The Book Whisperer

Oh My Gosh what a wonderful weekend/beginning of the week I've had!

Sunday, I met 7 of super innovative educators for dinner with Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer. Dinner was incredible. I've never had an experience like that. I sat there pinching myself listening to this group of highly innovative and inventive teachers talking about their classes and teaching styles. They all completely blew me away!! I felt like I should've been taking notes throughout dinner so I remembered every little thing they all said! (Don't worry, I resisted the urge, though.That may have been a bit weird! hehe) Everyone was so great about making me feel welcome and giving me all kinds of interesting and helpful advice. I was beyond excited when one of the teachers that is teaching summer school with me announced that now I was "part of their group" and that any of them would do anything to help me with my future lessons. As silly as it sounds, I was thinking "Eeeek! I get to be in their club! I get to be one of them!!". Sunday night's dinner really reminded me what type of teacher I want to be. What an amazing opportunity and experience it was!

I woke up Monday morning thrilled to be getting to go to Donalyn's workshop. Let me tell you, I knew it was going to be a cool experience, but it was so much more than I even expected it to be! She is such a wonderful speaker and SO knowledgeable about what she is speaking on. Donalyn's whole concept or theory is that we need to do more than teach reading, we need to create readers. She suggests that the only true way to do this is by getting students to ENJOY reading (a foreign concept to most jr. high/high school kids). Donalyn teaches freedom of choice in reading. Basically, she tells the students they will be expected to read 40 books total over the course of the year. She gives them guidelines for how many books should be read from each genre. (For example: 5 fantasy, 12 realistic fiction, 3 poetry, etc.) This concept moves responsibility from the teachers to choose books to the students. Not only do they pick their own books, they must also pace themselves in order to finish all the books by the end of the year. Donalyn has been doing this particular method for numerous years and says its results are positive every year. Kids that read 0 books the year before end up reading 20 the year they have her. (No, they don't fail if they don't read 40 books, so not all kids read 40) The idea is to get students engaged in reading. She does this by having them choose their own books, alotting reading time in class, and having them keep their own reader's notebook (this is where the majority of the grades for her class come from). I could go on and on about her theories and strategies, but that might get boring! haha If you're interested in finding out more about Donalyn and her freedom of choice reading check out her book, The Book Whisperer! I promise, you won't regret it! :)

Sunday and Monday were just phenomenal days for me as a future educator! I learned so much!! In addition, talking to these awesome teachers got me so excited to have my own classroom one day! I'm going to email a few of my Baylor professors sometime this week and discuss how I can incorporate the strategies I've learned in my TA and Intern years. I can't wait to become one of these inspirational and inventive teachers I've learned so much from in the past few days!!

As my summer internship comes to an end I'm swept up in a flood of gratitude for the experiences I've been able to have and the people I've been able to meet. This job has turned out to be more than I could have ever hoped for! I am so blessed to have been able to work with these great teachers and crazy kiddos! Though its been a rocky road somedays, I've learned a lot and grown a lot as a "preservice teacher". This experience has really reiterated that this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm more confident than ever after all my experiences this summer that I was meant to do this and I am completely capable of doing this. Who knows, maybe I'll be the next Donalyn Miller....I wish!! haha!

Don't get all sad thinking this is my last blog about my internship, guys! I'll do one later this week (hopefully tomorrow) giving a debriefing of my last 2 days of summer school with the kiddos. Tomorrow is their last day and Thursday is my last day! 2 days until Eric visits! Wahoo!!