NCTE: The Details

I have recovered from sleeplessness, sore joints (from all the walking), and two days of (pre-holiday/end of grading period) teaching. Now it's time to reflect back on NCTE. (Along with Jen, Betsy, Hloney, and Stacy and Ruth...among others, I'm sure. If you've got a post, let me know in the comments and I'll add you in!)

Great Sessions
Regie Routman spoke about how writing has the power to change children's lives...even more than reading. She was very inspirational. I can't wait to read her newest book, TEACHING ESSENTIALS.

Randy Bomer and three of his colleagues spoke about teaching the new literacies without technology -- as habits of mind and materials. They showed us ways to build a schema of the internet for children, with writing activities that promote an understanding of linking, multimodality, and design.

Bruce Morgan, Debbie Miller and Ellin Keene talked about professional development that has made a difference for each of them. Their examples ranged from the very personal (Bruce's) to institutional (Ellin's).

Betsy Bird (Fuse #8) shared a short list of books that defy description and categorization. I was familiar with most of them, but HOWTOONS is, in two days, the most popular book in my classroom.

Welcome to the Kidlitosphere was the best session in the history of NCTE! Okay, I'm a little biased, but we worked hard, had fun, and the folks who came to our session really wanted to be there. It was great to meet Stacy and Amy and Denise! Thanks for coming, fellow bloggers!

Children's Literature Assembly Breakfast featured Allen Say as the speaker. We got to see and hear his newest book, still in the editing stages. It's a sweet story with gorgeous pictures of the countryside of one of Japan's small, less inhabited islands.

Amazing Food
The reception for Rudine Simms Bishop (recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award) was held at The View on the 45th floor of the Marriott Marquis. The snacks included delicious raspberries and blackberries.

Liz, Susan, Jen and I had great Thai food at Pongsri.

AJ's brother suggested we eat at Keen's Steakhouse. The food was fabulous. I have never eaten a piece of red meat that big in one sitting, and I don't think I ever will again. But it was yummy. The creme brulee was...eh. Not the best I've ever had.

The Stenhouse NCTE Author Breakfast was at a quintessential New York deli: The Carnegie Deli. I was still stuffed from Keen's, so I ordered a fruit bowl. Think MIXING bowl size! A bagel and lox came with a two inch stack of lox and a slab of cream cheese the size of the BOXES of cream cheese in the grocery store!

Sharon Hancock from Candlewick invited me to a small, intimate dinner with Megan McDonald (of Judy Moody fame). We ate at Artisinal. The mix of people was very fun. In addition to Sharon, there was Charlie and Jenny from Candlewick; Laura and Sarah, librarians in Queens; Malore, formerly of ALA and now in charge of bringing The Electric Company back to life; and Carolyn, a retired high school librarian/professor of librarianship. And me, a blogger. I had the pumpkin risotto, Malore was the one who braved the pigeon in chocolate sauce, and what was I thinking when I had the creme brulee at a fromagerie?!?! Why didn't I get the CHEESEcake??? Oh, well. I'll have to go back, I guess!

The Loot (in no particular order)
HOWTOONS by Griffith, Dragotta, and Bonsen (HarperCollins booth sell-out)
THE CASTLE CORONA by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins booth sell-out)
THE PAINTED DRUM by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins adult books booth one-free-book)
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES by Jeff Kinney (uncorrected proof)
STINK AND THE GREAT GUINEA PIG EXPRESS by Megan McDonald (ARC, Candlewick dinner)
JUDY MOODY AND STINK: THE HOLLY JOLIDAY by Megan McDonald (signed, Candlewick dinner)
TRAILBLAZERS: POEMS OF EXPLORATION by BobbiKatz (review copy, signed)
HONEYBEE by Naomi Shihab Nye (uncorrected proof)
THE BEST EID EVER by Asma Mobin-Uddin (she lives just down the road from my school!!!)
HOW TO PAINT THE PORTRAIT OF A BIRD by Mordicai Gerstein (give-away by the publisher because I stood and looked at the book!)
KAMISHIBAI MAN by Allen Say (CLA breakfast)
(...and a few more that stayed at school...)

NCTE: Wow!

What a great conference!

Too bad I have to go to work today instead of reflecting on the great sessions I attended (Regie Routman wins for inspiration; Randy Bomer and his co-presenters win for ideas I want to try in my classroom), the amazing food I ate (and some that I didn't -- pigeon in chocolate sauce), the distances I walked (will my feet and hips ever recover?), the books I got for free or cheap, and the new friends I met (some for the first time ever, and some for the first time in person).

Stay tuned for more!

Welcome CCBC Visitors!

We are proud to be the "Link of the Month" at the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison!

If you haven't checked out the CCBC website, go now and look at all the children's literature/education resources they have! This page of links is a great overview. Bookmark it for frequent use!

Thank You For Your Patience

We are NYC bound for the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention!

Polishing up the presentation, doing one more load of laundry and packing, writing lesson plans for the substitutes, finding quotes for the speeches...whew!

Hopefully, we'll manage to post some highlights during the conference, but if not, stay tuned for some post-conference posts next week!

Poetry Friday -- A Meditation on Consumerism

I give you the middle stanza. Here is the whole poem, which begins with apples and ends with a dog.

The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures
by Samuel Hazo

***
Call it a tug-of-war between enough and more
than enough, between sufficiency
and greed, between the stay-at-homers
and globe-trotting see-the-worlders.
Like lovers seeking heaven in excess,
the hopelessly insatiable forget
how passion sharpens appetites
that gross indulgence numbs.
Result?
The haves have not
what all the have-nots have
since much of having is the need
to have.
***

The round-up is at a wrung sponge.

The Complete 4 For Literacy by Pam Allyn

I heard Pam Allyn, author of THE COMPLETE 4 FOR LITERACY, speak at the Connecticut Reading Association Convention last week. I have been spending the last few days with the new book and am loving it.

Now, I am not usually a fan of things with names or numbers attached. My inferring skills have told me that many of these have been far too prescriptive, contrived, and scripted for me.

But, the Complete 4 is none of these! It is AMAZING.

Pam Allyn has created a framework to help teachers plan literacy in a way that keeps the decision making on the teacher. She respects our knowledge and does not intend to tell us how to teach. However, the framework she provides is brilliant. She has thoughts about yearlong planning so that all areas of literacy are covered over the course of the year. She spends time talking about the importance of the whole school, K-5 conversation so that students' learning builds. She shares goals for various units and how the goals would be different in a K-2 nonfiction unit than a 3-5 nonfiction unit. She shares sample yearlong plans with explanations about the things she's included. She includes ways to teach conventions in authentic ways in both major and minor units.

This is really better than any planing guide I have ever seen. It is really a tool to help teachers THINK in powerful ways about their daily and long-term planning.

I have a habit of becoming TOTALLY obsessed with a professional book every year or two. This is the book I am currently totally obsessed with. Such amazing ideas and they seem like things that teachers at all experience levels would find helpful. I have rethought my planning already and I can't wait to share it with teachers that I work with.

On a side note, check out Pam Allyn's website. She founded a Books for Boys program in NYC that is pretty amazing.

My Dead Girlfriend

My Dead Girlfriend
by Eric Wight
TOKYOPOP, 2007
a 2007 Cybils nominee

This was a fun book to read, and it is going to be even more fun to review. I'm going to get to use the phrase, "bitch-slapped by a Honda" in this review, and that's an occasion I don't want to miss. (You might remember the time another Kidlitosphere blogger used a similar phrase. My role model.)

I really didn't think I was going to like this book. After all, I had just finished reading The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci, and she gets high school cliques so right. Now here I was reading about caricatures of high school cliques: The Deadbeats are just that -- led by a vampire and including Frankenstein the bully. The Aberzombies are brainless conformists. The Foreign Exchange Students are aliens. Literally. The Coven of Witches are the drug dealers. The Lab Monkeys are the science nerds. Finney and Dahlia seem to be the only "normal" kids in the school. (It always seems like you are the normal one, right? Surrounded by all the freaks?) Right about here is when Finney gets beat up by the Frankenstein bully. When Dahlia asks him if he's okay, he says, "Felt kind of like being bitch-slapped by a Honda."

Then Finney meets Jenny Wraith (just a little foreshadowing there) at the carnival and has a great time. They arrange to meet the next day, but Jenny never shows up. Finney is in a deep, deep funk. Then his dad (who is a ghost) has a heart to heart talk with him and tells him that while he can't choose the way he'll die, he can choose the way he'll live. So Finney snaps out if it and asks Dahlia to the movies.

While walking home through the woods, Finney is ambushed by Franken-bully and his pals. Just when it seems that all is lost, a dark spirit (death is fighting for Finney's life?) swoops in and takes out the whole group, then whisks Finney away to the graveyard. And shows him a gravestone. The gravestone of Jenny Wraith, who fell into a well and died the day she was supposed to meet Finney and didn't. Then the hood of the dark cape falls away and you see that the ghost of Jenny is who saved Finney.

There you have it: the dead girlfriend in the title of the book. Plus, the perfect set-up for book two in the series. What is Finney going to do about Dahlia, the live girl that he asked to go to the movies, now that he has a dead girlfriend?

And the winner is...

...MsMac! That lucky lady who won all the piles of books at the Kitlitosphere Conference (and also agreed to host Conference #2), and who has won chocolates from Robin Brande has now won Matt Phelan's Raffle Doodle! ENOUGH, ALREADY! Give the others a chance!

I was going to take pictures of the whole process to document the fairness of it all, but I left my camera at school. You'll have to take my word for it. She won it, fair and square. (Using my new JacketFlap hat must have conjured up her good mojo from the conference.)

New Professional Book from Regie Routman

On Friday, I was in Connecticut for their Connecticut Reading Association Annual Convention. What a great day it was! (I will share some highlights in another post.) Aside from learning a ton in some great sessions, I spent quite a bit of money before 9 am! Before I went book shopping, I was able to buy some great new jewelry from a company called Purple Umbrella. Great stuff by a variety of artists from around the world. If you are in the mood for a new necklace, check it out:-)

After the jewelry shopping, I hit the booksellers. It is a great time to buy new professional books. So many new great ones out this month! I picked up several. The one that I read on the plane ride home and that I would HIGHLY recommend is TEACHING ESSENTIALS: EXPECTING THE MOST AND GETTING THE BEST FROM EVERY LEARNER, K-8 by Regie Routman. It is a quick read with so much for us to think about. The back of the book says:

"What makes a teacher outstanding? More than anything, it's a way of being with kids in the classroom that lets them know they're smart and capable of high achievement. When you combine this mind-set with effective instruction, teaching and learning is transformed."

Regie takes the opportunity in this new book to help us think about some of our most struggling students and the stance that we take with them-how much things can change when we truly believe they are smart and treat them accordingly. She shares stories from many of the schools in her work where some students labeled with a special education label were changed when instruction was delivered in a way that valued their intelligence. That good classroom instruction is good for ALL students, especially those who are not always successful in schools.

In her introduction, Regie writes:
"My hope is you will use TEACHING ESSENTIALS as a catalyst for your thinking: that reading this text may affirm what you are doing as well as create a little dissonance that causes you to reflect on your teaching. This book is an invitation to think and talk more deeply about how to improve and sustain effective, daily literacy practices across all subject areas and throughout the school year so that all students and teachers reach the highest possible levels of learning, achievement, independence and enjoyment.

As always, Regie Routman brings us back to what is essential in our work with our students--what makes sense for all students and why every student deserves this. She makes a strong argument for inviting every child into the learning community --and shares what happens when we really, truly believe that every child is smart and capable.

There is also a great companion website that adds to the book with videoclips, study guide and more.
Thanks, Regie!

Poetry Friday -- Teachers' Overture*

*To the tune, more or less, of The William Tell Overture

This song was inspired by the Mom's Overture that we wrote about last weekend, and composed by compiling (and fluffing) the comments to that post. Thanks to all who contributed!

Ready, Teachers? SING IT:


Good morning!
Have a seat,
Quiet voices, sign in.

Eyes up here,
Sit up straight,
Turn your homework in.

Sit down please,
Be mature,
1, 2, 3 and...FREEZE!

Get your books,
Line up now,
Be nice (please).

Marshmallow toes,
Clam lips,
Skinny line, eyes on me.

Have a seat,
Quiet voices,
Time for library.

Get a book,
Get a chair,
Criss-cross applesauce,

SHHHHH
SH SH
SH SH SH.

Are you sure? Where's your work? What did she? What did you?
Whatcha doin'? Are you sure? Again? So soon?
Was that a good choice? What's a better one, then?
Are you sure? Really? What happens when?

No you can't: take a nap, play with food, go again,
Practice wrestling, jump like frogs, eat chocolate for a snack,
go outside without a coat it is cold outside.
ACT YOUR AGE! (Oh, yeah, you are.)

Come to the meeting area.
Bring your writer's notebooks.
Do your self-eval.
Choose a just-right book.

Do your best. Try.
Take a risk. Try.
I know it's hard for you,
Please give it a try.

Fingers on
Home Row,
Pockets on the carpet.

Hands in laps,
Quiet signs,
Voices off, zip it!

Put it away--
back pack!
Take it home, don't bring it back.

Keep your hands
To yourself.
Tell the truth. Help your friend.

I can't hear myself think!
The only one talking right now is ME!
This is your last warning!
Be patient, I'm coming, there's only one of ME!

This is not democracy;
It's a benevolent dictatorship.
I'll explain it later. Ask your parents.
Ask 3 before you ask me!

Nice work!
Good job!
I like the way you did...

Tell me more!
Oh, wow!
That's so way cool!

Easy peezy
Lemon squeezy
I knew you could!

Aren't you proud?!
How's it feel?!
Share with the whole class!

Get your homework,
Get your books,
Get your lunch boxes.

Time to go,
Line up now,
Have a nice night!

Walk please,
Quiet voices,
Don't run to your bus!

WHEW!
What a day,
Where's happy hour?