Are You Living or Existing? by Kimanzi Constable

from Google

Are You Living or Existing?

What a great question!

I recently reviewed this book for ForeWord Reviews.

Constable shares nine steps to creating a meaningful and fulfilling life. In short chapters filled with advice inspired by the author’s own experiences, readers learn how to define their goals, excise negative people and thoughts, and more.

 

Please read the review.

Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard

What I got from Millionaire Messenger, has nothing to do with money.

The book is a good overview of the expert field, but it made me focus on how I can give.

How do I take what I know and help someone else? 

That's why I began this blog and a new one called NOW (Novice on Writing).

I want to serve millions.

The Supportive Foster Parent

I saw an article in The Virginian Pilot yesterday about foster children being adopted more often these days. The little girls in the photo looked so happy. It reminded me of the book I reviewed for ForeWord Reviews a while back.


If you’re a foster parent, The Supportive Foster Parent might be useful. Please let me know what you think of the review and the book. Also, I have a fold and gather copy of this book and will be happy to give it to you.

What's in My CD Player?

The Social Animal by David Brooks is in my CD player.
You can read a New York Times review of it by Thomas Nagel.

Can the Dead Write?

Have you ever read a memoir written after someone is dead?


I did.

Read the review of My Life After Life at ForeWord Reviews.

What do you think?

What’s in my CD Player?

Betty White’s If You Ask Me: (And of Course You Won't) is in my CD player. Betty reads it with feeling and that hint of innocence she gets in her voice even when she's saying something a bit naughty.

I’ve always thought she was funny, but I’ve never read any of her books. The book is short and funny, filled with information about aging, recent movies and television appearances, including SNL, and long running jokes (Think Betty’s comments about Robert Redford). I’ll only mention 1 topic that a reader might not expect Betty White to say much about:


Writing

She says writing is her favorite thing to do. It was interesting to hear her read about the hand/heart connection involved in writing longhand. I feel that way, too. Writing will often gush from me, misspelled (and sometimes omitted) words and all when I sit down with a notebook. Yet, when I’m at the computer, I always feel the need to perform, and to perform well, so I often deliberate over each word. White and I also have our love for stationery in common. She says she loves stationery stores and will often buy notebooks and paper even if she doesn’t need them. She says a fresh notebook can free her of writer’s block. If I hoard anything, it’s paper and notebooks. I think they should be positioned at arm distance regardless of where I sit in my house. I’m the same way with pens. I keep several on the window ledge in the bathroom and in pencil holders all about the house. I am extremely annoyed when I get a good idea and the pen I grab, does not work. I toss those immediately because I cannot be bothered. I bet Betty can’t either.

What’s in my CD player?

Tina Fey’s Bossypants. It’s hilarious. Her description of her father, Don Fey, is my favorite part. Maybe my favorite part is about her disastrous honeymoon. I’m not sure. The pictures on the pdf made me giggle and the SNL clip was neat, too.


I usually cringe when some authors read their own work, but she does all right. There are times, though, when her voice is too low and I miss the punch line of a joke. But I do enjoy hearing about how she views things. Oh, to write funny.

ForeWord Book Reviews

Finding reviews of books from independent publishers just got easier at ForeWord Review's site. If you click my name, for example, you can see all of the books I've reviewed.

Why We Get Fat

I picked up this book after I read Taubes’s article in *Reader’s Digest about the same topic since my doctor mentioned it when I took Z in to see him a few weeks ago. Here’s what I am stuck on:


1. I can’t exercise my way to skinniness. Taubes calls it the “elusive benefits of exercise”.

2. Maybe I need to reduce some of the carbs that I am madly in love with.

3. No one can convince me that vegetables and fruits should be reduced and possibly replaced with meat.

4. Carbs are hidden and I need to look for them.

5. Heredity is a factor in how fat I get, but I can do something to fight it.

After I finished reading this book, I decided I have been eating too may carbs and I do want to limit them. I’ve been doing it for two weeks, but it has been hard because I love the mobility a sandwich allows.

Have I lost any weight?

I don’t know.

I’m afraid of scales.



*A condensed version of the article is available on the RD site, but I suggest reading the book so you don’t jump to erroneous conclusions and say good-bye to exercise and all carbs.

Using Technology to Improve Adolescent Writing

What do I want to remember about this book?


1. The authors, Liz Campbell Stephens and Kerry H. Ballast, “glam up” traditional lessons by incorporating technology (e.g., the group mapping lesson moves from paper to moodle or some other online classroom assistant and programs like Inspiration.

2. They use the story of a student to illustrate the student’s learning and engagement with the make-over lesson.

3. The chapters focus on KWL charts, the Vocabulary Self-collection Strategy, and literature circles.

4. Each chapter focuses on different content areas.

5. Stephens and Ballast remind readers that the writing process is recursive, not a step-by-step procedure, and they suggest terms like inside writing, which sounds like James Britton’s expressive writing to me; responsive writing, which includes sharing writing with others for feedback (e.g., peer response); and purposeful writing, audience ready writing that is meant to go public, especially on the web.

6. My favorite section is “Ten of Tens”. I like the ten ways to change a lesson so it includes technology even though the things on the list are well known (e.g., YouTube, Teacher Tube, Photo Story, Son of Citation, and so on), though I didn’t know any of the people the authors recommend that I Google: Wesley Fryer, Cynthia Selfe, Margaret Roblyer, to name a few.

All in all, I learned something about revamping lessons, but I still wonder if we’re adding technology because we can or if it really enhances student learning.

Literacy in the Welcoming Classroom by JoBeth Allen

Well, if the idea to encourage teachers to grade parents (catches on, Jo Beth Allen offers idea about what to do with parents once we grab their attention. The answer isn’t related to making cupcakes or chaperoning fieldtrips, it’s about being an active partner in children’s literacy learning. Allen asks how we make engaging with families a priority so that we can help improve students’ literacy practices. Each chapter includes activities along with a helpful Read to Learn section, a brief annotated bibliography. Though her audience is K-5, some of the activities could be adapted for an older audience. For example, students of all ages (and their parents) can read literature written in dialects and discuss the author’s decisions; use photography to share aspects of family and community; share family funds of knowledge; and discuss, study, and debate social issues.


Allen also includes relevant research such as the six graders turned hiphopographers who studied and wrote about hip hop culture from Samy Alim’s work; “Tell me about your child” prompt from Betty Shockley, Barbara Michalove, et al.; and Alfred Tatum’s notion of including must-read texts.



Disclosure: I do know the author, but I got the book from the National Writing Project because I am a site director. Allen does not know I have the book and she doesn’t know I blogged about it. I wanted to read it because my students say they often feel unprepared to work with parents.

Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: Lessons for Teachers of Literature

The latest book by Deborah Appleman will help teachers like me who love teaching literature but never really saw themselves as reading teachers. It’s a thin volume in which Appleman asserts, “the connection between being a literature teacher and being a teacher of reading is closer than you think.” Of course she’s right. Literature teachers help students do what good readers do (e.g., make connections, visualize, predict, empathize, and so on) and more. First, the book shares current reading research and looks at how the definition of texts is always changing before focusing on specific types of readers (e.g., dormant readers, boys, adults). My favorite chapter is the one on assessment where she discusses the problems with standardized testing and offers concrete tools for making decisions about assessment within a reading program such as reader’s self-efficacy and meaning negotiation. The teacher vignettes are also informative. Here are a couple of neat teacher ideas that I highlighted:


• Create a Facebook page for Esperanza from Sandra Cisneros’ “Eleven” and have characters tweet each other

• Use Google Maps to explore Esperanza’s street

• Do the Human barometer exercise so students can indicate how strongly they feel about something

Cheap Skate Next Door by Jeff Yeager

This book is for the “fiscally responsible”. I love this book. If the author were not married, I’d swear he was my soul mate. Here’s why:


• I find living below your means attractive.

• The author has a great sense of humor.

• He argues don’t waste anything. Everything can be reused in some way.

• He’s not big on budgeting or using coupons, but he does believe in watching your spending.

• He knows the difference between a need and a want.

• And he believes in having a good time without spending a dime.

Yes, I’m in love.

Golden Lines

"Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form."

~~Vladimir Nabokov qtd. in Reading Lolita in Tehran

Book Announcement

Milner, H.R. (2010). Start where you are but don't stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today's classrooms. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.












Disclaimer: Dr. Milner is a colleague who has done some amazing work. I look forward to reading Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There.

The Glamour of Grammar

I enjoyed The Virginian-Pilot article on Roy Peter Clark’s The Glamour of Grammar. Here are two of my favorite lines:


Clark says the words glamour and grammar “were once the same word and both refer to magic: Glamour ‘evolved from grammar through an ancient association between learning and enchantment. There was a time when grammar described not just language knowledge but all forms of learning….”

Who knew grammar had glam?

“One point Clark makes in ‘The Glamour of Grammar’ is that we learn our reading and writing skills everywhere, from textbooks to text messages. ‘Every writer should learn the requirements of mainstream American English, but so many powerful messages are communicated in nonstandard English.’”

Yep, there are definitely things that nonstandard English allow us to express that just wouldn’t quite cut it in standard parlance.

Aspergirls

If you want to learn more about Asperberger’s Syndrome, especially how it manifests itself in females, I recommend Rudy Simone’s Aspergirls: Empowering Females with Asperger Syndrome. I learned a bunch when I went to Simone’s web site too. The book offers advice to girls gleaned from the personal experiences of over thirty women that Simone interviewed. It also offers guidance to parents, too. As far as I know, I do not know anyone with Asperger’s, but as an educator, I wanted to find out more about it and this book helped.


Disclaimer: I reviewed this book for  ForeWord Review and wanted to mention it here because I found it so helpful.

Golden Lines

"Buy hardback fiction and poetry. Request hardback fiction and poetry as gifts from everyone you know. Give hardback fiction and poetry as gifts to everyone. No shirt or sweater ever changed a life."

~~Annie Dillard, in Lee Gutkind's In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, p. xiv.

The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

                                 Yay!  The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature is coming out next month!
    
My friend, Joseph, shared this wonderful news with me. What a collection!

Take a look at the table of contents below and prepare to be awed.

We've got a lot of good reading to do. 



 

Lifelong Learning

While I Am the New Black made me laugh and it made me sad to read about how difficult life can be, there was one command that reached beyond emotional responses to the text:

"Learn to learn."
~~Tracy Morgan with Anthony Bozza, I Am the New Black

If I had my own classroom, I'd post this on the wall. Maybe I should post it somewhere at home:)

Did anyone read this book? Do you like Tracy Morgan's comedy style? I'm telling you this was the funniest book I've listened to this year.