Support Oklahoma Schools @DonorsChoose

I just saw this and donated immediately. Donor’s Choose is organizing a response to support schools devastated by the tornado. Please consider giving or choose another way to support our neighbors in need.

Click the link or image to go straight to DonorsChoose.org/OKschools

We are stronger when we share our strength.

Summer Book Club Twitter Chat!

Mark your calendars and set your automatic reminders to July 10, 2013 at 8:00pm ET.

Join @donalynbooks, me (@iChrislehman), and we’re excited to be joined by friend and collections’ co-editor @pennykittle! Use and follow the hashtag #DonGraves.

At IRA’s convention in San Antonio I attended Penny Kittle and Tom Newkirk‘s session on writing instruction pioneer Don Graves. In the session they shared excerpts from their newly edited collection of his writings and archival videos, Children Want to Write: Donald Graves and the Revolution in Children’s Writing.

Sitting in the audience with friends Jen Serravallo and Kate Roberts, we couldn’t help but be moved by the clip of Don sitting at a large rectangular table with a group of children as he facilitated their conversation about their own ideas, their own writing.

It was hard to believe that there was ever a time when this was atypical. That there was a time when few believed children could do much more than brief prompted writing and sentence diagraming. That there was a time when the larger world of education believed that children weren’t mature enough to have their own ideas worth writing about.

Jen, Kate, and I got to talking about the pacing, the wait time, the careful listening. The session felt like a reminder of what matters most in education: valuing student voices.

Summer Book Twitter Chat

It felt natural, then, that during a #titletalk chat on summer reading plans, Donalyn Miller and I struck up the idea of organizing a chat about this new book. It felt like an opportunity to not just look back on the legacy of a pioneer, but a point of inspiration as we look ahead to the future of our field.

At a time when forces outside of our classrooms seems to be saying that students should write less and less from their hearts and more and more to assigned prompts, we can chat together about the vision we want for our writing instruction.

We will chat about the entire book and DVD, our classrooms, and our instruction.

Hope you can join us!

SmartBlog on Education Guest Post – Testing: Are Percentage of Students Crying Valuable Data?

by albertogp123 used under Creative Commons lic

In my second SmartBrief SmartBlog on Education guest post this week, I share the experience of one educator in New York State as s/he reflects on a day with the state’s new CCSS “aligned” testing program. The reflection is not a lone experience and is instead one of a large and disturbing pattern across schools in this state.

The response from the NYS Department of Education has largely been one of believing this new test is very much aligned to the new standards and is largely appropriate (see Peter Dewitt‘s EdWeek article on NYS Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch’s recent comments).

You can find the post here.

I hope you read the post and then add your voice to this critical conversation.

You can also find my related SmartBrief guest post from Wednesday, “Fairytales of Data,” on the tale we are told about US performance versus other countries (and how the data just doesn’t add up).

SmartBlog on Education Guest Post: Fairytales of Data

by DavidGardinerGarcia used under Creative Commons lic

We all know education in the United States has been pummeled recently and a large portion of the attack has been attributed to how this country performs on the global stage.  It’s a tale we have been told to argue for a whole slew of mandates.

In my guest post today on SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Education I suggest that international and national testing data may not be telling the bad news some claim it does.

You can find the post here.

I wrote a related post last October “Education’s Own 47%.”

There is much to do in education, we all continue to work to impact the lives of every child–in the US and internationally–but I suggest the way we grow is by working in collaboration, not in competition.

It’s time to tell your story, our collective story, to change the fairytale into fact.

A Day to Share Strength with Mothers

by ljguitar used under Creative Commons lic

In celebration of Mother’s Day consider sharing your gifts with other mothers and women in your community and around the world.

• Donate
• Volunteer
• Share your Gifts

We are stronger when we make others strong.

And many others.

Thanks for making this a better world.

Summer Reading, Writing is a Habit (and No One Likes Habits)

by puuikibeach used under Creative Commons Lic

The end of the school year is fast approaching and as educators our minds turn to the obvious celebration of this glorious time of year, the end of a year of hard work, students growth, and this amazing sunny season: assigning summer homework.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzkill.

Assigned book lists for the in-coming grade. Essay prompts to write. Sometimes even packets to complete. A lot of which many of us secretly reveal we barely read or do anything with in September.

It’s all well meaning. We know that students over summer can drop reading levels if they don’t read. We know that September can feels like the September of the year before, not the continuation since June if students are not actively thinking. We want our students to carry with them the work of a year so we can hit the ground running. We do this out of love.

What we are really asking students to do is to take on new habits, to make the work of the year part of their daily lives.

Here is the problem. Most of us hate new habits.

New Habits are Horrible

by kevin dooley used under Creative Commons lic

My self-directed summer assignments include: eat better, exercise more. Could you think of anything more terrible? This will, as it always is, be hard to maintain and tough to make time for. Enjoyable and amazing when it goes well and frustrating when I skip the gym for two weeks and just eat everything.

New habits are not made from book lists handed out on the last day of school. New habits do not come from assignments.

New habits come from self-drive and from a community of others. Think how you will use these last weeks of school to continue to build both.

Habits Helpers: Drive and Community

• Summer reading club or reading partner lists, instead of simply book lists: Have students begin to organize now who they will be reading alongside, who they will talk with about their reading. As simple as phone numbers or email address, as complex as setting up book club meet-up dates.
• Begin writing for self now, instead of just relying on a prompt: Have students begin exploding with writing, any genre, any purpose, any technology. Then just as with reading clubs, help them think about who they will share writing with. When will they check in?  Or even who could they be writing with? A google docs epic sci-fi adventure written by three classmates could fill an entire summer with writing.
• Find a writer or reader you want to be: When we want a habit of better health we often look to people we admire: celebrities, family, friends. We learn about their routines and try to emulate them. Have your students write about the readers and writers they plan to admire over the summer. It could be you, classmates, professional writers (You could even draw connections beyond literacy, like in my guest post What the Kardashians Taught Me About Reading Instruction (No, For Real).

Think beyond summer assignments to engaging students in the real, tricky, exciting work of developing new habits.

Happy summer! Happy growing!

My Foreword to @hickstro’s New Book: Crafting Digital Writing

I’m delighted to share with you my foreword to Troy Hick’s new book Crafting Digital Writing.  You can find Troy on his blog, twitter and  companion wiki pages for his books. I hope you enjoy his new work as much as I continue to.

Foreword

from Crafting Digital Writing © Troy Hicks, Heinemann, 2013. Used with Permission.

I remember the day my father brought home an early model Apple Macintosh computer he was loaned from his job at Allen-Bradley. An enormous beige box, it looked like a stack of toasters three high and two deep. He plopped it on the wobbly maroon card table he and my mother put up in the family room to hold this magical new machine.  My sister and I stood next to him transfixed as he booted it up. For as outdated as that giant humming box seems today it was a gateway into hours and hours of learning that felt like play. Well before the Internet was even a thing, we toyed around with fonts and layouts, designed interactive stories, created dot-matrix posters galore. That Macintosh opened up a world not just of creation but of belief in our own ability. What you saw in your mind you could make for others to see. It was more than creativity, it was empowering.

Flash forward to today, I remain deeply in love with technology yet feel a major rift between my out-of-school swiping and clicking and my in-school instruction.  Partly because I just haven’t done it enough: blogs and vlogs and something called Glogs at times feel like a foreign language and just as I start to get a handle on one I hear of fifty more that are supposedly better. Partly this rift exists for me because, to be honest, I worry about technology becoming a thing to do just to do it. A full class period swiping tiles around on a SMARTBoard has struck me at times as not much different than a period doing crosswords or watching a movie; sure it’s fun but where is the learning? 

I have struggled to unite my app-loving, content-making self with my literacy-empowering, student-centered self.

Luckily, there is Troy Hicks.

Troy stands for the kind of learning, engagement, and development I want for all children. He sees technology as not just something students play with the last period of the day before a vacation, but as an integral part of strong literacy teaching and learning. That creating a video documentary, for example, uses many of the same muscles as writing an informational essay and then some. That in our world today, design is intimately connected with content.  That for students technology can be the invitation to dive deeply into writing craft.

What I love about CRAFTING DIGITAL WRITING is that it is a living, learning, interactive book. It is one you will want your laptop open for. Trust me on this one. I began reading on a plane and within moments was desperate to return to the ground so I could click each and every link to digital resources and thumb through the abundance of students samples.  It is more than a book, it is a conversation– one Troy orchestrates between researchers, teachers, students, and you, all around the art of digital literacy for the sake of literacy.

I left reading, clicking, and furiously making notes, with a sense that I could explore the power of digital literacy instruction with students and, more importantly, asking myself why I haven’t started sooner.

Christopher Lehman

@Delta’s non-apology (complainy post)

(please excuse my complainy post…. or consider it informational writing)

Many of you know from Twitter the epic trip home my family and I faced in early April: diverted plane, canceled flights, multiple new connections, ending in a whole different airline. My daughter missed school and my wife and I work.

Yay we made it to Jacksonville! …oh wait, we didn’t want to go to Jacksonville. @delta #malfunctiondetour

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

Does anybody have a part they can give to our plane? Seems one won’t come for another few hours. Thanks. @delta #malfunctiondetour

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

Can you fly a missing part here? “@deltaassist: Sorry to hear. I apologize for the inconvenience. Do you need assistance re-booking?”

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

@jenansbach I’m just hoping these iPads hold out. It’s all keeping the kids from going full on Hunger Games. @delta #malfunctiondetour — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

@jenansbach Nope. Was diverted to Jacksonville and just been sitting in airport for five hours-ish. Plane part doesn’t come until after 9. — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

On a very long line to maybe give up tonight. @delta #malfunctiondetour — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 2, 2013

@englishcomp it’s rough. had it alone. new level of ugh w family in tow. But hotel-ing it tonight, connecting flight AM. #noplacelikehome — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

In continual saga news: Can’t find one of our bags. Soooo sitting in baggage claim is the new “sleeping in hotel”. @delta #malfunctiondetour — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

In theory out today… tho no @delta agent at JAX will assign our “seat request” until they stand at our gate hour b4. #malfunctiondetour — Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

Now arriving in Cincinnati for a connecting flight to New York and…

Nightmare 24hrs of trying to get family home, now cxion cancelled! @deltaassist rebook early direct on other airline for us?

Turned out the next connecting flight ALSO had maintenance issues. We were told we would be rebooked on 2 more flights! Connecting from here to DC.

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

Second flight this trip home effected by “maintenance” @delta #malfunctiondetour no.2

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

No way our children could handle two more flights, so we requested to be rebooked on American Airlines (who did have a working airplanes and a direct flight). They did the job…

HOME. …….fizzle

— Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman) April 3, 2013

Drum Roll… @Delta‘s Response Today:

Dear Mr. Lehman,

RE: Case Number 8852910

Thank you for sharing your concerns while traveling with us on April 2 
from Ft. Lauderdale to New York City. On behalf of everyone at Delta Air
Lines, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced when 
Flight 1798 was diverted due to mechanical related reasons.

Mr. Lehman, I can only imagine the frustration you and your family 
experienced when your plans were disrupted by the diversion of our 
flight to Jacksonville because of mechanical reasons, resulting in a 
situation where you had to overnight and the children missed a day of 
school. I was also disheartened to learn your flight the next morning 
was canceled, making this already upsetting experience even more 
intolerable. While no airline can guarantee that air travel will be free
of disruptions, I deeply regret that you were not provided with the 
dependable, timely air transportation you expect and deserve. We take 
your concerns very seriously and please know I have forwarded your 
comments to our Airport Customer Service leadership team for internal 
review.

Additionally, we understand your time is valuable, and operating on 
schedule is equally important to us; however, when a mechanical problem 
is found, we must restore the aircraft to company and federal 
airworthiness standards. Since safety is the number one consideration in
the operation of our flights, until we can determine the cause of the 
problem and estimate the amount of time necessary for repair, specific 
details about a flight’s operation may not be immediately available 
causing further delays. Although we expect our representatives to do 
everything possible to minimize overall inconvenience, canceling the 
flight may only become an option after all efforts to repair the problem
with the aircraft are unsuccessful.

Further, I acknowledge your disappointment with the $100 Electronic 
Transportation Credit Vouchers given as a gesture of apology. 
Respectfully, this was not meant to place a value on your experience; 
rather it was sincere and intended to show that your experience caused 
great concern.  Delta uses many factors when determining compensation 
for our passengers who have been inconvenienced through no fault of 
their own.  We consider the entire situation, including the cause and 
impact. While we understand this was much more than an delay, 
respectfully, no further compensation would be due as a result of your 
experience. I am sorry to disappoint you as I understand this is not the
answer you were expecting.

In closing, Mr. Lehman, as a valued SkyMiles member since 2004, your 
comments are very important to us and we thank you for taking the time 
to share your frustrations.  While I acknowledge these flights certainly
did not leave a positive impact on any of you, I only hope in the future
you will allow us more opportunities to prove our honest desire to make 
things right for you once again. 

Sincerely,

Michelle Barron
Coordinator, Corporate Customer Care
Delta Air Lines

In other words, sorry our planes kept breaking, $25 for each of you should well make up for your missed work, school, young children’s well being and your sanity. 

Thank goodness there are plenty of other airlines.

What About Income Inequality?

I haven’t often devoted a post to reactions from one article I’ve read – that’s usually more my twitter style to (re)tweet something I am drawn to.  But this article, and this topic, is cause to do so.

I wrote about income inequality and it’s effects on education in my post Education’s Own 47%, about how the education reform movement is focusing so much attention on improving the “failing” US education system, that they spend time on the fact that if our upper and middle class students were their own country, they outperform top ranking countries, included famed Finland. Poverty is an issue we cannot afford to ignore any longer… yet we continue to do so.

The article you must read and share is Stanford professor of education and sociology Sean F. Reardon’s New York Times piece on income inequality and its effects on student achievement, “The Great Divide: No Rich Child Left Behind.”   Read it, then pair it with this info graphic from another article he co-wrote last summer.

What Next?

“There is a lot of discussion these days about investing in teachers and “improving teacher quality,” but improving the quality of our parenting and of our children’s earliest environments may be even more important.” – Sean F. Reardon

Regardless of the current narrative about school reform/deform, there are an awful lot of schools working as hard as they can to support the development of their students. The wheels I have turning after reading this article is what role I, and the schools I work with, can play in being a part of developing both in school and out of school life.

• Nearly every school has “Parent-Teacher” nights, but a smaller set (that could be larger) have “parent academies” to provide courses and support for parents throughout the year.
• I was talking to a school recently that was lamenting how hard it is to get parents into school for events, though they recognized their parent population is a busy one. We talked about perhaps making “youtube”-esque videos that parents could watch at their convenience - short, catchy, meaningful.
• Volunteering at neighborhood organizations, especially ones in areas you know you could most impact.
• Thinking of our schools not as islands, but as a community, and brainstorming ways your school’s PTA can support a sister-school’s PTA.
• Continue to make your voice heard about these issues of income inequality and their effects on student learning – write to congressman, write to your local news outlets, write blog posts, talk a lot.

I am not suggesting that schools shouldn’t continue to improve for our children (most schools want just that and are actively trying to do so), I am also not suggesting–nor do I think this article is–that parents should be the new scapegoat or early-childhood be the main focus.  Instead, I believe that creative and caring educators seek out as many avenues as possible to reach their students and these areas can be another way to do just that. I am also suggesting that educators need their voices to stay within the reform discussion, making certain that government and private funding and resources go to all areas of need, not just a few.

Thank you for working on behalf of all children.

#IRA2013 and not-horrible Close Reading

I’m looking forward to attending the International Reading Association Annual Convention this weekend in San Antonio!  Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or blue about the pressures bearing down on our great profession, I find gatherings like these to be uplifting, energizing, and empowering.  It is always a gift to be amongst thoughtful and engaged minds pouring their time and hearts into making the world better for our students.

I plan to tweet my heart out and look forward to following the action of the convention using #ira2013.

Planning and Cloning

I always go into these things with big plans and an overbooked schedule.  Here are a few sessions I want to attend (and full well know most of these all take place at the same time (if anyone has a cloning device please send ASAP):

I miss amazing pre-institutes on Friday (no direct flight #boo! Chicago airport, we will be seeing a lot of each other.)

Saturday (an incomplete list that is nevertheless impossible to get to and yet I will continue to pretend I can get to all of them and more)

• 10:30AM The IRA Literacy Research Panel: Big Ideas, Literacy Needs, and National Priorities – Chaired by P. David Person
• 11AM Scaffolding Students’ Independence and Teachers’ Professional Development through Authentic Reading Communities – Teri Lesesne, Donalyn Miller, Terry Thompson
• 1PM Reading and Writing WORDshop: Academic Vocabulary and Word Choice – Jeff Anderson and Charles Fuhken
• 2:30 RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE: Meeting the Challenges of the Changing Demographics: Assessment and Instruction That Makes a Positive Difference in ELs’ Success
• 2:30 – Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas!  As live really real people talking to me… well and everyone else packed into the room!

(3 PM. Ugh. Too much to see!)

• 3PM Donald Graves and the Revolution in Children’s Writing–Recovered Archival Footage of a Turning Point in Literacy Education – Penny Kittle and Thomas Newkirk
• 3PM Comprehension at the Core: Enhancing Elementary Literacy Instruction with Technology – Stephanie Harvey, Anne Goudvis, Kati Muhtaris, Kristin Ziemke
• 3PM Secondary Reading: Teaching the Reading and Composing of Texts to Meet and Exceed the CCSS – Kelly Gallagher, Julie Meltzer, Jeffrey Wilhelm
• 4:45 – How Do I Fit It All In? The Common Core and Your Literacy Block: Learn a Practical Strategy for Considering the “Big Picture” of Instruction, Considering Balance and the C0mmon Core State Standards – Jan Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris
• 4:45 – Pages, Pixels, and Promise: Teaching Real Readers With Digital Tools – Sara Kajder

Presenting on Sunday – Close Reading

Sunday at 11AM Kate Roberts (@teachkate) and I will be talking Close Reading (not in the horrible sense, but in the engaging, life affirming, Justin Biebering, teaching towards independence sense) in Lone Star Ballroom A.  Our session “Not Just the Books They Read, But Lives They Lead: Rethink Close Reading as More Than Just Analyzing Words and See it as a Student’s Tool For Leading a More Engaged Life” stems from the research and classroom practice we have been doing while writing our forthcoming Heinemann publication on this topic.

Instead of seeing close reading as a long list of text-dependent, teacher-dependent questions, we find that if you plan with students at the center of your instruction they can take on these challenging skills with power.

Here’s to a great weekend of learning and connecting!

#Boston

I’m having a middle of the day moment where my mind is set on repeat to pictures from yesterday and the news that continues to poor in from Boston.  In particular I can’t leave the images of people running to the blast, running towards the danger, trying to quickly get at those injured.

I imagine the moment one of those running comes to some injured person. How she reaches down, a bright thread of compassion flows from her and spools out to encircle the him she just came to.  Every fabric of herself draws out to hold and heal and make right the wrongs. A him she never knew before and will never know again after that ambulance door closes, but in a beat they are knotted together, there on the street.  The world is a terrible place. The world is also overflowing with selflessness and is wonderful.

Here is a poem that is helping me at this moment:

A Blessing by James Wright

Stop lying: Writing is so hard.

I was writing with my friend and current co-author Kate Roberts at her home on Sunday.  At one point late into the day, at an official “wait, when did it become 6:30?” moment, we started talking about how hard writing is.  How it’s fun, exciting, but also exhausting. We are well into revising mode yet the little line-by-line work and the big nope-that-lesson-didn’t-go-well work both take so much time and energy.

As we were talking… yes mostly to avoid writing for moment… we quickly switched our conversation to thinking about how students write in school and wondered out loud if we as teachers of writing are bringing lessons from our adult writing lives into our rooms.

Revision is horrible until it’s beautiful until it’s exhausting.

I told Kate about a conversation I had about a month ago, I can’t remember exactly where, but a few teachers brought up the point that students seem to hate to revise.  I began with my usual stump speech and practical tips and then stopped for a minute.

I had a flash of myself, in front of my laptop, at 1:38AM, on a work night/day, revising and quietly cursing in my head, “why aren’t the thinks I’m thinking getting thunk on the page any faster?!?”  I then flashed to a heated debate with Kate over a section (of a now very old draft version we have long since improved upon) that at the time neither one of us was totally emotionally prepared to give in to the other on. I then flashed to a moment of turning on the television and refusing, absolutely refusing, to even turn my computer on because I was just so drained from a day of work I couldn’t even face the screen.

I remember looking up at those teachers and saying, “You know what, if I really think about it, of course your students hate to revise.  Writing is a terrible, emotional, time consuming–sure, at times wonderful–thing.”

Revision is as revision does.

Kate and I started reflecting on what it means to commit to revising in our adult lives and how it does or does not look in classrooms.

• Revision involves thinking of audience and a clear purpose. Carl Anderson has written about this, I have even done some of his lessons on this with students.  Heck, the standards even say we should care about this. But I don’t bring this up enough with students.  Yet, every single word I write and all of the hundreds upon hundreds of nit-picky rewrites I do are all with some reader in mind. “Will this make sense? Are they going to understand my point? A list of three questions stylistically reads more fluidly than just two right?”

• Revision involves heart-ache and letting go. I am convinced you haven’t really revised anything until you’ve taken something you absolutely love that you wrote and deleted it.  I do so much teaching of what students should add to their drafts that I do not think I do enough teaching into what they should look for to cut.

• Revision requires other eyes. Hallelujah that I am lucky enough to have great editors in my life.  I have learned so much working with each of them. My friend and editor Tobey is always terrific at seeing just what isn’t working as well as it could and suggesting cuts, changes, and needed explanations. What makes her a special talent is that she doesn’t write the book with us, she never says, “in this part I would write this.”  Instead she is much more of a writing teacher than editor, she gives big ideas, raises larger issues and then lets go.  I always aim to support teachers in leaving students with big strategies — I wonder, though, if I work enough on having honest (not harsh just honest) feedback about issues in writing that need addressing.

• Revision takes time. In our conversation Kate pointed out something that has stuck with me, that I can’t figure out a solution for just yet, but that has really stuck.  The simple fact that it can sometimes take hours just to revise one small section of one page.  Yet, in classrooms, even in ones that give students time to revise every day for a week, the sum total of in-school revision work is perhaps two and half hours, maybe pushing three. I see the need to keep types of writing going and lots of opportunities to publish.  I think there is value in that.  I also know that when revision feels painful to students any day spent on it can feel like an eternity.  But I still wonder, are we – can we – provide the time needed for students to even feel the power of revision.  To get through their own stages of grief to acceptance?

My thoughts are racing with reflections.  ”Duh”s and “Hmm”s and “What if”s.  I guess the biggest idea I will be carrying with me is if I am humanizing writing instruction enough for students. Do I expect them to do miracles that most adults find hard to do? Do I share my own struggles enough?   I’d love to hear some of your own lessons from your writing life and what they mean for your teaching of writing.

Happy anxious feelings of dread… er… writing.

#Educon Session Archive on Close Reading Text, Media, Lives

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend Educon 2.5 at Science Leadership Academy.

First. Let’s clarify. There are indeed two Chris Lehman(n)s:

On Left – TWO Ns, principal of SLA, great educator, writer, speaker, blogger.

On Right – Me. One N.

In our hands: Pastries. Yummy, yummy pastries.

(It may disturb you too much to know there are many, many more. I’ll keep that a secret.)

It was a great conference.  Even greater, is all the session are archived!  You can watch them all from the Educon 2.5 website.

Here is my session with Kate Roberts (@teachkate, her blog), where we share the hows, whats, whys, and how do we engage students in close reading, from our ongoing research and classroom practice on the subject. 

All of our work is leading to a new book out from Heinemann (expected in summer 2013).

 (Sorry for the trouble seeing the board, it was best with the set-up.)

Happy reading, thinking, teaching, being.

Nerdy Book Club Guest Post: Reading is Dumb. There, I Said It.

Colby Sharp and Cindy Minnich  invited me to guest post on the Nerdy Book Club, one of the web’s go-to communities for all things book love: recommendations, author posts, reader posts, inspiration, even their own awards.

So in honor of the whole Nerdy Crew being in my virtual PLN (and I in theirs), their dedication to books and getting books into kids hands, and their rapidly growing book loving community I thought I’d write them a guest post entitled “Reading is Dumb.  There, I Said It.”

And you are welcome, people.

Photo by shutterhacks. I took some liberties…

Love books too? Want to guest post with Nerdy?  Just go to their page and click the big-ol-button on their sidebar to share your interest.

Enjoy.

Classroom Q&A Guest Post: Best Ways to Prepare Our Students for CCSS in Language Arts

Larry Ferlazzo hosts the EdWeek blog “Classroom Q&A with Larry Ferlazzo” in which he takes questions from educators and then invites answers from other educators, experts, authors, and blog readers.

His multi-part series have recently included questions and answers about ed-tech in classrooms, teaching students with special needs, grading systems, tapping creativity in the classroom, and many more.  The archives are a compendium of all of our everyday questions and many thoughtful responses.  (While you are at it, subscribe to Larry’s other popular blog “Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.”)

“Q” and My “A”

I was honored to be asked by Larry to provide my own answer to the question “How can we best prepare our students for the Common Core in Language Arts?”.  You will find my response and that of other educators in his two part series of responses.  Part one is found here in which I write about remembering our students are at the core of any initiative.

Hope you enjoy the responses and will post your own comments.