My Adult Reading Life

September - May is a frustrating time of year for a teacher to be a reader. Because there is no way to do our jobs within the parameters of the contract hours of our days/weeks, work spills over into our personal lives and threatens to rob us of one of the identities at our very core -- that of Reader. Luckily, I eat breakfast every day and I have a twenty minute commute to work.

I manage to keep a middle grade novel going in 20 minute increments as I eat breakfast. I tell myself that I should weave a professional book into that time slot some days, but I'll be honest -- I rarely do.

My drive time is my adult reading time. I read with my ears. If it weren't for Audible and the TED Radio Hour podcast, I would not have an adult reading life. I also wouldn't have very much to talk about in adult conversations since I'm not a sports fan, I fall asleep when I watch TV or movies, and I don't pay close attention to the news (for sanity's sake).

It would be easy enough not to be a reader, but as a teacher of reading (and as a person whose core identity is Reader), that's simply not an option.

There's no such thing as MAKING time to read. We all have the same number of hours in each day. So it's all about being creative in FINDING time and using it to keep my reading life alive in the September - May drought so it can flourish June - August.

Life-Changing

My new favorite commuter audio experience is the NPR TED Radio Hour. In classic NPR style, a set of 4-6 TED talks on the same theme are excerpted, contextualized by interviews with the speakers, and interspersed with perfect musical bites (like they do in the show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me). TED talks. Through my ears. Perfect. (I use this not-free but highly-rated podcast app.)

And the thing is, every (EVERY) episode I've listened to so far has been life-changing. That both makes me want to listen more, and afraid if I listen again it won't happen!

In the show, Growing Up, which AJ and I listened to as we island-hopped across Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York last summer, and which is the show that hooked me, Gever Tulley's segment made me sure that I would do Genius Hour.

I played a portion of Margaret Heffernan's segment from the show, Making Mistakes, to my math class to emphasize the importance of the mathematical practice of talking and listening before I asked them to form groups comprised of not a single classmate they'd worked with the day before on a complicated place value problem we were trying to solve.

In Simply Happy, Matt Killingsworth's segment confirmed for me that I am on the right path with my "Trout a Day" project.

Sugata Mitra's segments in Unstoppable Learning changed my math lesson from a demonstration of how decimal expanded notation works, followed by a variety of practice, to a challenge to my students to figure out three different ways to show decimal expanded notation by using the activities I had curated for them. (Best. Math lesson. Ever.)

Last week, in our study of characters, my students read nonfiction books featuring an animal hero. This week, I will play Diana Nyad's segment from Champions while I model note taking. My students will chart and then write about the ways two or more characters (from the books they've read, our read alouds, and/or this audio segment) are the same and different.

As soon as my monthly credit at Audible rolls in, I'm going to dive into David Mitchell's newest book, The Bone Clocks. But you can be sure that one or two days a week, I'll be putting that one on hold so that I can catch up with my NPR TED Radio Hour episode!

Free YA Audiobooks!

Every week from May 15-August 20, Sync offers a pair of FREE YA audiobooks for readers to download with the Overdrive app on their desktop computer or mobile device.

Each YA book is paired with a classic. This week, the pair is Warp: The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

Once you download them, they are yours to listen to immediately, or whenever you get the chance! 

I'll be downloading them all, but there are a few I'm especially looking forward to:

June 12 – June 18
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell

THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne 

June 26 – July 2
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin 

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister 

Happy Listening! Happy Reading (with your ears)!!

I Love Audio Books!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Niclas Lindh

Last summer I learned about the Sync (Sync YA literature into your earphones) free (FREE) summer downloads.

Each week, they pair an adult book with a YA book, and it is free (FREE) to download the pair of books for that week.

Check out the pairs they've got lined up for 2013!

How do you get these free (FREE) audiobooks?

1. Download the OverDrive Media Console (computer) or App (portable device).
2. Create a free (FREE) Adobe account.
3. Go to the Sync website.
4. Follow the links and download the books.
5. Listen to the books...whenever! They are waiting there for you in your OverDrive app!
6. Lather, rinse, and repeat every week all summer long! (perhaps you should sign up for email or text alerts to remind you to go back to the site for all the free (FREE) book pairs they are offering)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Brought to you this week by Mary Lee.

Let's start with the pile that's on my nightstand.

Truth in advertising: A Hero For WondLa is the only one of these three that I've actually started reading. M.T. Anderson has moved from the TBR (To Be Read) shelf to the TBR (Teetering Bedside Reading) pile because he'll be at Cover to Cover on Monday afternoon, and I'm almost giddy about hearing him speak. I've read the first two in the Norumbegan Quartet, and The Empire of Gut and Bone will be one of my first #bookaday summer reads. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick has been on my pile since Christmas (a gift from a student), and I unburied it today and brought it up to the top part of the pile after chatting with Sally (at CTC) about Steven King's story in it (re: I finished listening to the audio of King's 11-22-63 a couple of weeks ago, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.)

Next, my audio reading.

Two reasons why I listened to will grayson, will grayson (finished last week). #1 I loveloveloved The Fault in Our Stars and realized that I need join the John Green fan club. #2 The more I listen to audio books, the more I appreciate a great reader/production. While others are reading all of the Newberys and Caldecotts, I'm thinking I might try to listen to all of the Odyssey Award winners. will grayson, will grayson was an honor book in 2011.

My current audiobook is The Art of Fielding. It and King's 11-22-63 were "follow the crowd" purchases based on "Best Books of 2011" lists on Amazon and Audible. I completely took a risk on both books and I've been pleasantly surprised by both. The Art of Fielding is a baseball book...and SO much more. I love the multiple points of view in it (so similar to will grayson, will grayson!!) and the way the author surprises me to the point of honest-to-goodness out-loud gasps at the plot turns.

Check out what other folks are reading at Teach Mentor Texts. Happy reading!