Deep Thinking

If you could lock yourself in a cabin and read one author’s books all week, who would you choose? I want to hear your picks, not taint the waters with mine. I was talking to another teacher about this when some eager fourth graders chimed in. This led to them asking me to go back and purchase more paperback copies of some of their favorite series:

* Seventh Tower
* Gregor the Overlander
* Wilhemenia Rules
* Bailey School Kids
* A to Z Mysteries
* Young Cam Jansen
* the Santa Paws titles
* Amber Brown
* Black Lagoon
* Marvin Redpost
* Goosebumps
* Dragonslayers
* graphic biographies

Their favorite series are not necessarily the authors I most admire and that I think are the long-lasting type. I deeply appreciate Judy Freeman’s books including Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3. Her resources at www.judyreadsbooks.com help me work better with teachers to locate new authors and new read-alouds. I wish that every teacher could change grade levels just so they would be forced to talk to me about new trends. I love that moment when you place 5 or 6 titles in a teacher’s hands to sample. They choose one, read it to the kids, and suddenly there is a tremendous run on all titles by that author.

A title I found in galley the Mysterious Benedict Society has dwelt on my mind since I first read it last summer. It is a difficult read for my 3rd and 4th graders but I do intend to purchase multiple copies. The concepts of different intelligences and different ways to a solution run through this title. It does have all the classic elements. Sometimes I wish I taught middle school instead of elementary so I could spend more time with the depth of quality literature. Here is a review one of my favorite blogs Pixie Stix Kids Pix. Somebody let me know when the next title by this author is available.

Lately I have viewed several videos that I wanted to share with the teachers and administration at my school. Unfortunately the majority of these are only available from sites like YouTube. Even with my override password for our state filters, these simply don’t show properly. Another problem is that some videos are posted, are overwhelmingly popular, and then disappear. Perfect example of this is the skit “Introducing the Book” which was originally written in Norwegian. A version with English captions was posted on YouTube, received over 1 million viewings, and then disappeared. Read about the controversy here. I am sad because I wanted to share it with my technicians and teachers.

Today I found a video that was worth showing to my third graders who suffer from springitis each year and suddenly forget how to open books and that they have rich resources inside. (They seem to become magnetically attracted to the computers for all answers even when their friends race them. )Take a look at Library Stuff’s posting of a video sent in by Steven Reed and his students - Library Ninja!

Alan Chiupka is a teacher at MAP Academcy, an
alternative school in Lebanon, Tennessee, guest blogs
today with his deep thoughts about schools and their
perceptions in the media:

I recently read an article about another outstanding
teacher who had gone out of his way to see to the
success of an at risk student. It was a heart-warming
article full of extra steps that a concerned teacher
took to get to know the student and how the extra
attention was responded to and how it made a
difference in the students life. It began with the
teacher trying to obtain a higher degree and been
given an assignment to improve the writing skills of
five students. One of the students he chose was the
at-risk student and he then goes in-depth about the
needs of the student and how his assistance was vital
in the growth of this student. The article ends with
the moral to teach the students and not the subject.
Good advice and a good article showing a dedicated
teacher and his impact on a student.

Articles like these, I think, are responsible in part
for the low esteem the teaching profession has amongst
many of the public. You see this teacher was not a
stand-out in his profession because of the work he did
with the student. He was typical of most teachers and
the jobs they do in the classroom. To hold this
particular teacher out as an example and not admit
that he is more typical than outstanding is fodder to
those who would criticize public education as
ineffective. Most who would criticize public education
from without are self-styled experts on the subject by
virtue of their once having attended a public school.
They feel that this experience makes them an authority
on education and in large part, for whatever reason,
these people remember the negative aspects of their
own education more than the positive ones. Through the
fog of years the positive memories are pushed out by
the negative ones and in their minds school becomes
nothing but negative memories and a place in dire need
of reform. An in-depth look of most outside critics of
education I’m sure would reveal that they are
generally disagreeable people in all aspects of their
life with little good to say about anything. Articles
about teachers going the extra mile often reinforce
these peoples opinions.

One way to remedy this would be to stop publishing
articles about teachers successes. This would be
throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We all like
to hear about how others in our profession have done
well. Instead, when we write about effective teachers
doing their jobs well, let’s include acknowledgments
that most teachers are also doing their jobs well in
similar fashions. Make it clear that the teacher the
article is discussing is representative of the
profession as a whole and not a lonely traveller in
the desert. By doing this we may help to eliminate
some of the vitriol thrown out by people who have yet
to overcome their own deficiencies in life and find it
easier to blame the school systems for these
deficiencies than it is to look in the mirror.