May's Teaching Tips from UCTE

It’s Summer! What should you do now?

I hope whatever it is, you find it renewing. I also hope that you find a little time to rejuvenate your ideas for next year. To that end (since I can’t do much about recommending a specific beach or resort J) I hope you’ll take a minute or two to think about some of these ideas for your next school year.

Ask questions: There are a number of Nings available now that you can join to see what others are discussing—and pose questions of your own. Besides reading and asking questions, it’s also a good place to see that you might have an answer that someone else doesn’t have yet—that feels good—and it makes you feel connected to others in the profession. Go to NCTE’s home page (http://www.ncte.org/) and find the “Join the NCTE Ning” link on the lower left column. Join a group or two that interest you. It’s fun!

Write! Write? Yes, write—and share your writing. You are probably thinking what a nut I am—how is writing rejuvenating? But it can be! On the NCTE link above, you’ll see that the National Day of Writing is coming on October 20. For more information, check out this link: http://www.ncte.org/action/dayonwriting/actionresources As part of the National Day of Writing, NCTE is hosting a National Gallery of Writing. I have agreed to be a curator—but it will take more work than one person can do. If anyone reading this is interested in working with me on the Utah Writers gallery, let me know. I’d  love it. Or start a gallery of your own! Check out suggestions for what possibilities can be contributed on this sequence of blogs from NCTE’s Inbox blog: http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/search/label/National%20Day%20on%20Writing They are really clever, creative ideas—not your normal way of thinking about writing!

And explore NCTE’s National Gallery of Writing to consider all the ways people write in their lives. Here’s the link to the National Gallery home page: http://galleryofwriting.org/default.php  Right now it lists galleries (you’ll see Utah on the list), but none of them are open yet. Consider having your class publish writing to the local gallery—Utah Writers—and invite other classes in your school to do the same.

Share: Did you have a great lesson or unit plan this year? Consider submitting it to ReadWriteThink! Besides going to the site (http://www.readwritethink.org/) to find great ideas to rejuvenate your teaching, consider being an author for them. I can tell you that doing so makes you think more deeply about your teaching—and it doesn’t hurt a bit. In fact, it’s great to see how much we know! When you get to the page, go to the drop-down menu at the top of the screen and find the link for Authors. It will guide you through the process. And you can tell your students next year that you’ve been published!

Okay—the best part—read. I hope you get lots of time to read this summer. To relax in the sun, to rest on a beach, to soak up sun and words. If you’re like me, you have a stack of books just waiting for you to pick them up. But in case you still have room on the table or on your To-Read list, consider the books selected for UCTE’s QUEST competition next year: These books were selected by ninth graders from Springville Junior High who researched and read book reviews on top YA novels and then voted for their favorites. Here’s their list with comments:

·         Dracula by Bram Stoker 
This classic novel was written in 1897 and the main character, Count Dracula, has been inspiring countless movies, books, and plays ever since.  Few, if any, have been fully faithful to Stoker's original novel of mystery and horror, love and death, sin and redemption.  In it, Stoker created a new word for terror, a new myth to feed our nightmares, and a character who will outlive us all.  378 pages

·         Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
This novel, the first of the Mistborn Trilogy, turns the fantasy genre on its head by asking a simple question:  What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge? The answer will be found in this saga of surprises and magical martial-arts action. 541 pages

·         Godless by Pete Hautman
Jason Bock, together with his three friends, decide to start a new religion with a new god - the town's water tower.  As their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own.  While Jason struggles to keep the faith pure, Henry Stagg schemes to make it even more exciting - and dangerous. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself. 198 pages

·         An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Colin Singleton can't understand why every girl that dumps him just happens to be named Katherine.  He embarks on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will impact all of his future relationships and change his life. 227 pages

·         Six Days in October by Karen Blumenthal
Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, the fabulous fortune that Americans had built in stocks plunged with a fervor never seen before. At first, the drop seemed like a mistake, a mere glitch in the system. But as the decline gathered steam, so did the destruction. Over twenty-five billion dollars in individual wealth was lost, vanished, gone. Investing in the stock market would never be the same.  This acclaimed YA nonfiction by a Wall Street Journal bureau chief chronicles the six-day period that brought the country to its knees. 156 pages

And consider entering your students in the QUEST competition! It’s really a great opportunity for students to show what they know about books and language, writing and drama. Start planning now by going to this link for information: http://community.weber.edu/uctela/englishquest.htm

You can also recommend books for the following year’s competition.