Teachers Message Board

I have taught middle school and college in the past. I am currently teaching in a high school in Alabama. I teach writing and English. I have a lot of books on these subjects (most yet to be cataloged at this date) and a number of teacher memoirs that I highly recommend. I hope to find many new books to add to my must read list withthis group.

I just joined because I couldn't resist ... but I've got qualms about jumping into any group that catches my fancy because I know I'll never have the time to hang out & chat in most of them. Saw one group earlier today that had about 30 members and only one post ... seems folks just want to be associates with a given group ... not that there's anything wrong with that ... o well ...

I'm feeling my age when it comes to reading books on teaching. Seems I did it most passionately back in the eighties and early nineties when I was trying to learn how to teach. Since I'm in high school English I read mostly titles from NCTE ... really devoured them once upon a time ... But I've slowed down considerably ...

My top-of-the-head favorites are not too surprising:

Louise Rosenblatt
Nancie Atwell
Peter Elbow

Well, there's nothing wrong with joining and not posting anything. The main benefit of the groups isn't the messages, but the associations of our libraries with each other. You can compare your library to that of other teachers, get recommendations, and so forth.

I recommend everyone start tagging some books with "teaching" too, it'll make it easier to find books.

"teaching" tag = good idea ... i'll add it to all (most?) of my "education" books ...

yes ... i agree there's realy nothing wrong with joining billions of groups ... the potential for "associated libraries" is very interesting ... you may have convinced me

i'm reading Charles Dickens' Hard Times ... starts with a great satire on a certain type of classroom ...

"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else."

I'm a middle school teacher--and a book I find I pass out to all of my fellow LA/LIT teachers is You Gotta Be the Book. It's a phenomenal resource and a fun and easy read as well. Right now, I'm to wrapped up in getting ready for the new school year for much else, but I'd love to see what other's are reading!

I teach Kindergarten (I think that is obvious once you look at my library). I just thought it would be nice to belong to a group of fellow educators.

Talking about authors, here is one I consider a must read: Tom Romano. I first read Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers when I went through the Sun Belt Writing Project (an NWP affiliate) the first time in 1989. I just reread it this summer. It is still relevant. He has several other works, but I haven't loaded them into my catalog yet. As soon as I do, I will recommend them as well.

Here is a definite must read for when you are in need of a little inspiration: The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer. It helped me through a rough patch a few years ago and lingers in my memory.

Hi all, I'm a high school English teacher-in-training, and all advice is much appreciated. Ogreart, you'll be glad to know that The Courage to Teach was the first thing we read in our teacher ed program. I'm really glad of his frank discussion on fear, because that's definitely foremost on my mind at this point!

All of Tom Romano's books are excellent. His should be required reading for all English/Language Arts teachers. His other books on the multigenre research paper would be very useful for the classroom. I met him once at workshop and found him to be a very down home and intelligent teacher.

I agree whole-heartedly with Bakari. I have deeply enjoyed all of Romano's works. I have met him at NCTE conventions and he is a genuinely good guy. I have just put in another book, by a different author Mike Rose, that I feel is an important book for teachers to read: Lives on the Boundary. I also think Possible Lives is important. It looks at several classrooms around the country and tries to find what is working there and how. The conclusion I reached was that the teachers he visited were deeply commited.

I just got word yesterday that I'll be hired to teach HS Latin this fall, full-time with full benefits. Life is good.

I read Hard Times for a class. Very interesting in some ways...in other ways I just can't stand Dickens, purely because he was paid by the word. Is that wrong? I'm in my first year teaching middle school language arts and reading...it's rough stuff, isn't it? Anyway, just thought I would join the fray.

>5 jnyrose: You Gotta Be the Book is a fantastic book, written by an amazing teacher - I took my "Teaching Secondary Lit" and "Teaching Secondary Composition" courses from Jeff Wilhelm! Absolutely unforgettable instructor, and extraordinarily inspiring.