Hi all,
I was fortunate enough to get a Fulbright and go to Cameroon, West Africa with 12 other teachers. I'm now in the process of writing stories to teach French and culture. The whole experience has changed my focus in LA. Last year I started using "Red Scarf Girl" as a means of teaching reading and writing and then did literature circles with other Asian themed books in order to support social studies. I just finished reading "Before we were free" by Julia Alvarez, which takes place in the Dominican Republic in the 60s. I've started thinking - well, since the kids start the school year with the Constitution, maybe we can have an essential question about civil liberties. I also read Tom Romano's book "Writing with Passion." This book reads like a novel. At times I could only read a few pages and then had to put the book down to savor the words. I so want to bring elements of his writing into my class. The kids come in Monday. I'm finally feeling ready! MaryAnn Richardson > Message: 10 > Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:30:36 -0400 > From: Bill Ivey <[email protected]> > Subject: [LIT] our own summers > To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi! > > With some of us started back in classes, and others (including me) getting > ready to start, I can't help wanting to hold on to parts of summer break. So > - I'm wondering what all you did this summer that was meaningful to you. > > For me, it's two main things. I spent a great deal of time down in Chatham, > Virginia, my "second home" where my wife has housing at her school and which > I have grown to love, and my friends have said I'm becoming southern. I > think in this case, they mean slowing down a bit, taking my time, focusing > more on being in the moment and making connections with people and my > environment rather than rushing through something in order to get to the > next. I would love to keep that perspective going through the year. > > The other thing I want to mention was a more traditionally professional > development kind of activity, reading a book entitled "The Female Brain." > Teaching at an all-girls school, I knew a fair amount of what the book had > to say about female-brain wiring and its effect on relationships and > learning, but I only knew bits about the post-natal effect of hormones on > wiring and on behaviors. It was illuminating, and helps me not only in my > teaching but also in my social justice work. > > How about the rest of you? > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham School > > _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=PID23391::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HYGN_faster:082009 _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
