Books are for Recommending

In our first morning meeting after winter vacation, different students signed up to tell their classmates about something interesting they did over the break. Of course, I signed up and being the biggest in the class, I got to go first.

I told them that I didn't do much (except for driving my children here and there) but I did go to Barnes and Noble to look around and that I brought to class three books that I bought and was reading. I first showed them "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56" by Rafe Esquith. I told them what a great and inspiring book it was, but the only reason I was reading it was because someone, Mrs. Young, had recommended it to me. I asked them if they ever recommended books to read to their friends or if they ever read books that their friends recommended to them. I let them know that this was a great way to learn about books that they might like.

I then showed them the next book, because I knew they would be intrigued with the subject matter. I had read magazine articles and seen TV shows on Aron Ralston, and even though I knew his story I wanted to read his book. He wrote a book called "Between a Rock and a Hard Place." I told them to scrutinize the cover because they may see something unusual about the cover picture. You may remember the story of Aron Raslton, he was the hiker who went into some canyons for a hike, but never told anyone his destination. As he was climbing over some rocks a large boulder shifted and his arm was stuck between the rock and the wall. With no hope of rescue and no other chance of survival he broke his arm and then cut off his arm so that he could survive. The children then noticed the prosthetic arm that Aron wielded in the cover picture.

The third book I showed them was a running book called "Brain Training for Runners". I showed them this because I told them that I had already written a book report on the book (yes teachers can write reports)-this is on a running blog I recently started. Just as interesting (I hope) is that I informed them that the author of the book, Matt Fitzgerald, and I have already communicated by e-mail (yes- you can easily write to authors through the Internet). Hopefully my sharing gave them some food for thought.

Then I sat back and listened to the fun stories about what my students did over vacation!