Blogging Won’t Kill You & Summer Reading List

If it doesn’t kill you, blogging will make you stronger. I just wanna be a betta righter!
I decided to blog, blog, blog to become a more fluid writer. So what’s wrong with that? Well, it is about finding interesting things to write about. When I first started, the writing was fun and somewhat pithy. Now? Not so much. Oh well, I will only become a betta righter if I write! So for you, skip the drivel and enjoy the great nuggets that are sure to fall out occasionally. After all, if it doesn’t kill us, it makes us stronger!

First of all, my summer reading list has grown to million books! If you know some of these and I need to take them off the list, please comment and let me know.
The Twin’s Daughter
With or without you
The Bosnia list
Behind the scenes at the museum
Three souls
The secret keeper
The daring ladies of Lowell
And then she was gone
The Kingmaker’s Daughter
The Tenth Son
Flight Behavior
Red Rising
The milk of birds
Random Violence
The Whole Golden World
Gang Leader for a Day
Adam and Eve
Family Pictures
Forgotten Garden
Restless
The Light of Ruins
Maya’s Notebook
I am Mahala
A Far Piece of Canaan
Brothers
The woman who lost her soul
And the mountains echoed
Wise Men
Tapestry of Fortune
Over a 1000 hills I walk with you

Comment on any of the books, please!
Blogging will make you stronger!

The Invention of Wings & The Songs of Willow Frost

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is the most lyrical and poetically written non-poetry, book I have ever read.  The story is about two sisters who become abolitionists and 2 slaves who finally escape.  (No, not giving anything away.)  It is based in fact and set in Charleston, SC.  The writing is so beautiful that I would not allow myself to read too much each day so that I could savor the book.  Usually I read and do other things at the same time… NOT with this book!  

The characters are so ALIVE they actually breathe!  The women are not your typical mealy-mouths that were the women of the time period, but outspoken women who are able to stand up to injustice and espouse it to the world while handling the negative fall-out from others.

Not intentionally meaning to lessen the impact of slavery or even make a comment on it, but I was a bit put off with the topic and said, “Really another book on slavery?”  BUT it isn’t.  It is about so much more and the research on the treatment of slaves is critical. 

It is on Oprah’s book list and no telling how many other awards that it will win.  Sue Monk Kidd is our modern day equivalent to Margaret Mitchell or dare I say Harper Lee.  She has outdone herself with this book.  The Secret Life of Bees. was an exceptional book, too.

This will go into my favorites list!  Incredible book, well-written, A MUST READ!

Another MUST READ is The Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford, which is another book that I wouldn’t let myself read too many pages a day… I love his writing! The characters are completely whole. He must get Divine inspiration from the Universe. I love Jamie Ford’s artistic writing abilities! His first novel called Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was an excellent must-read. This book is about American-Japanese interment camps and the lives of the people including the American-Chinese who were thrown into the camps. Both of these stories will linger with you. Jamie Ford can’t write books fast enough for me.
I must say that this was so eloquently written in my head right before I fell asleep and forgot all those beautiful words! Aw, hell!

Reading might be the only true Panacea

Panaceas pretty much don’t exist, right? What one thing can fix so many other problems? Is there really a cure-all? The scientists once believed that penicillin was a panacea. For illnesses, it and other variations pretty much are panaceas (side effects notwithstanding). I always thought that education was the way to fix the problems in the world… and yes, I still feel that way, but must add an addendum…

I believe that READING IS THE GREAT PANACEA! It is the fixer of EVERYTHING! What?! Think about it. The reader is the person who is up to date on many topics. The reader can think for himself, doesn’t need the “news-feed” to make his decisions or dissect the information, and can see biases. The reader understands complex ideas and can predict outcomes. The reader can find solutions to higher level/critical problems.

The reader is an open-minded person. Notice I didn’t say left wing or right wing… He is an open-minded person who sees more than one side. When a person becomes left/right he becomes somewhat close-minded usually unable to see more than his side.

Readers comprehend more than their own small world and this is why READING IS A PANACEA. Well, it sounds good anyway! : ) Happy Monday.

Why AR?

From elementary to high schools, Accelerated Reader is still in our schools! How many book lovers have been murdered and left bleeding by the book stacks because of AR? For those who don’t know AR, it is a program that has students reading books and taking tests over them. BUT the fact is, they usually don’t read the book. They Google the book and take the test from that information. Or in the case of my friend’s son, they share the info – two students read two different books and tell each other about theirs, and they each take the test and they get two books out of the way. My nephew is now a BIG HATER of books because of A.R. My niece will only read manga… HOW MANY STUDENTS HAVE TO DIE OF BOREDOM BEFORE AR GETS THROWN OUT?

So much money has been invested in public education for the AR system! We talk about a new millennium, so maybe this is when we should drop it! Many students hate it and end up “living” through it in elementary, intermediate and junior high. In high school, the students are book haters because of it.

AR is touted as helpful for teachers to get students to read or “Reading Management Program.” The books are chosen from various award winners and tests are created to see if the student read the book. One enticing thing is that students get to choose their own books from the list and read above grade level. Librarians are off the hook for book recommendations because there is a list to look at. Librarians become paper pushers instead of reading specialists. What hooey!

I don’t think that “one size fits all” applies to reading. Limiting is the least of the problems with AR. AR doesn’t take away a parent’s responsibility for monitoring what their child is reading. It seems like it might even lull a parent into giving someone else the responsibility. Using rewards is a whole other posting… You want to run a race with others then do so, but don’t use books to create competitiveness among readers. AR is one giant punishment for those who really like to read and it makes non-readers hate reading! It makes cheaters out of honest students who split reading or share answers or do lots of other shady things.

What might have been a good idea in the past has turned into a mess. It would be great if we all read or learned in the same way, but we don’t. Cookie cutter ideas rarely work in our world. I want students to tell me what they loved about a book. How they want to read more by that author. What THRILLED them about a book. Taking a test to punish a child for reading is like killing a mockingbird.

Genre set up

No doubt we would all agree that going to a bookstore is a great place to go. What happens in the bookstore when you can’t find the book you are looking for because you don’t know the genre? Sometimes you stumble upon it. Other times you settle for something else. Sometimes you look it up on their computer system or ask someone… AND sometimes you cry out in frustration!

The genre set up is too limiting for school age students. Especially with a younger audience. I have seen a student who wanted sci-fi reach over and grab an historical fiction just because the books were next to each other on the shelf. When a library is set up by genre, the possibility of a sci-fi lover to go to historical fiction is slim. If books are on the shelf together in alphabetical order by author, students stand a better chance of becoming more rounded readers and branching out to other genres. Genre book tags are somewhat limiting but less so than by genre. What about books that might be two or more genres? Do we waste our limited funds buying the same title so that they can go into different genre places? Our chances of creating life-long readers grows exponentially if the books are together.

I remember as a young reader in school looking for a book “just like that one.” I found many different genres because our library was set up by author. It made me look at certain genres that I would never have looked at if the books had been by genre. My public library has changed to genre and I find that I am running around like crazy looking for books.

This really isn’t about change. I don’t mind change. In fact, I embrace change because it’s healthy. This is about book access and crossing genre lines. Happy Reading!

Ramblings on reading and writing

Becoming a writer takes a person who is diligent with their writing and who writes everyday.  Journaling or blogging helps the writing process because you are always thinking of writing topics, as well as forming ideas.  Each day you write makes you a more fluid and thoughtful writer.  Sophocles wrote Antigone first and then Oedipus Rex and then Oedipus at Colonus.  His writing matured over 10 years and you can see the progression of that maturity.  As a writer reflects on topics, his ideas begin to take shape and evolve; until one day, he is a confident writer.  That’s what I want this blog to do for me.  I want to throw out ideas and thoughts, become more fluid and in turn become a better writer.  Lately, I have found that when I am driving, I need something to write on or record on.  I have come up with some great topics and lost them because I didn’t write them down.  

There is only one way to become a better reader and that is to read!  You can become a better reader by listening to a reader read and following along.  Everyone loves to listen to a really good reader.  Also to become a better reader, you can read out loud and hear yourself.  You must READ to improve your reading and comprehension skills.  

I hear students say, “I hate reading.”  It is usually because they don’t understand what they just read.  Their eyes jump around the page.  Okay, use this blue paper and the eye pressure will relax and your eyes will stop jumping.  “I never understand what I just read.”  Okay, after each chapter write a sentence or two of what you think happened.  Reading is a skill.  To improve this skill, you have to use it.  Reading just one page a day is a great way to start.  Or read just one article or perhaps, a blog? each day and see your reading skills improve.  Before you know it, you will no longer be reading just one page – you will be reading a chapter… And the wheels on the bus…

If you can read and comprehend, you are smarter than MOST people in the world!  WOW!  I’m not real into numbers, but I bet the percentage is very high as far as intelligence level from readers to non-readers.  How exciting that you can develop your brain through reading.  Again my mantra – it doesn’t matter what you read; as long as you read.

 

Read and write everyday and watch your brain power increase!

Judging books by their covers

It took a year before I would read Bloody Jack by L A Meyer and now I have read all 11 of the books! It is a Young Adult book about a girl pirate, and the first cover was hideous! It looked like a silly cartoon and I wouldn’t touch the book for an entire year. The books are wonderful and the books on CD are even better! The Cockney accent in the beginning is a bit tough for students to read at the start, but then the book takes you for an adventure! They also give a history lesson through time. I love all 11 of the books. Can you believe a book about a “girl pirate” would be so much fun?
We all judge books by their covers, so I asked students to find books with awful covers that made them just want to put them down and create new covers. Some students really enjoyed it and created some beautiful pieces. Those book jackets are now enticing, and students want to read them.
As a librarian, you have to stay one step ahead, so reading the young adult novels is imperative. When a student brings back a book, I ask, “Did you like this book?” If they say yes, I have a new book to tell them about. If they say no, I ask them what their favorite book was and find them a book along those same genre lines. If they don’t know, I have a book for that, too!
They students really get excited that I have a new book for them. Whatever gets them to return and check out another book, is what’s important. Students are never a number at my school and Never do they leave the library wishing they had never come in.
Years ago I had an assistant who wasn’t very nice to the students. The students would come and tell me, “I want you to help me find a book, because she isn’t very nice.” I constantly corrected my assistant and she would say, “But I am nice to them!” That wasn’t the students’ perceptions. I would tell her, “It doesn’t matter what you think. It only matters what our patrons think, and they think you are mean.” I would have to have this conversation about 4 times a year with her.
I don’t know why librarians and assistants have to make students feel like they are “bothering” them! The whole idea is to get students INTO the library and keep them coming back. But once “judged by the cover,” most won’t read the book.

What good are Young Adult books?

Quite often I hear from other librarians- “We only have the Classic Literature in our library.”  What hooey!  What arrogance!  What snobbery!  They are stealing from students!  They are stealing students’ ability to grow as readers because VERY FEW young adults start with the classics and continue to become LIFE LONG READERS!  (You really can’t tell that this is a pet-peeve, can you?)  Certainly it would be great if we all read the classics and this world were full of educated individuals.  How do we get there?  Do you think when we all learned to read that we started with classic literature?  Ha! maybe “Run, Spot, Run” is classic now.  

The point is.  Students develop their reading skills by reading YA books and move on.  Some, as adults, will read the classics and others will read spy novels, but the actual point is THEY WILL READ, because they were able to develop their skills with YA books.  I am like a lot of educated individuals who feel that our classic literature is being lost;  allusions aren’t understood anymore;   aphorisms have become a huge joke; idioms are completely misunderstood and misquoted.  Yes, many of these are found in classic literature which used to be our basis of learning; however, our world has changed.  Alas, so must how we learn and transfer knowledge change.  (Yes, grammatically upsetting but poetic?)  

Young adults might move on to classical literature, but first they must be readers.  When an allusion is placed in a YA book, maybe the young adult will want to know more.  Nah, just like adult readers – they will continue on with the story.  Maybe that is what we need to do – continue on with the story.

The only safety net we have in our world is Education.  The more educated a person; the less likely the person will live in the lizard part of the brain and other brain areas will activate.  Reading gets us beyond ourselves and our small world.  It allows us to flourish, grow and forget about our small problems and look at the world on a larger scale and maybe, just maybe understand a little more.  Sorry, but I have to leave you with this run-on sentence.  Have a merry Monday!

Censorship offends me

Okay, I know this will surely date me to prehistoric times, but do you remember the BOOKMOBILE? The bookmobile day was such an exciting day! We could check out two books for a whole week. Wow! Exciting times. Well, reading has changed. Or maybe that should read – Young Adult books have changed since the bookmobile days! I believe that students should have access to literature and that the student and parent should decide together what is appropriate for the student. That being said, I know that sometimes the books I wanted to read, I didn’t want to discuss with my momma. She tells how she became a reader when she got ahold of the book Peyton Place. She was in high school and the book was passed around her crowd until it was a wreck that no one could read. The more I read – the more “stuff” I would read about. That was much better than hearing false information from friends or no information from home.
When I first became a librarian, the other librarians would talk about how their principal would remove books from their shelves without going through the correct procedures on reconsideration of material policy. I believe that is censorship in its vilest form. It is the job of the librarian to remind principals/parents/people about the district policy that has been adopted about reconsideration of materials. Censorship should not be tolerated. Yes, books have changed, but it isn’t your call what I should read.
Talk about changes – I remember when Judy Blume’s books were all the rage because of content! I couldn’t wait to read them. I don’t think that I became warped because of a book!
My mom thought being informed was better than not.
This quote from Joseph Henry Jackson certainly hits a high note with me: “Did you ever hear anyone say, ‘That book had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me?'”
So yes, books have changed due to content and language, but does that make them bad books? It makes them “real” books. I think that librarians today would be hard pressed to find a YA book that doesn’t contain the F-word. Do words on paper really make us better or worse people? Isn’t it better to make your own decisions about what you read? In the words of Bob Dylan – “Times – they are a-changin’.”
In high school we teach Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 where books are banned and burned. I hope people today understand the awful implication of this and will stand against censorship.

Still loving it

I knew in the 4th grade that I was placed on earth to be a teacher.  At the end of the school year, I would carry a box around to all of the elementary teachers and ask for their leftover mimeograph (yeah, the purple stuff) worksheets.  I would tote the box home 2 blocks and have a plethora of worksheets for every grade, every level and every discipline.  I was differentiating back then!  When my mom made us take a nap everyday in the summer, I would open my window, push out the screen and teach all of the children in the neighborhood!  This went on for a long time.  I even taught non-school age children.  One day, my mom caught me and school had to have a new time schedule.

I started getting paid to teach 32 years ago and still love what I do!  My first year in teaching, I was with some really mean, jealous, veteran teachers who made fun of me for smiling all day… “You get a few years in this business and you won’t be smiling like that anymore.”  I told them, “If I’m not smiling, then I will go get a job I love.”  They also made fun of my wearing heels to school, so you can imagine all the other things they said to me.  They were mean bullies and I cried all the way home everyday, but I lived through the first year of teaching with no mentor and no help.  Yes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger…” plus “I remember that and help newbies as much as possible!”

 

It’s important to not only help the students become readers, but to keep teachers in the loop with new literature. My teachers are really good about taking advice about what they should read next. It’s great that the students see the teachers with “outside” reading material on their desks. That goes back to modeling the positive outcomes that you are trying to reinforce with students.
I also ask teachers what they are teaching next and find new material to help them or take their notes and put them into PowerPoint or Prezi. Things they don’t have time to do.
Ipads are a new teaching tool that our school just received and the teachers are exploring the Apps, so I tell them about ones that will help them with their classes. Whatever I can do to make their teaching world easier, I do it.
Today I am going to leave you with; “If you are not making a positive impact in your school with students and peers, it might be time to retire.”