Here’s a book list to keep you & the kiddos reading all Summer 🌄📚
http://readaloud.org/bookselections.html
“Words started to mean not just something, but everything.”
I’m looking forward to teaching The Book Thief, by Markus Zukas this semester. Reading and writing our way through trauma can save us, sustain us. Not just in the pages of an imaginary universe. In real life, too. I know books saved me many times.
We’re also be reading Fahrenheit 451 this semester. Our discussions will focus around knowledge & education, censorship, power and authority, fear, risk, survival, reading, story and identity. It’s going to be a fun environment with great discussions. There are so many parallels to contemporary events.
Why, for instance, do some people fear words, and books, so much so that they ban them? Why are 62 million girls out of school, globally? Why did the Taliban shoot Malala Yousafzai in the head to keep her from getting an education? What were they afraid of? And, perhaps just as importantly, why was a young Malala so willing to risk so much to go to school each day? Why wasn’t she afraid (or was she?). Either way, she risked her life to learn. To see.
We’re reading and writing about interesting other stuff too. But this is going to shape our semester.
Welcome to Spring 2016! ~Lisa
Did you know there’s a 30 million word gap between children in this country, due to socio-economic factors? We need to do something about that. We can’t let our youngest children down like this. We need to nuture each and every one of our children to grow, blossom, thrive!
I’m excited to announce that I’ve been appointed a “Read Aloud 15” ambassador for readaloud.org. Many of you know that I am passionate about early literacy, books, and all things reading-related + the importance of educational opportunity, access & equality.
I was honored to be asked to partner with this national non-profit, and I’m excited to help spread this message. All month long, I’ll be posting here, and on our CollegeReadyCoach facebook page, about the “Let’s Talk Harvest” October campaign, encouraging parents to read aloud with their children for 15 minutes a day.
Please share these posts. Why? Because reading changes lives.
Peace, sunshine and books,
Lisa (aka The Happy Teacher)
This is what I tell my writing students...
Every writer knows, that to make progress you have to take risks. To tell the truth and really leave it all on the page, you will feel vulnerable, like the turtle sticking it’s neck out.
Take risks.
But that’s the only way you’re going to get anywhere. Inch by inch. Little by little. Keep moving forward and you’ll get there. Your readers want truth and risk and all those messy bits of life on the page.
Happy Sunday to my collegereadycoach.com tribe.
xo, Lisa
“Never question ability, always improve strategy.”
Here’s a visual guide to fostering a growth mindset in the classroom. I linked a video to Angela Duckworth’s excellent TedTalk on the subject at the bottom of this post.
I hope you found this infographic helpful. If you need more information on how to foster grit and a a growth mindset in your classroom, feel free to reach out in the comments.
Best,
Lisa, aka The Happy Teacher
Get up, get going, and look fear in the face.
#MondayMotivation
Here are “15 Things to Give Up” to Get Happy.
This is good advice all year long, but especially at holiday time and as we look towards the new year.
You have the power to flip this script! It might read something like THIS:
-Believe in yourself.
-Think Positive
-Embrace Failure
-Build healthy relationships
-Engage in meaningful conversation
-Speak highly of yourself and others
-Live in Joy
-Eat to fuel your body
-Get up and go
-Positive Self talk
-One step at a time
-Go after Success
-Live in Simplicity
-Be Authentic
-Become comfortable putting yourself FIRST…or at least work up to putting yourself on the list. Take care of you!
When we give up the things holding us down, we make room for more goodness and opportunity to enter our lives.
Drop us a note in the comments on which of these you are planning to give up in the New Year, or turn the phrase around (flip the script) and tell us what you WILL be doing in the days, weeks and months to come to live a healthy, happy life.
And as we approach the holiday season of light and love, we want to offer our appreciation and gratitude to our amazing tribe (that’s all of you–our readers–from all over the world) who make this community a better, brighter, and more vibrant place. THANK YOU.
All the best,
~~Lisa (aka, The Happy Teacher!)
Want to connect with us on facebook? Do that by clicking right here. If you’re on Pinterest, you can find us right here. Grazie!
The simple but true writing advice I give my students:
![be-authentic[1].jpg](https://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/709829ea-d535-48f2-9e60-30d8edc617dc-medium.jpeg)
Truth! And this is true not just in writing, but in teaching, too. Let students see at least a little bit of the real you. Authentic connections lead to engaged, connected classrooms.
Happy Saturday, friends,
Lisa (aka The Happy Teacher)
On Wednesday, it rained in Northern California. This is something that hasn’t been happening very often. (See also: drought.) It was glorious & noteworthy.
And so, my frosh college comp students wrote haikus about the rain. Yes, it had to happen.
And it was good. To stop. To not rush. To listen. Feel. Connect. Discover. To Write. Together.
Here’s some of what they had to say. (All writing by English100 students, each space is a new writer):
RAIN~~
Rain is like wet peace
Cascading down my body
Piercing my very soul
Grey slippery drops
Renewing luscious hillsides
Quenching nature’s thirst
Joy Fills the Gray Sky
Dull Struggles are Dropped
Clouds filled with wet life
Sound of peace with sleep
The earth is renewed
Every time rain falls down
Water creates life.
Photo @ collegereadycoach.com by: lisalu22
~~~
Each line is a complete image in very few words. I compiled this one longer poem from various lines out of the students’ original work. Each one was lovely as a stand alone haiku, but putting it together like this connected writers’ ideas to a collaborative mosaic.
Do you teach poetry in your classes? If so, what do the students think? A few of mine were skeptical at first. They needed time to brainstorm, to think it out, and to really understand that there was no objective, and no assessment. If the haiku turned out well, great. If students weren’t happy with it, then they need not turn it in. Low risk and high reward, especially as students read their poems aloud. I hope you will take some time to notice the rain, or the snow, or whatever else is of interest in your part of the world. Make it noteworthy. Craft some poetry together. Share some writing. Make some connections.
~~
I happen to love the rain. Do you? I love the smell, the way the air feels. I love walking across campus in it. Here in California, we aren’t going to be making our way out of this devastating drought anytime soon, but at least we had a little sliver of silver lining on Wednesday.
Happy Friday,
Lisa (aka, The Happy Teacher)
Need a refresher course on Haiku? It’s a form of Japanese poetry made up of three lines. Lines are 5/7/5 syllables each. The first line consists of 5 syllables, the second line consists of 7 syllables, and the third line consists of 5 syllables. Haiku often focuses on nature. For more on how to write a haiku, click here.
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