It starts

This whole thing started because of Donalynn Miller. She is a teacher of reading and writing in Texas, and a self-proclaimed book-addict. Maybe she didn't use those words, but she would if she had thought of them. Anyway, she is nicknamed "The Book Whisperer" because of her ability to instill a love of reading in her students. She credits her ability to do this with her own love of books. To encourage other teachers (and parents, librarians, or anybody else in minor contact with minors) to read more, she posted a blog entry trying to get people to read a book a day during summer vacation. The "rules" were pretty simple: read an average of one book each day of your summer vacation. Children's books count.

As I described this challenge to another teacher, their initial reaction was that reading a children's book a day was cheating. However, after further discussion, we realized that this was a brilliant way to make sure that we actually read the books we teach to our students. Oh, I haven't mentioned that part yet: I teach reading and English as a Second Language (and before that, fourth grade) to fourth and fifth graders. So yeah, that provides some context.

Anyway. How often do we hear other teachers saying they haven't read the book they're teaching, they don't have time? This is kind of a poor excuse. If we expect our kids to be constant readers, shouldn't we also be constant readers? If we tell them to be lifelong learners, shouldn't we be lifelong learners?

So here I am. I'm going to stop making excuses and start reading the books. I have 72 days of summer. 72 children's books. I can do this, right?