Friday, August 30, 2013

Three weeks’ down in the semester, and now it’s time for an extended weekend to catch your breath.  Hope the links below provide some refreshing thoughts to encourage your thinking about reading.  Happy Labor Day…and go Huskers!

AL A CARTE (8/30)

International Literacy Day — As a new school year begins, IRA announces a special International Literacy Day (ILD) celebration focusing on career readiness.  Monday, September 9, is the designated day, with the goal being to inspire students to dream big about their future and illustrate the role literacy skills play in achieving those dreams. Check the link for fun classroom activities.

AdLit.org — AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.  If you’ve never visited this site, you’ll find some great information.  Perfect surfing for a long, hot weekend.

Kylene Beers blog — An older post, but it contains an interesting survey that she and Bob Probst did about why teachers teach the novels they teach.  And if you want to participate in future surveys, bookmark this page.  They will have a survey later this fall.

 Nerdy Book Club — Great source for book reviews and providing ideas for new books out on the market.  The most current post encouraged me to keep helping each student find his/her “hook book.”

Welcome to a new era in reading!

I follow a number of blogs personally, from education to theology to Pinterest. I find that I am drawn to the ease of gathering information quickly.  These information tidbits get me thinking about a topic I’m curious about or unfamiliar with.  It seems that some blog posts come just at the right time when I need additional ideas to reflect on.  When I have downtime, I check my favorite blogs and find a morsel for my brain to chew on, which refreshes me personally and professionally.

Over time, I’ve considered dipping my toe into the blogger’s world.  I’ve thought, wouldn’t it be cool to maintain a blog that would connect others to articles about reading, with an occasional connection to technology and the education world as a whole?  I know that, in the grand scheme of all of the blogs out there on reading, I can’t keep up and read every one every day, let alone every week.  I would guess that you are the same, what with the time you need to balance your professional and personal life. A place where these things are organized and quick to access would be fun.  So here I go on a new adventure, with the goal of providing a blog for you and your colleagues to access quick tidbits of information that may be of interest to you.

When you have a moment to do some light reading, I hope this blog becomes a fun place for you to visit.  Thought you’d like to know that I plan to post later on Friday afternoons, just as a habit.  I hope the links to lots of other thoughtful blogs and websites  give you the morsels that will provide a bit of refreshment for the teaching side of your life.

This will be a learning experience for all of us.  I hope you’ll visit here again soon.

P.

AL A CARTE (8/23)

Second First Time – I love this site that is called “the weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading.”  Not only do I have fun reflecting on my own experience with reading and books, the prompts may be useful in your classroom, too.

Notice and Note on Facebook – If you have a Facebook account (which is pretty much everyone but me), you can follow current information, research and ideas about Notice and Note.  Interesting link to a survey Kylene and Bob conducted that gathered data on the teaching of chapter books in grades 4-8.