01 January 2012

Happy New Year!!



     I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and had time to relax and enjoy family.  I love having my two older children home from college.  We were all ready for slow moving days.  Staying in my P.J.s until noon, drinking coffee and reading......can’t get much better than that!
     It's hard to believe its a new year already.  I decided to take time to challenge myself professionally.  I have made a list of books I want to read.   As I began my masters program a few years ago I realized how lazy I had gotten staying in tuned to professional readings and current research.  I get excited to read new professional books and to learn new strategies.  With my new role in literacy its nice to be able to focus on one area.  As a teacher, each year you will have different learners and you must have many strategies that work to help all of your students be successful.  Your PD time will NOT be sufficient or personalized.  YOU must be in control of your continued learning and striving to be successful. 
     What are you reading as a teacher?  What do you want to learn about?  I challenge you to re-think reading professionally.  Look at it as motivation and excitement that you can find new things to enhance your teaching. Feel good about taking time to learn!  SO join me in the reading challenge. . . . .

My Reading List: (click on the title to find out more)

Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop (taking time to talk to readers 1:1 is so important and it can be done, hoping to learn how to do this better)
Read It Again! Revisiting Shared Reading  ( I am currently in the middle of this-quick read & great reminder to create a love of reading with our young learners!)
Developing Essential Literacy Skills: A Continuum of Lessons for Grades K-3 (this talks a lot about creating a balanced literacy approach and closing the gap grade to grade-exactly what we are trying to do at H-D)
Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reader's Notebook   (hope to get insights how to help older readers be accountable for their reading...fits great with our workshop goals and conferring with readers)
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook  (fits in well with our writer's workshop model but I keep hearing how hard it is for our older students-how do we get them to write more? write freely? )
The Failure Free Reading Methodology: New Hope for Non-Readers  (I received this on my Kindle from a friend, wondering if he has ideas for our many older non-readers!!)

I also love having my Kindle!  I can download samples of the above, read the first few chapters and then decide....
I love AMAZON...... buy the books used or become an Amazon Prime member! 

Happy Reading!  Mrs. Speake

P.S.  We are actually in school tomorrow!! What happened to our holiday observation of the 1st???  Bummer! :)

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