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Feb 16

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How to Thrive as a Teacher: A Book Review

thriveThrive : 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching  by Meenoo Rami

by Janice Ewing and Rita Sorrentino

During the winter months, teachers and students have more to cope with than just cold weather and icy roads. Deadlines, data-driven decisions, and daily demands of classroom life loom larger as testing schedules, teacher evaluations, and interim assessments fill up the calendar.   Finding time to accomplish all that is required of a teacher, while keeping students’ best interests at heart, can zap the energy of the best-intentioned educators. Read more

Feb 10

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In the Middle of Reading: Book Reviews

We continue our book review series today with some must-read titles for middle school readers, brought to us by Gabija Fischer. If you missed them, don’t forget to check out some YA titles adolescents will love, as well as a preview of an exciting, upcoming title for younger readers. And for a professional read, be sure to check out our review of Tom Newkirk’s latest here.

By Gabija Fischer

fourteenth-goldfishIn The Fourteenth Goldfish, Jennifer Holm presents the story of 11 year-old Ellie and her relationship with her scientist grandfather. His discovery on reversing the effects of aging resulted in his looking like a teenage boy. Teenage boys belong in school, so Ellie and her grandfather quickly become classmates. Not only is their relationship tested as they try to negotiate life at school as classmates, but also as Ellie begins to question the effects of certain scientific discoveries. A little adventure, a little philosophy, some science, and a lot of fun, this book is sure to please a wide audience. Read more

Feb 9

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Book Review: The Island of Dr. Libris

island-dr-libris-200

Two weeks ago, we featured some must-read YA titles and last week, we took at a professional title with a review of Tom Newkirk’s latest book. This week, we continue with book recommendations from two more wonderful librarians. First up: a review by Chris Kehan of the Chris Grabenstein’s upcoming book, The Island of Dr. Libris. And tomorrow, don’t forget to come back to check out some middle-school recommendations!

By Chris Kehan

As a librarian I get the privilege of getting the Advanced Reader’s Copy of a book.  I recently had the pleasure of reading The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein.  Chris Grabenstein is the author the New York Times best-seller, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.  He is also the co-author of the I Funny, Treasure Hunters, and House of Robots series with James Patterson. Read more

Feb 2

Resolve to Read this Book: A Review of Minds Made for Stories

minds made for stories newkirkBy Judy Jester

It’s not often that I read aloud to my husband from “teacher” books, but I found myself doing so from Tom Newkirk’s latest work as often as I was from Steven Johnson’s How We Got To Now on our recent road trip to Cleveland. The former, Minds Made For Stories: How We Really Read and Write Informational and Persuasive Texts, knocked me out with its treasure trove of facts (not all related to writing) just as much as the latter did. Read more

Jan 26

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YA Book Love

This week, we’re thrilled to have librarian Lisa Teixeira with us to share some titles that will no doubt appeal to high school students. Lisa has been leading book discussions with her school book club—Better Than Oprah—playing literacy games with visiting English classes, teaching information literacy to students, and reading lots of wonderful YA literature.

The following 7 books (7 is her lucky birthday number, which she actually shares with her favorite YA author, Sherman Alexie) are her favorites from the past year. Read more

Jan 19

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Revisiting a Closer Look at “Close” Reading

Falling in Love with Close ReadingBy Lynne R. Dorfman

* As we look at strategies that work in our classrooms, we thought it was time for another look at “close” reading. So this week, we’re reposting Lynne Dorfman’s wonderful post on what close reading is and isn’t from last year. Enjoy!

Kate Roberts, Maggie B. Roberts, and Chris Lehman engaged a rather large audience in their interactive workshop session about close reading texts and close reading lives at the 103rd Annual NCTE Convention in Boston. They gave us some practical advice and helped us define close reading in terms of what it should not be and what it could be. Read more

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