The Latest Books in My Bag

Culturize by Jimmy Casas is the latest book that I am diving into. Word is getting out that I love to read based on 3 gift cards to Barnes and Noble over the holidays. Reading provides so much power. You have heard the phrase, "Knowledge is power." Fostering a love for literature in your home or your classroom turns out students who love reading. Reading and having a love for literature comes in so many different forms these days. It used to just be books you got from the library. In our modern world, literature is reading from our phones or tablets, magazines, websites, twitter feeds, FB stories, comic books or graphic novels, the newspaper, signs around the room or out in public...the list is endless.

There are several classrooms who have taken advantage of DEAR time this year and it is paying off big dividends. These classrooms are dedicated to setting aside a consistent time out of each day for silent reading. The teachers are participating too! There is always a new book on their desks with sticky notes in a different location so I know that they are reading. Students are just devouring books at a record pace and sharing with their friends. It truly is exciting to see. If you haven't taken advantage of DEAR time and been consistent with it, now is the time to start with the beginning of a new semester.

It doesn't matter if the students don't know how to read every word in a book, they are looking, exploring, guessing, or creating their own story in their head. They are learning to love books and getting excited about the day that they can read all of the words on the page.

The book Culturize is about what it takes to create a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs: kindness, honesty, and compassion. It talks about how to be an Awesomizer instead of an Awfulizer and how what we model is what we get.

My colleagues have said that it is quite possibly the best professional book they have read! I can't wait to see what is discovered between the pages!