Thursday, June 23, 2011

What Are You Learning?

Yep, it's summer.  The time to catch up on professional learning.  This week Gail, @poulingail, asked what we were doing for our summer professional development (#summerPD).


It was then that I realized I had my online learning planned for the summer, but had not really thought much about my professional reading.

Without hesitation I knew I wanted to:
But what about professional reading?  Usually there's a stack of books waiting for me to read, but I hadn't really formed a plan.  What has happened?  I knew I wanted to reread Patrick Allen's, Conferring, but what other books should I read?  I put the question out to my colleagues on Twitter and got this response from @Komos72



I thought this picture was inspiring....so I made my list.  

Summer Professional Reading Rereads
Conferring, Patrick Allen
Choice Words, Peter Johnston
Summer Professional New Reads

The Castle in the Classroom, Rana Bhattacharyya
First Grade Readers, Stephanie Parson
Engaging the Eye Generation, Johanna Riddle

Creating Lifelong Readers Through Independent Reading, Moss and Young
Already Ready, Ray and Glover

Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics,  Van de Walle and  Lovin

Please comment to tell what are you reading and learning this summer.  


8 comments:

  1. Wow I think I will just bookmark this and have my summer professional reading/goals ready to go. Thanks for sharing such wonderful book titles!!
    Looks amazing and I can't wait to read your summer posts.

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  2. Cathy, Thank you for your wonderful blog! This summer I am also reading Patrick's book Conferring for the first time. To begin with, I read Mem Fox's Radical Reflections from 1993. WOW!!! It is SO empowering! I am trying to calm down about how our 3rd through 6th grade teachers have gone workbook crazy over CSAP testing! So far K-2 are workbook free. I have also lined up Stephanie Parsons' Second Grade writers. I am very interested in a good Math Workshop book. Which one is best for a start?

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  3. Love, Love, Love...Already Ready, Teaching Student Centered Mathematics, Choice Words! Enjoy. I too have Castle in the Classroom in my TBR pile. (Also, Catching Readers before they Fall.) I'll have to think of more. I did read Teaching with Intention by Regie Routman on vacation and it was a great global book to refresh with. Maybe I need my own blog post. LOL

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  4. Yay! I'm so happy we've connected on Twitter. And thank you for the mention on your blog! *blushing* I can't wait to swap thoughts on the books we're reading! I might have to borrow your idea and create my own Summer PD plan. Thanks for the inspiration!
    ~Laura (@Komos72)

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  5. Thanks for the post on PD this summer. I have been too busy moving my class to a new room and culling a huge amount of material. (Still have a week's worth of tasks including some painting.) I can't wait to refocus on my own learning. It's great that you have amassed a big collection of targeted reading. You have made the task easier for the rest of us. It's a good thing my Google Reader aggregates these posts as I can stay in touch during morning coffee and before I head back to school.

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  6. Cathy,

    I love how you trace your thinking through various tweets and blog posts. I also just wrote a blog post about my summer reading on the same morning that you posted this one. I was spurred to write it by a series of tweets - the one you mentioned here from Laura and the series of tweets between you and I about your book. I would love to be as mindful as you are in noticing where your ideas come from.

    You have a couple of books on this list that I would like to read, too. I have read First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons and loved it. I was not aware that she had written one about first grade readers as well. I am adding it to my list now.

    I listed several other books that I am hoping to read this summer on my most recent blog post. I also listed the things that I want to remember from your book. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Maria, Mandy, Laura & Gail, thanks for your comments. It looks like we all have the same summer goals. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as you work your way through your professional learning piles.

    Jean, I love love love Mem Fox's Radical Reflections. It really helps to remind us about what is important. Mem is always so honest in her thoughts on the importance of reading, yet she reminds us that it is really quite simple to provide these authentic opportunities. I'm not sure of the best Math Workshop book (Mandy Robek of Enjoy and Embrace Learning or @Saskateach on Twitter might have that answer).

    Jill, funny how those common conversations on Twitter provide a thread to our blog conversations too. Thanks for the compliment about the tracing of thinking in my posts. I hope they help readers to get to information they might be interested in finding out more about, but they really help me to get back to important links and connected information.

    Thanks everyone for commenting!
    Cathy

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  8. I just started Readicide and already am recommending it to everyone. Have you read it yet?

    Also,all the books here --http://imaginationsoup.net/2011/06/books-for-your-nightstand/

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