Learning, Teaching and Growing Together

I am giddy with excitement. I feel like it is the night before Christmas and I am desperately waiting in anticipation of what is to come the next day. Tomorrow I set out for my first Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Institute! I am about to spend the next 6 days completely immersed in coaching, writing, and teaching - surrounded by others who are there for the same reason. I can't imagine a better way to get a push forward as an instructional coach. These past 6 weeks I have been an Instructional Coach at the school that I have spent the past 10 years teaching in. I definitely enjoy my new position, however, I feel like there is so much more to come and I am in waiting for it to truly get started. I feel like I am chomping at the bit. I am incredibly busy, but I am questioning how much impact I am truly making. During our staff meetings, our theme this year is KNOW THY IMPACT. I am preaching this to teachers and repeating this line over and over. I now need to think a...

Reading in the Wild ~ 'Aha!' and 'Oh, yeah!' From the first page of this book I was intrigued. The description of Don's reading life and how he shares random facts from books he reads, is open-minded about books and reads daily was an immediate spark of memories of my dad. My dad was all of that. I hardly remember him without a book nearby. He had so much knowledge stashed away that he gathered from books or magazines. The best part about all of that is that he could use it in conversation and keep people interested in what he had to say. To this day, he still influences me by recommending books. Little did he know when he wrote his name in his chicken scratch on the inside cover of all of his books, that I would discover them years after he died and decide I must read it.  My dad taught me how to be a wild reader by modeling what a wild reader does. As a classroom teacher, I can only hope that for the past 13 years I have been modeling behaviors of what it mean...

Reading in the Wild #CyberPD When I was asked if I wanted to try out some online PD this summer and then my friend, Jen, told me the book title, Reading in the Wild . I immediately had a very literal picture form in my head. The above picture is pretty close to what I imagined. Doesn't it look like wonderful place to read? Quiet - only the sounds of nature. Tons of books at an arms reach. But it is also in the middle of the outdoors. Anything can happen. Sometimes to notice what is truly going on around you, you need to really focus and look closely. I have been encouraged to join a book conversation that will take place through blogs, tweets, and posts! It is mind boggling to me that this way of communicating while learning is becoming more and more normal. At first I thought, "How can chatting online really deepen my understanding of a text?" I haven't even cracked the book yet, but I am starting to realize the benefits of this activity. First, I can see t...