It’s your place in the world, it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
Mae Jemison
Recently I picked out a hanging basket for our deck at a local greenhouse a few miles from home. The greenhouse has been in the same location for almost a decade. Before the business was on the property, there was an equestrian-supplies shop, and then an ice cream parlor, and for a couple of years, a used-clothing store.
The locals swore no business would even succeed in that spot. And then the new owners bought it and threw up a huge greenhouse. Their passion for gardening led to a thriving trade with scores of loyal customers who return year after year. The plants are beautiful, and the owners clearly love their work. I know very little about flowers (the two categories I use to make my choices are pretty/not pretty and good color/bad color). Yet Gloria, one of the owners, seemed to have all the time in the world to explain the pros and cons of different baskets in terms of how much light they would need, and how much dead-heading would be required.
Before she rang up my purchase, Gloria carefully spaced a half dozen small fertilizer pellets throughout the soil in the basket. I marveled at the structure of the pellets, which had drupelets just like small berries. She explained, “Those allow time-release of the fertilizer — the flowers would be set to bloom for nine months, if only we didn’t live in Maine!” We both laughed since we’d be happy to get four months of good weather before a hard frost. She insisted on carrying the huge basket to my car, and waved as I drove away.
There is something incredibly invigorating about watching someone with a passion for their work do it well. Gloria loves plants, knows plants, and gives any customer the sense that the best part of her day is sharing what she knows as she tends to each bloom.
That’s why I love watching teachers share their writing and reading processes with students. The delight when they discover a new author is genuine, and student interest is piqued with the insider knowledge of how a writer’s experience leads to a rough draft, as well as the tricks of the trade for polishing that draft. Process + Pleasure = Passion. It’s that equation that gets students to trust their own tastes and journeys as writers, and the confidence to share their work with classmates.
There are always more ways to open up your process of teaching and learning, reading and writing, to students. You can explain why you made your choice of the article of the week and rejected two others. You can crack open your writing notebook and show three of the best bits that never made it into a draft but still were worth recording. Time spent getting inside the mind of anyone who is accomplished at their craft is time well spent. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give to your students.
This week we look at launching the classroom library and refreshing it throughout the year. Plus more as always — enjoy!
Brenda Power
Founder, Choice Literacy
Free for All
[For sneak peeks at our upcoming features, quotes and extra links, follow Choice Literacy on Twitter: @ChoiceLiteracy or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChoiceLiteracy or Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/]
Bitsy Parks explains how she designs her first-grade classroom library for “gradual release” throughout the school year in a way that allows students to build book-browsing skills:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2337
You can join Bitsy Parks for our new online course on launching classroom libraries. This self-paced course begins August 20, and includes three-month memberships to Choice Literacy and Lead Literacy. Sign up by August 1 and receive a copy of the Simply Room Tours DVD, a $99 value:
https://choiceliteracy.teachable.com/p/classroom-library-design
Gayle Gentry reflects on how a colleague’s simple request to reorganize a classroom library turned into coaching opportunities that had a direct effect on student learning:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=44
For Members Only
Franki Sibberson explains how she watches students closely and adjusts her library based on what she sees all year long:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=3008
Christy Rush-Levine writes about the push and pull of wanting to put books into students’ hands, and needing at the same time to give them room to explore the classroom library:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2984
In this week’s video, Bitsy Parks helps first graders early in the year engage with the library by introducing a series with companion stuffed animals to a small group:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2679
Summer is rushing along. Are you feeling restored or refreshed yet for the new year? Suzy Kaback writes about the power of the sharpening stone:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=3018
In a bonus video, Katherine Sokolowski builds interest in a new book in the classroom library through a book talk on Wish Girl:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2462
That’s all for this week!
