TEACHER CREATED TIPS

“So Many Books, So Little Time” is the saying emblazoned on my favorite sweatshirt. I feel this way about all the books I’d like to read. Being a voracious reader and belonging to a book group hardly slakes my thirst for books. Either reading a novel to or with my class was always the highlight of my teaching day.

Often I would choose a novel to read aloud to seventh graders. You’d be amazed at how attentive they were as they listened for about 10 minutes at the end of the hour. I’d usually choose something that had some action in it and something they could relate to. Hatchet was one of my favorites. One time I read James and the Giant Peach to them. They were truly mesmerized as they tried to visualize the giant peach flying through the sky.

Literature was my favorite thing to teach. I could get all kinds of fascinating conversations going when we read books like The Cay, Anne Frank, The Twenty-One Balloons, and A Wrinkle in Time. Activities that linked the books made them all the more interesting to the kids. They’d weave a place mat while blindfolded when we read The Cay and create their own tesseract for A Wrinkle in Time. I’d have them keep reading response journals and I’d read them periodically. It was gratifying to see how they enjoyed the books.

Right now I have Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book on my desk waiting for me to read, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is in my briefcase. These are two books teachers tell me I need to read. I wonder if I were in a classroom if I would be teaching these. What else would I need to read? What are kids favorites as opposed to what is required? And is there a required book these days? So what do you think I should read? What about your students reading? What do you want them to read and what must they read? With so many books out there, maybe I’ll get a new sweatshirt that says “So Many Books, So Many Questions.”

Halloween is our favorite holiday here at Teacher Created Resources. As many of us were previously teachers, we still remember the fun and whimsy of the annual Halloween parade held at our schools. We continue that tradition at TCR each year by having our own parade through the buildings, picking up fellow costumed employees as we go. The parade ends at the front of the main office, where we take a group picture.

We then proceed to the banquet hall next door, where we enjoy a wonderfully spooky potluck lunch.

Nowadays, many schools don’t observe or celebrate Halloween. Many adjustments have been made over the last few years, not only to respect the belief systems of our multicultural student populations, but also to accommodate the need for more time to spend on curriculum. What are some other changes that you have noticed in recent years that have affected how celebrations are viewed in schools? What do think these changes are driven by? Do you agree with the stand your district takes on celebrations in school?

Each week at TCR, educational magazines are passed around to all the editors to keep us aware of trends, hot topics, and current research. It’s become one of our “eyes” into the classroom. Each magazine has its own focus, whether it be technology, literacy, or the like. And while some of the articles can have overlapping ideas, one article I read today put a new spin on an old idea. Little did they know, however, that their subjects included more than just students.

In “Focusing the Brain,” an article in Educational Leadership, Marilee Sprenger suggests that because students have multiple technological devices and often use more than one at once, they’ve become “passive viewers.”¹ Instead of thoroughly reviewing, absorbing, and then reflecting on information, students are skimming, scanning, and then quickly moving on to the next task. Sprenger illustrates this through Emily—an average teenager who is “focusing on her homework assignment.” Naturally, while researching the Civil War, she is listening to Coldplay, sending instant messages, answering her cell phone, and text-messaging. Sound like someone you know? Actually, it sounds like a lot of people I know.

Just the other night, I was sitting in my room with my laptop open, listening to Swell Season, reading recipes online for turkey brine, and answering my husband’s shopping list questions, all while watching Glee—well, sort of watching (but not really reading or offering many grocery options for my husband). It’s terrible! Last month I was reading Real Simple and was delighted to find a spoof on multitasking. The author, A. J. Jacobs, vowed to go “cold turkey” from multitasking for a month. Instead, he would focus on one task at a time. He called it Operation Focus.² Of course, more often than not, he failed (though, not without a valiant effort). We all do. How can we not? We’re surrounded by gadgets, people, TV shows, and, if you’re a teacher, activities, realia, and STUDENTS! You might be the worst violators of multitasking out of everyone (Be proud!). But, here’s the thing, if you can isolate the times that require focused attention and truly deliver, then it’s OK to multitask every other time. The key is balance. This is the lesson that has to be passed onto students. Remind them that it’s OK to focus on one idea at a time. Advise them to reflect after each time they’ve read something, so they can really absorb it. And if these don’t work? Banish the techno-toys! (Just don’t take mine away.)

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¹ Marilee Sprenger, “Focusing the Brain,” Educational Leadership 67, no. 1 (2009): 34–39.
² A. J. Jacobs, “How I Stopped the Multitasking Madness: One man’s quest to go from manic multitasker to Zen unitasker in one month flat,” Real Simple (September 2009): 198–202.

You might already be aware that Senate Resolution 310 declares October 20, 2009 as the National Day on Writing. I read the whole resolution (you can read it here). The part I particularly like reads, “the National Day of Writing highlights the importance of writing instruction and practice at every educational level and in every subject area.” All I could think of were all the opportunities for writing that exist without our schools. From kindergarteners to seniors in high school, the chances to write are endless. They can be structured or open ended. They can be done with crayons, elementary pencils, and sleek ballpoint pens; on laptops and white boards. The writing can tell stories, fill out forms, give directions, share common experiences, say thank you, or remind someone about homework. The list goes on and on.

Reading the resolution also made me take a look at some of my favorite TCR writing books. Through the years I have worked on a goodly number of them. For the youngest writers, I’ve always liked Emergent Writer’s Workshop and Beginning Writing. I like the practice that these books allow our littlest scribes. For all grade levels, our Meeting Writing Standards books are excellent. Featuring straightforward lessons and activities for writing stories, reports, poetry, letters, and narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive pieces, these books are comprehensive in their coverage of the various types of writing. Meeting Writing Standards books help students to hone their authoring skills. For lots of fun and getting kids involved, Get Up! Get Noisy! Get Writing! has all types of engaging writing lessons. My favorite lesson in this book is called “Picky, Picky! Just Pick One!” It turns fiction writing into a game of chance as students draw their story elements, including characters, setting, and objects, from a grab bag.

So grab hold of the opportunity to celebrate the National Day on Writing, no matter what subject or grade you teach, by giving your students the chance to write.