Part of what makes teaching so awesome is the stuff you hear from the mouths of your students. I only wish I wrote down more of what came at me from my kids because it seems like at least once a week, I hear something that is just so brilliant, so insightful, such a twist on the English language that I never expected, well... it just never fails to tickle me.
Here's one that just got passed along to me. (Always good to mix in some giggles about our profession,…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 30, 2009 at 3:07pm —
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Te Amo
Te Extrano.
Cuando estava chico, siempre me cuidaste como si fuera tu nino,
Yo se que me amavas.
En mis cumpleanos me diste los regalos maravillosos,
Y te abrase- tu cuerpo tres veses mas grande que el mio.
Me ensenaste espanol, no mas un poco,
Pero era suficiente para entenderlo.
Por que te fuites Tio Cuate?
Te Amo
Te Extrano.
La ultima ves que te vi, era en el hospital,
Lagrimas salieron de…
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Added by Erickkkk on November 28, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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Though I have not yet read
this book, I immediately like this guy. Apparently he is an icon in the field of software testing, a guy who dropped out of school but was viscously determined to become "self-educated"... and his exploits are, from what the web says, "legendary".
Here's what Publisher's Weekly has to say: "An informative and entertaining…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 28, 2009 at 5:30am —
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Hello, Friends of Good Writing:
BROWN FEDORA BOOKS is a small, new electronic publishing company that is poised to ride the wave of over 10 million E-readers to be sold next year.
We have capped our number of authors at ten; each one is extremely accomplished, talented and recognized. (Look below for a partial list of awards and honors our authors have received.)
Each of our books is “Rebar tough and built to last.”
All downloads are…
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Added by Jim DeFilippi on November 27, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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It’s Friday, the first day of Eid Al-Adha and I've finally had a good chance to write my first blog here. As you all know, Thanksgiving and Eid Al-Adha are now sharing the same spiritual atmosphere all over the world, so I decided to write about these occasions willing to provide some info on Eid Al-Adha, and also to offer thanks for many things I think I should be thankful for nowadays (regardless of the long term drama which started about 3 years ago in my life).
The children were…
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Added by M. G. on November 27, 2009 at 9:30am —
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As much as I want to just chill on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I know that it really is in the best interests of my students to dedicate at least 45-90 minutes to school.
Why?
Because I need to make sure that the month of December ROCKS!
See, classroom minutes are precious and the fact of the matter is, it's way too easy to allow December to slip away into a "we are almost at the Holiday Break" mode... and class can all-too-easily devolve into a…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 27, 2009 at 5:00am —
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Just want to say I enjoyed stopping by the Discover Writing booth at NCTE Barry. Looking forward to seeing you at Central Connecticut State University in the spring at the Literacy Essentials Conference.
Sincerely,
Jesse
Added by Jesse Turner on November 25, 2009 at 8:12pm —
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It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and goodness, gracious do I need to give me some thanks for this ning. I mean wow! It’s changed my professional life.
Last Thanksgiving, I am not sure if I even knew what a ning was. This Thanksgiving, I am pretty resolved at this point to not even bother to write any more professional development books (even though a host of publishers are asking me to do so right now) simply because I am pretty much scratching every “write a book of…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 25, 2009 at 5:30am —
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There comes a tiredness with having attended a big conference, a sense of exhilarated exhaustion that inevitably catches up to almost all attendees that do not live in the host city.
However, it’s the good kind of “spent”, the kind that comes with having tapped into a host of personal reserves.
For me, the draining derives as a result of a few different things.
1) All the energy inside the conference itself. You can just feel the buzz on Day 1. By…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 24, 2009 at 5:00am —
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As we enter Thanksgiving week it really is a time for me to recognize how much my students mean to me. I truly am a better human being because they are in my life.
They make me smile, laugh, hurt, angry, and tear up. They also make me proud, ashamed, hopeful and fearful.
And sometimes they do this back to back to back as if it's all happening in the same day.
But without a doubt, the kids in my classroom make me remember what it's like to be a kid...…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 23, 2009 at 5:30am —
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A new electronic book publishing company, Brown Fedora Books, is promising to deliver books that are “rebar tough and built to last.” The list of books is small and selective and all downloads are free. The company website is brownfedorabooks.com.
Predictions are calling for over 13 million electronic readers to be in use by the end of 2010. Brown Fedora is prepared to tap into this huge market. After only a few months in existence, the company is already averaging over 10,000 hits a…
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Added by Jim DeFilippi on November 22, 2009 at 12:06pm —
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A new electronic book publishing company, Brown Fedora Books, is promising to deliver books that are “rebar tough and built to last.” The list of books is small and selective and all downloads are free. The company website is brownfedorabooks.com.
Predictions are calling for over 13 million electronic readers to be in use by the end of 2010. Brown Fedora is prepared to tap into this huge market. After only a few months in existence, the company is already averaging over 10,000 hits a…
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Added by Jim DeFilippi on November 22, 2009 at 12:06pm —
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Being at NCTE once again proves the point that mandatory conference attendance and professional development needs to become a prime focus if we are really going to elevate the performance of our schools.
I can't even begin to cover the amount of dynamic, sound, invigorating and readily applicable-to-my-own-classroom-ideas that I encountered today.
From big things like learning how to better thematically connect disparate texts to one another in student friendly…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 21, 2009 at 12:04am —
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So people are now being sued for libel based on the content of their tweets. And while the courts are struggling to keep up with technology -- and how free speech plays out in evolving social networking mediums -- there is a lesson for all to be learned, I believe, in the idea that "slander is slander".
This article raises some interesting ideas. Worth a read.
A quality…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 20, 2009 at 5:30am —
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When I realized that sooner or later my grandpa's legs were gonna wear out.It Felt as if my heart were breaking because he loves to do alot of things that require him to use his legs. For example, mowung the yard,waxing his cars.working outside, picking up food etc. etc. The ONLY thing I wish my grandpa would do is to just sit DOWN and rest.Nothin more,Nothin less. His feet are constantly swollen,his hands too. He always gets pains,arthritis.I want him to live 20-30 billion more years,but i…
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Added by Teresa Rakay on November 19, 2009 at 1:25pm —
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I couldn't be more fired up to say that I just got a bid for a new book of YA fiction of mine from a HUGE publisher -- one of the biggest -- and to say that I am tickled would be a gigantic understatement.
So how did it happen? Here's a backstage look at the process.
(Maybe it'll be of some benefit to you on your own quest to do the same thing if that's your aspiration.)
1) I wrote a book.
I can't tell you how many people I meet that tell me…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 19, 2009 at 9:54am —
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I am all FIRED UP for Philly! The truth is, I just love NCTE. It's simply a home-run experience every time I attend the annual conference and I always leave a better teacher as a result of having made the trip.
Why? The people. It's that simple.
NCTE provides me a chance to be in the same room with some of the best minds in the world of English Language Arts. I mean where else can you go to hear Carol Jago, Kylene Beers, Jim Burke, and on and on and on and on?…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 18, 2009 at 10:53am —
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So when I read a story
like this, about how students who have repeatedly struggled with a "core class at school" (i.e. they didn't pass) being able to use computers for credit recovery so that they can graduate, I like the idea.
And I do believe that there is a place and space in public education to address this need in this type of…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 17, 2009 at 3:40pm —
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Is there such a thing as an English class that doesn't read a single, real, whole book over the course of the year? I mean I know there is. Some places -- WAY TOO MANY in fact -- have the The Lords of District Oversight that Ban the Reading of Novels in English Class
That's right, they mandate that NO NOVELS be taught.
It's all excerpts, pieces taken from anthologies, worksheets, scripted programming and... biggest of all, practice tests to prepare for the real…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 16, 2009 at 5:00am —
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Look, I could rail on and on and on about why I believe it is entirely appropriate to throw a HUGE bash at NCTE to actually celebrate students.
But instead, I am going to let a student do the talking. (Please know that she is but one of the young poets you will see on Saturday night at NCTE in Philly if you come to the event... and when you are done, I'd ask you to reflect upon the question, "Isn't it about time we did a better job of validating the aptitudes of our kids in…
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Added by Alan Sitomer on November 14, 2009 at 5:00am —
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