Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wednesday

I've skipped three days of posting. It's a disgrace, especially when Haiti is in the news again. And once again, not for a good reason.

So you can go read about that if you want, but this morning I'm reading about children's books. Specifically, the nine most subversive ones ever published. It's not what you think!

And speaking of subversive, Kelly Gallagher won't teach to the test. I mean, honestly. What can you do with a teacher like that?

Both of these articles, and lots more, came in my weekly email from the NCTE. I know about what's going on around me in this country, and my students write about it and talk about it. We talk about it together, and grieve and pray for Haiti. But some days I just have to choose to focus my energies where I can make a difference: in my own classroom. If my students learn to think more clearly and express themselves more forcefully, can the world be better in the future? I don't know, but I sure hope so.

4 comments:

Janet said...

This sounds like sanity to me.

God bless.

Tricia said...

grr, the weird use of frames (?) (flash? something non standard) in that Subversive Books article won't scroll for me, so I can't read the conclusion concerning most of the books! Maybe I'll check it out in Safari.

The mention of Click, Clack, Moo! [another one where I can't quite tell what the complaint is - neutral third parties and compromise, how subversive is that?] brings to mind Duck for President, which somehow always makes me think of Sarah Palin...

Tricia said...

Okay, cancel that gripe - I finally got it to show me the entire story. In the truncated view, it made it seem like the author was against all the books, now I see that wasn't the point at all. :^)

See, you're there teaching your students to critically analyze things and not judge with incomplete information - helping rid the world of ignorance. Or those who jump to conclusions too quickly... What a great use of your time!

Jessica Stock said...

You know I have been thinking lately about what a gift writing is and how just being able to express yourself and for people to understand you can change everything. You are giving students a great gift.