May 23 2008
summer reading for teachers!
So we’re heading into the homestretch here… Memorial Day weekend, spring sports awards, academic awards, scheduling courses for the fall… it feels like the end of the school year! I know I am happily anticipating mornings in my gazebo writing and thinking with my dog Cody snoring at my feet. I will be reading all kinds of things this summer. I wait for these days; I pile books up on tables in my house like mini towers. So I thought I’d share a few things I’ll be reading and have you post about your plans.
- Mosaic of Thought, 2nd edition, by Ellin Keene & Susan Zimmerman. I’ve skimmed it, but I haven’t really read it. I’m ready. The first Mosaic turned me upside down.
- To Understand, Ellin Keene. (no, I’m not a stalker…just a fan) If you were in Santa Fe in January, you might remember Smokey saying this book was going to knock the socks off of the profession. I want to understand why.
- New Directions in Teaching Memoir, Dawn & Dan Kirby. Several of you know how much I want to write memoir. This ought to get me going.
- Already Ready by Katie Wood Ray & Matt Glover. I have yet to find a book by this woman that wasn’t smart and beautifully written. I have learned so much about my high school students by looking at elementary writers. Now Katie has tackled pre-school writers. Can’t wait to find out what she and Matt know.
- And betwixt all of that serious thinking I’ll be reading lots of young adult fiction and making a list of book talks for fall. Here are a few I’ll be reading: Street Pharm, Hole in my Life, Right Behind You, Zero, and Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. These were all reviewed by my smart friend Karen Hartman, who directs the Denver writing project.
So what’s on your list?And as a last word… thank you so much for being a part of this online community this year. I cherished our times together in class after school, but this blog took us even deeper. I was grateful for the way it slowed down the discussions we had in class. Have a great summer and I’ll see you in late August…Penny
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Penny,
Thank you from all of us for sharing your experience, insights, and warmth with us. Life is an amazing roller coaster ride. I do not elect to board an actual roller coaster; the one to which I was drafted is exhilarating enough! While Lori and I were researching the benefits of expanding Kennett’s summer reading list, I stumbled upon a piece you wrote long ago. There was a forward by Don Graves and an afterward by Don Murray. Well….let’s say…I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were that good! It was a beautiful, poetic piece that comforted me. I realized just how lucky our kids are to have you and many other humble talents here at Kennett. Anyway…my summer reading list is always an attempt to refrain from academia (to which I am drawn)…and read an actual novel…! Recently, Makenzie exclaimed that Jason Wood introduced her to “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, which I long-ago purchased (thank you, Oprah), but never read (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez). She cannot put it down! That will be the first. Another will be “West With the Night”, by Beryl Markham, simply because I went on a website last summer that was dedicated to books famous people read and loved, and this was a popular one! Because I care and teach about exceptional children, I will finally read Martha Beck’s “Expecting Adam”. The next will be Dave Eggers “What is the What”, and last, but not least, I’ll be introspective and tackle Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” and the website that accompanies the text. Thought: if so many of us have unusual or unfamiliar titles to share, why don’t we generate a list of books we have to lend over the summer? I have a number of books that I have loved and would share…with the price of fuel and heating oil, we should share our wealth…my books sit on my shelf awaiting an appreciative mind and heart…
KLK
Well, I honestly can’t say what I plan to read this summer . . . I’m working on things day by day . . . but I have been rotating through a variety of books over the last several months that I’ll hope to finish when I have a little more consecutive time to dedicate to reading.
Here is what is sitting beside my bed right now . . . mostly unfinished:
Digital Filmmaking 101 by Dale Newton and John Gaspard
50 Fast Final Cut Express Techniques
Making Documentary Films by Barry Hampe
Subjects Matter – Every Teacher’s Guide to Content Area Reading
Creative Camera Control
2 issues of People en Espanol (it is horrible, but it is easy bedtime Spanish reading)
Selecciones (Reader’s Digest en Espanol) – a bit better than People . . . .
Amistad “Give us Free” A Celebration of the Film by Steven Spielberg
Life in the Ancient Maya World
Unfinished Conquest (seems like a good summary of the status of completion of this pile of books, but actually a book subtitled “The Guatemalan Tragedy” about the travesties committed on the Many people during the civil war of the 1980’s.
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser .. I actually finished this one but haven’t put it away . . . it changed the way I eat. I have not been able to eat a fast food burger since I read this along with my son Jeff for his summer reading last year.
A Spanish English Dictionary
Life Lessons my Mother Taught Me by Andrea Young
Popular Photography Magazine
The most recent Photoshop User issue
A Magazine called “Student Filmmakers”
Adobe Print Publishing Guide
and The Twits a Roald Dahl book that Sam is reading
In a pile a bit farther away are several Barbara Kingsolver novels ( some completed, some not,) the 4th Harry Potter in Spanish (Harry Potter y el Caliz de Fuego, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (which I had to set aside because I literally couldn’t sleep at night after reading it at bedtime. )
In the car on my frequent three and a half hour drives to Massachusetts I have been listening to The Truth by Al Franken, and plan to start listening to a book called The Schools We Need: And Why We Don’t Have Them by Edward Hirsch Jr.
I think that attempting to finish some or all of these will keep me occupied, and I will probably pull back one of the Kingsolver books for diversion . . . thanks for suggesting her to me Penny . . . I have enjoyed a few of her books after seeing a reference to her in one of your books that I read a couple of years ago.
The Unfinished Conquest is about the “Mayan” people, not the “Many” people . . just noticed a grammer-o that I didn’t catch in my first review . . . .
Well, I am not sure what I plan on reading this summer. In all honesty I have a list of novels and other professional development books that I would love to read this summer including Penny’s new book. However, with my sisters wedding on the 13th of July, Freedom Swim Lessons, moving, my own wedding on August 6 and then starting a new job, I just do not think I will have the time to breathe let alone sit on the beach and read. So, I guess I will have to double time it next year and the summer after that to catch up! The only “fun” reading I will be doing is new curriculum, state standards for 6th grade Language Arts and probably the novels I will be teaching!
Wow….I can’t believe the year is coming to an end! Penny this class has been such an eye opener for me and I really really enjoyed it. I hope to keep learning and doing my best to use my talents in the arts to help students and teachers to inspire reading and writing in students.
Summer Reading…..I’m not sure how much reading I’ll get done this summer but I currently intend on reading my “Chicken Soup for the Brides Soul”! I also try and read one book a summer on the Holocaust or some other historical event as I love history. My main goal this summer is to be the best wife I can to Jason which means I’ll probably be reading a lot of cook books!!! ha ha. =) I love to read books based on true stories so any ideas…please send them my way. I’m afraid to say my library of books is quite small.
Thanks for such a great class! I loved it!
I am not quite organized enough to have the extensive list like Penny and Theresa but I will be reading this summer. Mine will also be done probably outside with the dogs at the feet. My intention is to further explore the public library for books this summer. I have said for years that I wanted to spend more time there and get books out and over April break we actually did go and start. There are so many to choose from that I look forward to the trips there (although I am sometimes also overwhelmed by the variety). There will be the fluff books (sci-fi or action/adventure) but I would also like to hit up some physics books (The Physics of Star Trek, The Tao of Phyiscs, Time and Immortality). I also have some other titles about the Apollo space program I haven’t read yet. It will take a week or two before I can wrap my brain around those but there are the others that will fill in until that time.
My plans for this summer are, like the rest of you, busy. I will be a nanny in North Carolina for three weeks at the beach. I plan to keep all of my reading light and fun. I love the young love and adventure books, my sister and I usually trade books that we love. I also will be working full time at the river again which offers me very little time for much of anything. In my spare time I will be reading manuals and texts related to sales and advertising in preparation for my new job. It is not the grand list like Penny but I hope to relax and enjoy my free time as much as possible.