Showing posts with label Franki Sibberson. Show all posts

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Professional Books for New Teachers

Posted by Amazing People, on 3:49 AM

I'll never forget my first year of teaching.  I had planned to teach elementary and was given the opportunity to work with six graders.  To say I was unprepared would be an understatement.  There were no supports in place for teachers, but thankfully my husband taught eighth grade and the teachers in our small school were always happy to help.  It's still quite easy to remember how hard that year was for me.  I can remember telling myself that certainly by year three I'd have this teaching thing down to a science.  Of course, that didn't prove to be true as even over twenty years later I find I'm always working to change.

The first years were hard.  Thankfully there were professional books.  It wasn't long after I started teaching that Nancie Atwell wrote, In the Middle:  Writing, Reading and Learning with Adolescents now in its third edition.   To this day, I consider this book to be one of the professional books that helped shape my work as an educator and honestly may have kept me teaching.

Authors of professional books about education continued to improve my work when I moved grade levels, noticed parts of my teaching that I needed to grow, or joined groups of educators hoping to study teaching in greater depth.  Authors like Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas, Debbie Miller, Franki Sibberson, Katie Wood Ray, Ralph Fletcher, Shelley Harwayne, and Troy Hicks all played a part in important shifts in my teaching.

Professional Books for New Teachers
I've been doing a lot of our work with our newest teachers.  I've found their conversations engaging as they work to take what they know and solve new questions they're finding as they work alongside children each day.  In addition to working with new teachers, my son is doing his student teacher this year.  All of these conversations have me thinking about professional books I'd recommend to new teachers.  Here are a few titles I recommend as teachers begin:

Primary Teachers

Guided Reading:  Responsive Teaching Across the Grades
by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell


About the Authors:Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers
by Katie Wood Ray with Lisa Cleveland

Reading with Meaning:Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades
by Debbie Miller



For Intermediate
Still Learning to Read:Teaching Students in Grades 3-6
by Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak

The Reading Strategies Book:
Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers
by Jennifer Serravallo

Amplify:  Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-8 Classroom
by Katie Muhtaris and Kristin Ziemke
Teaching with Intention:
Defining Beliefs, Aligning Practice, Taking Action K-5
by Debbie Miller


There have been so many books written that it was hard to narrow to these titles.  These seem to be the books that help when thinking about the foundations of our work.  If you have favorite recommendations for new teachers, I hope you'll share them in the comments.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

The 2016 #cyberPD Book Is....

Posted by Amazing People, on 5:28 AM
Whew...

It took some time for Laura Komos, Michelle Nero and I to select the title for this year's #cyberPD virtual book talk.   We spent much time pouring over book stacks in the #cyberPD Google Community.   We went back and forth for days on Voxer.  There were times I wasn't sure we were going to be able to narrow to one title.  As many of you have discovered, there are many new great books for professional reading that have recently been released (my stack for this summer is here).  #goodproblems

It's never easy to choose a book for the event.  We always try to select a book which will reach a wide range of educators, sustain thoughtful conversation, and help us grow in the work we do with children.  So, you're wondering, what's the title?

Clues
#1:  The book was in a lot of stacks posted in the Google Community.

#2:  I lost a bet with Mandy Robek (I'll be buying her ice-cream...she'll be buying a book):




Nope --- it's not in Mandy's stack.

#3:  The person who wrote the forward for the book was one of our authors last year and is the new NCTE Vice President (Yay!!!!).

#4:  The book has a popular video series.

Yep, you've probably guessed it by now.  This year's #cyberPD title will be DIY Literacy by Kate and Maggie Roberts.  We think this book will speak to educators across grade levels and subject expertise.  We think it will support our summer community learning conversations...and we hope it will help us to envision possibilities for improving the work we do with children in the upcoming school year.  



So....we're hoping you'll join us for July's 6th Annual #cyberPD Event.  The #cyberPD community is now nearly 200 strong.  The conversation will take place across July.  Each week participants will read the featured chapters, share a reflection in the Google Community (reflect directly in the community, link personal blogs, or share other creations that demonstrate understanding...we're flexible), and finally comment on other community members' reflections.  

Week of July 3rd:  Chapters 1-2 & Bonus
Week of July 10th:  Chapters 3-4
Week of July 17th:  Chapters 5-6
Week of July 24th:  Final Twitter Chat

**Last year we added a weekly Twitter chat for participants.  This was a popular addition for many of our participants so we will continue to host a weekly chat for participants who prefer a little real-time conversation.   Stay tuned.   

We're hoping you'll join us for our global professional book talk.  It's sure to be fun!

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