Lester Laminack Visit

Lester Laminack visited Dublin this week. On Thursday, he was the author visit at our school. If you are looking for a good author for an author visit, he is one of the best I've heard. He is a teacher, author, writer and quite the entertainer. He talked about his writing process and shared lots of insights about his books. He has written 5 children's books (THE SUNSETS OF MISS OLIVIA WIGGINS, SATURDAYS AND TEACAKES, TREVOR'S WIGGLY-WOBBLY TOOTH, JAKE'S 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL, and SNOW DAY) with more on the way.

On Friday, Lester was part of the Literacy's Connection's yearlong workshop. The Literacy Connection puts on a workshop each year. In the fall, we all get together and get copies of the book we will be studying throughout the year. Then in the spring (this weekend), the author of the book visits and spends Friday teaching demonstration lessons in classrooms for us to watch and discuss. On Saturday there is a follow-up with a full day workshop. This year we read one of Lester's newer professional books, READING ALOUD ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. This is a companion book to LIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

Quite a variety of things and Lester was amazing at all of them. His rapport with the kids during the author visit was instant. Kids had trouble leaving the room because they wanted to stay to hear more. Teachers felt the same way--many of us were laughing so hard, we were crying! And he was just as amazing with the teacher groups on Friday and Saturday. He reminded us about so much that we seem to have lost in the last 5 years of teaching. He reminded us of the power of books in the classroom and our need to get back to using our own common sense when teaching.

If you are looking for an author visit or a teacher visit, Lester was a huge hit!