, in the lives of the students I taught. One particular piece of information that has stuck with me since discovering this curriculum, however, is not something that I was teaching to the kids.  This valuable little tidbit was tucked away amidst a paragraph written...

I am so over series novels. I blame JK Rowling for this phenomenon. It used to be possible to go to the library, pick up a novel, read it, get to the end, and be done. Now, it feels like every time I pick up a new book, it's making a lifetime commitment!  Booksellers: Do you promise to love, cherish, and buy every book in the series as long as you and the author both shall live?  Me: Ermmm, maybe? I'm not about contract reading. So a few years ago, I decided I was NOT committing to any other series novels. If it had a sequel, I was not buying. Then they got tricksy (OOoohhh, tricksy authorses!) The first one to fool me was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Which was followed a year or so later by Dawn of the Dreadfuls .  A sequel?  To Pride and Prejudice ?  Are you kidding me?  This was shortly followed by Neal Shusterman.  His novel Unwind  is absolutely phenomenal.  I loved the ending.  No further closure necessary, Mr. Shu...