NH literacy journeys

Hello teachers,

There is a wonderful blog on the nytimes.com web site that I thought you might be interested in. It is a collection of essays written by teachers from many areas of the country and from different educational settings. They talk about their work or a challenge they are facing and then people who read the essay comment on the post. It’s worth a visit.

Sometimes I feel like we’re secluded up here on the mountain top at Kennett looking out over the valley below, but missing the larger conversation in education all over the country. It is nice to hear from teachers in different settings, often facing the same challenges we wrestle with but with creative solutions I haven’t thought of. I’m also interested in how people outside of education comment on the issues raised. I recommend it.

Go to http://lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com/ and take a look.

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 

In a recent post, Amy said, “I agree with Suzanne and Darron.  I have been in a few public schools now and it all seems the same, how many of us are really that insane to keep giving up as much as we do for 25 years!  I don’t think I will make it….” As one of those “insane” ones who has been in the work for 25 years…I have to answer. Boy, do I love this work. It requires everything I’ve got, makes me yearn to do better year after year, and suprises me (almost daily) with moments and conversations with young people. I know the list of frustrations; I’ve lived them. I started with 34 third-graders in a portable classroom in the Mojave Desert in California where we had to completely move out of our classrooms and into a cupboard every three, six, or nine weeks for a break in our year-round school. But what I remember about that year are the kids–the joy–the moments when we laughed together, sang together, and learned together. And I remember that I ended that year just wanting to be a better teacher.It is still like that. Maybe it is because I’ve changed jobs so many times–from third grade to full-time teaching at a university–the landscape kept changing, as did the challenges and epiphanies. But I still find myself walking to first block with a smile on my face, anxious to see my students, interested in how their writing is going, hopeful I can motivate and encourage them to do the best work they can. I see this work as a privilege.So….I’d like to invite you to share a few of your best times in teaching. We’ve got enough dreariness here in mid-March with multiple feet of snow on the ground and a looming budget vote, so skip the complaints. Find a moment or an experience when you said, “Yes!” as a teacher and share it…I look forward to your responses.

As I read Gillespie’s Reasons to Keep Teaching, I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. We share many of the same reasons for working so long in a profession that is so challenging. I found myself connecting most deeply with #8…in my case, teaching WRITING gives me a chance to make a claim for an art form I love and value. I believe in writing as work where no one ever becomes a master, as Hemingway said. Because each writing piece has its own challenges, the problem solving that we must use to get to the best piece of writing we can make is unique. I love the surprise of writing. It is never dull for me.Today in class the students were working with themes for their compressed autobiographies. Joe told me he is going to do a visual of a guitar, and on each of its six strings he will write about each of his six years at Kennett, from 7th – 12th grade. Across the room Allie was creating the story of her life through shoes, from purple jelly sandals to high heels. Matt is creating all he’s learned about buffalo wings and Alex has a school bus with memories from each year in each window as she moved from sitting behind the driver in first grade to sprawled across the back in 12th. Writing allows for student voices and student imagination. I love this work.