We are all busy, busy, busy. Maybe not all of us, but I certainly feel like I am. I do relax by reading and watching some suspect tv, but I rarely get a chance to get professionally recharged in the the middle of a school year like I have been in the past 36 hours.
I won't babble on and on about how great yesterday's Dublin Literacy Conference was, but it was awesome. Getting to learn from Kelly Gallagher, Patrick Allen, Troy Hicks and Brian Pinkney all in one day is ridiculously crazy. All four challenged my thinking and reminded me why having the opportunity to work with kids on a daily basis is the best vocation ever.
It will take me some time to process and reflect on all I learned, but a common theme seemed to emerge throughout the day. Standardization does not lead to excellence or joy in education. In some way or another the four I listed above layered this idea into their presentations. I will need to chew on this a while. I am still struggling with the idea of balancing the needs of nonstandardized learners with the pressure of dealing with a standardized measure of their success.
Then tonight I joined another fabulous #titletalk on Twitter. This chat between what seems like hundreds of book lovers from everywhere is, for me, the best hour on Twitter. This chat, hosted by Donalyn Miller and Paul Hankins explores a theme about reading in classrooms for the first 45 minutes. Then the mad dash at the end is a rapid fire sharing titles of great new books for kids. I consider myself fairly knowledgable about kid lit, but the group that hangs out at #titletalk makes me look like a nonreader. My list of books "I need to read yesterday" expands greatly after this blistering hour.
Tonight's #titletalk exploration was all about when did we fall in love with reading. I loved reading all the little stories of which book, family member, friend or teacher hooked all of these Twitter teachers and librarians on the love of reading. For me, I really didn't develop a deep love for reading until high school. I had a great teacher and a great class that explored modern American literature. All we did was read, read and read some more. Then we shared, shared and shared some more. I read more books in that one semester class than I probably had in the previous 11 years of school. When the class ended I was hooked on books like they were a heavy narcotic.
I could have been a little jealous when I read all the snippets of great books read by my #titletalk friends when they were young. But I wasn't. Reading these tweets just confirmed what I have known for quite a long time ...
If guiding children to that book which launches a life long love of reading is not the most important job I have, I am not sure I want to know what is.
I am thankful that in my own community, both "real world" and Twitter, that I have the opportunity to learn from the best.
Later,
Tony
image from imajustabill's flickr photostream
We are incredibly lucky in our own district to have smart people with whom to share. Add the smart presenters at the lit conference, and you have a recipe for wonderful professional development.
#Titletalk is a blast, but I'm now on a mission to find an SRA kit :)
Posted by: Karen Terlecky | 02/27/2011 at 11:52 PM
Karen,
If you find an SRA kit, please let me know. I may actually enjoy that trip down memory lane.
Posted by: Tony Keefer | 02/28/2011 at 07:34 AM