There is a small part of me that always wanted to be Oprah or Ellen. It’s not because these ladies are so famous that we only need to use their first names to identify them. And it’s not because they probably don’t have to worry about choosing which bills to pay each month and which […]
Category Archives: Pay It Forward
June
24
20,000 Pennies: How a Book Club Transformed our School Community by Sarah FitzHenry
posted by CBethM
I stood in the middle of the room and listened to the sound of more than 20,000 pennies clinking and jingling around me. To my left, a fourth grade student helped her first grade buddy to count the nickels held in her sweaty palm (they had to start over after losing count at 12). To […]
June
22
Claire’s Day: Celebrating Young Readers by Julie K. Rubini
posted by CBethM
“Thank you for all you do,” the father said, with tears in his eyes. “You don’t understand what this award means to my daughter. She’s had it on her calendar for a month, crossing off the days counting down to Claire’s Day.” Nearly nineteen years ago, my ten-year-old daughter, Claire, gave me “just one more […]
June
15
Dog Man to The Rescue: How Book Access Saved My Third Grade Student by Renee Bowman
posted by CBethM
Teachers, you already know the student I am about to describe. The one who arrives halfway through the year from out of state, with a mother unsure of which grade her son was in just last week. The 9 year-old who carries a chip on his shoulder as if he were 29. The third grader […]
June
10
Why the School Nurse’s Office Should Have a Well-Stocked Library by Melissa McDonald and Melanie Roy
posted by CBethM
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele wrote “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Being a school nurse teacher I deeply believe in this quote. My mother instilled in me a deep love of reading. Growing up I witnessed her donate countless books to projects and children in need. When I […]
June
01
When a List Is More Than Just a List by Kirsten LeClerc
posted by CBethM
A few years ago I wrote a Nerdy Book Club post that was widely shared and (mostly) well received. It was titled “Windows, Mirrors, and Portals to Magic”. I made a mistake in that piece, though. I neglected to cite Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, the scholar who came up with the concept of windows, mirrors, […]
May
17
Turning Readers into Writers by Carrie Rodusky
posted by CBethM
I stumbled upon this rock while walking my dog through the woods. It is about to be a creative writing prompt for my upper elementary students. Who knows where it will go. As an ELA teacher I have to find a way to include reading, grammar, language, and writing in a 60 minute […]
May
10
Book Dating by Kyla McDonald
posted by CBethM
As a parent, teacher or librarian, you might never have thought to encourage your tweens or teens to start dating, especially speed dating. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok for your kids to date early, as long as they are dating books! Unlike dating people, book dating is free from rejection, completely safe […]
May
02
We Are in Charge of Reading Celebrations by Tammy Mulligan
posted by CBethM
“Tell me about the books in your book bag.” I ask a third grader during a recent conference. She reached into her book bag, pulled out a book and declared, “This is my dessert book. I read it just-for-fun.” “What does it mean to read “just-for-fun?” “Well, it’s fun because I don’t […]
April
27
More (eating) poetry, please. by Emily Meixner
posted by CBethM
When my son was in kindergarten, he and his classmates regularly read and talked about poetry. They shared poems in their morning meetings, they illustrated poems as they were learning to recognize sight words, they made paper pockets to carry the poems they wanted to share on Poem In Your Pocket Day. They ingested poems […]
