Reading Memories

This is Week Two of the Invitational Summer Institute for Swamp Fox Writing Project. If you've ever participated in your local chapter of Writing Project, or if you're relatively intelligent and could probably guess from the title, we do a fair bit of writing. One of our very first prompts this summer asked us to consider our earliest reading memory. I'm sure I have some that go way back...reading Little Golden Books in my mother's lap or sitting at the dinner table as my daddy shared Bible stories with us. But the earliest reading memory that stands out in my mind is my entire year in second grade. If you've heard me speak or read any of my previous blogs about reading, you know that second grade was the year of Pam Williamson, a pivotal year of my education that would forever change the path my life would ultimately take.

Mrs. Pam loved books and talked about them like they were her old friends. As a group of gap-toothed seven-year-olds, we thought that was pretty funny. Now, at 28, I get it...completely. She would sit at the front of her room, look over the well-worn and much loved collection on her shelf, and then she would carefully select one after pondering what we might enjoy. We waited on the edges of our seats, literally, anxious to discover what literary world we would be swept away to next. Mrs. Pam would open the book, run her hand down the crease to help the pages lie flat, and then she would do the craziest thing! She would sniff the book. Just once...but a really long sniff. And she would say, "Mmmm..." like she had just eaten a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie. We giggled then, but I remember feeling like I had completely let Mrs. Pam down the day I read my first Kindle book.

With Mrs. Pam, I traveled to the world of The Shoeshine Girl, and Mrs. Pam read in such a way that you could smell the shoe polish. We all were disgusted with the lack of fairness and equality in The Whipping Boy, and I got my first glimpse of New York City through the pages of The Cricket in Times Square.

Reading had always been valued in my family, but Mrs. Pam taught my why. She showed me that loving reading is perfectly natural, and that sometimes, a perfect book can fit a time in your life in much the same way a perfect song can fit a mood. A love of literature is a love that can last forever, far past the days of The Boxcar Children and The Baby-Sitters Club, and one teacher who really shares a love for reading can ignite that love in her students.

Back to the Blog

This week, and for the next two, I am participating in the Swamp Fox Writing Project’s Summer Institute (SI). I first attended the SI in 2009 and quickly fell in love with the whole idea of that National Writing Project and what it does for teachers…and for students. This year, my dear college friend, Rachel, is also attending the program, and the other day, when we were asked to write in response to a prompt about what kind of writer we would be if we could write anything in the world, Rachel talked about her desire to be a blogger.

She and I have both had blogs at different times in our lives, but neither of us has maintained them with any lasting consistency. So I am revisiting the blog and attempting to get over the fact that I feel like a blog has to be perfectly written and life-changing before I click “post.” It doesn’t. I’m learning…and slowly accepting…that.

So I’m back…again.

The Rules for Disappearing, Ashley Elston

There are times that I must read a book in pretty much one sitting. I can't physically tear myself away from it without knowing what's going to happen to the characters I've grown to love. And then, once I finish, I immediately need someone else to read it, too, so we can talk about it! The Rules for Disappearing was this kind of book.

A glimpse from Amazon:
She's been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she's been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they've given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do-or see-that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all of the Suits' rules-and her dad's silence. If he won't help, it's time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn't counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who's too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there's only one rule that really matters-survival.

My opinions...
This book begins making you wonder what's going on. After a while, you think you've figured it out, and then that's turned inside out. I felt like Meg/Anna was easy to relate to even though I've never found myself in her situation. Somehow, through all she's endured, she is still a fairly normal teenager, grappling with making new friendships, pursuing a relationship, and dealing with parents that get on her nerves. Her story is different in many ways, but not so far-fetched that you can't identify with her. At times, I felt myself mourn for her and at other times, I thought my own heart would beat out of my chest as I cheered her on. The ending does leave some things up in the air, but in a good way.

I would definitely recommend this to my students to like mystery, thrillers, and romance. It was a neat combination!

Screwed by Laurie Plissner, Previewed Copy

Thanks to one of my new friends, I recently learned about NetGalley, a website where you can read new or soon-to-be-released books from a wide variety of interests. The first book that I read from NetGally was Screwed by Laurie Plissner, due for release on Amazon in just a few days.

The synopsis from Amazon:
Grace was the girl who always did everything right, until the night she fell for a boy's sleazy line and became pregnant. Nick couldn't care less about pretty math-geek Grace or the baby he fathered. He's had a dozen girls like her, and he'll have a dozen more. When Grace confesses to her super-religious, strait-laced parents, they deliver a shocker: They've scheduled an abortion. All they want is to pretend this never happened. When Grace balks, they literally throw her out in the street. A rich, elderly neighbor takes her in, and, with the help of the friendship she needs in Charlie, the old woman's great-nephew, she must make the toughest choice of her young life. The people she believed in were only playing a role, while others, in an unlikely way, are true heroes. Grace can never have the life she planned, but she has one chance to be the person she will have to live with for the rest of her life. Her choice will cost her, big time, either way--and no one can make it except her.

My opinions...
Sadly, I think this story is more realistic than we'd ever like to admit to ourselves. The "good girl" ends up in a "bad situation," and she is made to choose between her family and her own morals. The sad part, to me, is that the girls who go through this in real life don't usually end up with rich, kind neighbors who take them in. I think there is a lot of different takeaways in this book, from the consequences of hasty decisions to what family is really all about. I definitely enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to my high school students. There is some profanity, but surprisingly, no extremely sexual content.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, Recent Read

There are times I finish reading a book and am immediately puzzled by the fact that it took me so long to discover it. I am jealous of other people who have had the immense joy of reading the book and knowing about it and thinking about it while I've not even known it existed. I felt this way when I finished Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. I've read a few of her books prior to reading this one, and while I've enjoyed them, none of them has grabbed me in the way this one did. It was seriously a book that I found to be unputdownable, and any chore that I might have needed to do around my house didn't get done until this book was finished.

The brief synopsis from Goodreads:
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

My opinions...
Obviously, I loved the book. I found Liz to be an extremely likable character, and I felt like she was easy to relate to. Her situation was heartbreaking to me at times, yet I found myself excited for her as she faced new experiences and opportunities. The idea of the afterlife being a place where you live life in reverse was an interesting concept. At first, I was uncertain as to how Zevin was going to make it work after Liz arrives and goes through her orientation, but the story unfolded beautifully. I think it has great appeal to a wide variety of readers.

The Obligatory Intro

I feel like this whole endeavor, should it turn into an endeavor at all, should probably begin with a little "here's me, and this is why I'm blogging to the world about books." Otherwise, you'll never know if I'm a librarian crouched behind my desk, reading in secret while my patrons wonder where I've gone, or if I'm a teenager who is in love with the written word, or if I'm a superhero whose major power is to verbally beat down any foe in her way. The truth? I'm a teacher, so in a way, I'm all those other things rolled together...but definitely the superhero.

I teach English to some of the greatest kids in the world, and more than anything else, while they're in my presence, I want them to fall head over heels in love with reading. I want them to read books they enjoy, books they find unputdownable, and books they mourn for when they turn the last page. Why? Because that's the type of reader I've always been.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that valued reading. I remember my mom telling me to clean my room "right now," but I also remember "I've just got one more chapter, Momma" being a perfectly acceptable reason to hold off on that cleaning...indefinitely. On car trips, everyone took books. My knees were usually in my chest the whole way because my feet rested on the mound of books that was stacked in my floorboard. I am a reader, through and through.

Often, my students ask me what my hobbies are. I say "reading." They lift those adolescent eyebrows, raising one as though to say, "You are so lame," and then they ask me what I read. In my first year teaching, I'm convinced my students thought I read four pieces of literature: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Crucible. Why on earth would they think I only read those things? Because, you see, those were the pieces of literature we read in class, and those were all I talked about with my students. Somewhere along the way, I realized that they had no idea why anyone would read for pleasure, and I vowed to help them understand exactly why I did.

So I read, and read, and read, and along the way, I try to help others fall in love with it, too.

Teachers Change Lives...They Changed Mine!

How can I even begin to write about a week that has forever changed my life? I’m an English teacher and a reader. Words are my friends; they never fail me. Somehow, though, I can’t even begin to put into words what the past week has been in my life, or what it will be to me in three weeks, three months, or three years. However, I have to try. I have to try for the sake of this blog and because I don’t want to lose this feeling I have right now. From Tuesday to Sunday, I was surrounded by our nation’s greatest teachers. I attended the National Teacher of the Year Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the temperature was 76 degrees, the sunshine was plentiful, and the people were inspiring. And what did I think the entire time? Someone got it wrong. There was no way that I was a teacher equal with any of these people.

I assure you that I don’t say that because I want your pity or your comments that you think I am deserving. I say that because it’s a real and genuine emotion I experienced, and as I talked more and more with the other teachers, I realized I was not alone. Each person in the room had an amazing story to tell, all woven together with the stories of lackluster childhoods, life-changing students, and ominous obstacles that they had overcome so courageously. And while we each had these incredible stories of how we ended up in our classrooms, I also noticed something else we all had in common. On average, we could each name a handful of teachers that we felt were just as deserving of this honor as our own selves.

As the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling, introduced one of the finalists for National Teacher of the Year at our final banquet, we all stood to applaud and cheer on one of our own. When Sarah went back to the microphone, she said, “Every teacher deserves a standing ovation.” I am compelled to agree with her. I wish that each and every teacher could experience what I’ve enjoyed this year. I wish they could all walk into crowded rooms and be respected immediately…simply because they give of their lives every day for the sake of educating others. I want other people to want to hear their stories and to stand up and clap wildly when they tell them “why” they teach.

This week, I meet many teachers who I will forever aspire to be like. I met Lauren, a high school English teacher who teaches at Georgia’s Academy for the Blind, making her the only teacher who teaches her subject matter to that distinct population in her entire state. She is passionate, speaking out proudly for the children she teaches and demanding that people treat them with dignity and respect. I met Stacey, Mississippi’s Teacher of the Year, who teaches students with special needs who chooses to fully immerse her class in her school, with them participating in Homecoming events and spa nights. She has not only changed the lives of her own students, but she has altered the lives and the beliefs of every other child who attends her school. Because of Stacey, and her teaching approach, all the students understand humanity and what it means to treat others with respect and kindness. I met Alex, a pre-kindergarten teacher from Florida whose face lights up when he talks about the children in his class. He refers to the students’ families as “my families,” and talks about how difficult it is to be away from them. I met teachers from every single state, the Department of Defense, DC, American Samoa, and Saipan, who all go into their classrooms every single day and do what they do because they believe in children. They give this profession their all, and sometimes, they get little in return.

As I’ve been mentored through this journey this year, I have been reminded at every turn that this did not happen by accident, that my position as South Carolina’s Teacher of the Year is a “divine appointment.” I have not been convinced. You know how the second guessing goes…I could always name someone more qualified with better ideas, better speaking abilities, and just better in general. I don’t know that I will ever not think those thoughts. During one of the presentations, we received “Words of Wisdoms” from Teachers of the Year from preceding classes. This advice from Mary Schlieder grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go: “I'd tell them that they ARE worthy of this honor. Teachers tend to be a humble lot. And when they come together with 54 other incredibly talented people, it's common to feel something like "Someone made a mistake. I SURELY don't belong here." Well, yes, you do. Don't dwell on any inadequacies you may have as a teacher. We are confronted with these inadequacies daily in the classroom. Each and every one of us. Instead, be proud and aware of your strengths and use this platform to grow and to in turn become an even better teacher, advocate, and human being. Enjoy the journey!” Sitting in the ballroom in Arizona, surrounded by passion for students and this profession, I realized I am happy to be in this place. It’s not all roses or sunshine, but it has been the most incredible opportunity, and as a member of the State Teacher of the Year Class of 2013, I can say that my life has begun to be forever changed...for the better.