Summer Book Club Choices

School's out!  Time to relax and read...and read and relax!

So far, these books I am committed to read this summer.  Why?  From personal experience, I have learned that because of book clubs, I will read what I might not normally have chosen, and for the most part, this has been such a positive experience.

BHS Reads: This is our school book, which I initiated a few years ago.

• June:  I Am the Messenger
• July:  Storm Clouds Rolling In
• August:  Go Tell the Watchman (I should re-read To Kill a Mockingbird first...right?)
• BHS Student Book Club...need to finish a some books in the series we began.  See here for that list.

Paper Chase Bookstore Book Club

• June:  Kisses from Katie
• July:  The Walk by Richard Paul Evans
• August:  TBA

Online:  

• Karen Kingsbury:  Chasing Sunsets
• Talks with Teachers:  Here, they choose three books a summer:  a nonfiction, a fiction, and a professional development book. 
• Non-fiction:  The votes are in  and the first read will be Ken Robinson's The Element:  How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.  
• Fiction: TBA
• PD:  TBA
• Women's Bible Cafe:  I have chosen to purchase and participate in their fiction reads, as I am already committed to two other bible studies this summer.


• June:  The Potluck Club by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson
• July: Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe by Max Lucado
• August: Gods and Kings by Lynn Austin

2015-16 Curriculum Reads:  This fall, our district has chosen to teach to a prescripted curriculum.  I preparation for this change, I hope to read the following:

• Grade 10
• The Joy Luck Club
• Friday Night's Lights
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Grade 12
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Yellow Woman and the Beauty of the Spirit

Other Recent Purchases

• Conversion by Katherin Howe

Plus...due to busy spring schedules, I need to finish reading The Historian and The Secret Garden, both of which I began for Paper Chase Book Club.

Hummm...I had better get started!  What is in your To Be Read pile?

She's a Hard Teacher

These words I have heard about myself...a lot.  Maybe one time too many?

I like to think a synonym for those words is high expectations.

I am just not sure anymore.

This school year, especially the latter part of this spring semester, has been a trial by fire.  Never in all my first 23 years did I have such a trying time as I have had this year.  Obviously, I survived.  I did.

Even before I finished with this group of young adults, I had already begun thinking about next year's class.  Isn't that just like a teacher?! How, after 24 years, though, can I not be so "hard"?  Can I do this?  I think I can.

Here are my concerns:

1. I always work my students bell to bell.
2. We seldom have time to watch a movie.
3. I want more for them than they want for themselves.
4. I give more than 4-5 grades.
5. Sometimes, I assign homework.  Rarely.

Here is how I have changed in the last decade:

1. We have no textbooks.  Six years ago, I received a class of mini-laptops, but wi-fi and maintenance are concerns.
2. I cover less every year. Much less.
3. My teaching style is totally different, mostly for the better...I think.
4. My test scores have decreased.
5. Every year or so, my department changes its focus. Totally.  We will all be newbies again next year:  all brand-new units.  A fresh start?  (My class is almost half-full!)

Below is what my students wrote and read this year:

• Five essays (three the first semester; two the second semester).
• One full-length text, which we read aloud = Macbeth.
• 1 resume and cover letter
• 1 speech
• Wrote two poems
• Various short texts and short writing assignments

My reality:

• Less than half of my students will do any homework outside of class.
• At least one-third are happy with a 59.45 = 60% = Passing!
• My classes do not contain the AP or those taking concurrent/college credit.
• Too many of their reading levels are below grade level.
• Common Core says they should all be college and career ready. 

The Future

I have requested a list of summative assignments from those teaching the same grade level, explaining that no longer can my class be any harder than the other classes.  Right?

This summer, I hope to organize my brain around this concept.  I have a minimum of four years left before retirement. Four years to provide guidance, friendship, laughter, encouragement...no more do I want to be the "hard" one.

I have to be the one to change.  Change even more.

But Then...

What about those returnees, those graduates who return?  Who say, 

• "Thank you. I was prepared."  
• "Don't stop teaching that way.  It's really helped me this semester."
• "I took your advice. It helped my ACT score."
• "I was the only one who knew what APA format meant."

Hummmm...

Is That a Light I See?

Six more days of school.  Graduation over.  Still nearly drowning!  Why?  I am editing a book my students wrote, all 250+ pages of it on the 130+ years of our school's history!

This was quite the massive undertaking.  Had I known, well, for for once in my life I would have said, "No.  No, thank you.  Absolutely not."

But I didn't.

This year's group of young adult minds have been the most challenging I have had in some years.  Such mass numbers too content with at 59.45, or, in other words, with just passing.  No, books may not be published with work that should have earned them a 59.44...that number does not round up, does it?  Thus, editing and revising...and revising and editing...these have now become the most important steps in this writing process.

Enough moaning.  This cups IS half full!

I had some wonderful, very well-research submissions, and, overall, once printed, this is going to be an awesome project.

The assignment?  Choose one academic year, find one story from the assigned school year, and write one page.  Sure sounds easy enough to me!

In retrospect, I should have asked for a half page, for, when submitted in single-space format, a half does equal a whole page.  Thus, in the editing, I am deleting much empty wording, for in their efforts to meet the assignment's expectations, some became quiet grand at wordsmithing!

Once this editing is complete, the book goes to a "real" printer, for I applied for and obtained a grant to fund this project.  Each student who submitted receives a free copy of the book.  Very exciting to be a published author!

If your school is coming up on an anniversary, I recommend the project if the data can be found.  We are fortunate to have an county historical museum and were able to find much evidence there for the early years.  For the latter years, yearbooks became our friends.  For some years, we struggled, finding little, for during the war years, yearbooks were not published due to cost.  Thankfully, the school was diligent in printing school newspapers.  For some years, we struggled, finding little, for yearbooks have walked away.  Such a shame, for so much history has vanished.

I am currently on year 1970...yes, I should be editing...instead of writing about editing!

Just one more glance, is that a light I see at the end of this 2014-2015 tunnel?  Why, yes, I believe it is!  I do hope you are seeing one, also!