Links Worth Talking About 12-27-15

Links Worth Talking About is my weekly post of curated links about education, books, and apropos of nothing.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, not an angsty Christmas like Chase Holfelder, who made this way emo version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" in a minor key.

If you live in Michigan, I encourage you to sign this petition urging Governor Snyder to veto SB 571, which if it becomes law, "librarians would be sent to jail for sharing factual information about elections with their communities."

Everything Kwame Alexander writes, I will read. This School Library Journal article is no exception.

Kelly Gallagher tweeted the link to this article from 2011 and it just reinforces in my mind the need for mentors as we learn to write, whether those mentors are other writers, entire texts, or as simple as sentences on a page. I'm thinking I might make this an article of the week for my 8th graders.
Think You Know "How to Write a Sentence?"

Thanks to The Yarn podcast, I have recently begun dipping my toe into the world of podcasts, of which I had no interest before. So I enjoyed this Nerdy Book Club post from Colby Sharp and Travis Jonker about podcast recommendations to complement favorite books.

Kevin English informed me of this place last summer, but I have yet to visit it. I definitely need to go sometime: the University of Michigan Property Disposition Warehouse. I'm thinking if I ever need furniture for my classroom, this might be a good place to look.

Marquin Parks is a friend of mine from Michigan and fellow Writing Project teacher consultant who did an Ignite session at NCTE last month. I just discovered someone recorded it. It was by far my favorite Ignite session of the entire group.

Speaking of NCTE, who is submitting an NCTE proposal for 2016? The due date is January 13th.

And finally, I grew up in Dearborn. My mother still lives there. The city has the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the country. I have never felt unsafe there despite the rhetoric that is perpetuated by politicians and the media these days.  It's a place I am proud to have called home.
Dearborn, MI: Where the Muslims Are... Americans