Blog Entry #1

Professional Day 9.27.2013

Even though I have been a part of the blogosphere world for about ten years, this is the first time I have ventured into the digital realm strictly for classroom purposes.   The blog your eyes are currently meandering across is a result of FedEx time.  To be honest, I have considered embarking on a classroom blog for many years and with our 1:1 launch finally a reality, the idea has fully ripened.  

Hopefully my students, coworkers and others in the worldwide web world who stumble across this blog will find entries worth reading/contemplating.  

One of the true joys of teaching middle school aged students is that I get to read YA literature.  I recall reading classroom assigned books when I was in sixth grade, but most of them were fairly short and were included in a basal text.  I cannot say I enjoyed reading when I was twelve years old, in fact, I was one of those students who wanted to do anything BUT read most classroom assigned literature.  When I got to seventh grade my love of reading did not increase either and I'm certain it was because I was assigned books like My Antonia, The Red Pony and The Old Man and the Sea.   Even though I can make many connections today to Cather, Steinbeck and Hemingway I certainly had trouble doing so as a twelve or thirteen year-old.  

How has this affected me as a teacher? For starters, I rarely assign students to read the same classroom reading book at the same pace at the same time.  Instead, I read as much YA literature as I can and I make sure to give book talks about what I've read.  Over the years I've found any book by Gary D. Schmidt is a must read.  Anyone who enjoys a bit of history sprinkled with familial and peer relationship struggles would dive into Mr. Schmidt's work, losing sleep in the process.

I will continue to give book suggestions and a glimpse or two of my educational path in upcoming posts.

Until next time,

Mr. KJ