Links Worth Talking About 1-31-16

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

This week I reviewed Tom Romano's latest book Write What Matters: For Yourself, For Others. 

Ricki Ginsberg makes a compelling case for why teachers and librarians need to lay off the lexiles.

I love Jenni Holm's Nerdy Book Club post this week: Back to (Board Book) Basics. 

Hank Green concurs with his brother John and discusses why the term millennial makes him cringe.

Danielle Davis shared a great post on All the Wonders: 12 Delightful Picture Books with Diverse Characters

Sometimes educational communities on Twitter are criticized for living inside their own little worlds and not responding to issues and problems as they are unfolding. They conduct their regularly scheduled chats with little to no recognition of the problems occurring in real time, causing them to appear somewhat tone deaf. This week, the #MichEd community focused their chat on the crises we are dealing with in Flint and Detroit. I was happy to see this educational community on Twitter rally in support and pose questions to try to move beyond simple Twitter activism.

Shannon Houghton shared this link with me this week and highlighted the Ignite session by Saraswati Noel about social justice in math class.  


Pernille Ripp shares how to make grades about students again.

The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan's student newspaper, wrote this wonderful article about my favorite bookstore, Literati.

More discussion this week about A Birthday Cake for George Washington after furor of its overt racism caused Scholastic to pull the book from publication.


This week I found out that one of my favorite books of all time, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is getting a sequel!

And apropos of nothing...

Three people shared this link with me on Facebook this week. Because my friends on Facebook know that I am obsessed with sloths: Police Officers Rescue Sloth Trapped on Roadway

I am a huge figure skating fan. I have been ever since I was 14 years old and the whole Nancy/Tonya showdown of the 1994 Olympics. I finally got around to watching the U.S. National Championships on my DVR this week and I was completely spellbound by ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani. "Fix You" by Coldplay is my favorite song. So when I heard the first notes of the song, I worried that they wouldn't do it justice. Oh boy was I wrong. Not only did they interpret the music perfectly, but they created a moment and will now always be remembered for this performance.

A post about familial influences and as a result, a very biased book review

"So why do you want to write? For most people, living a good life and writing are not synonymous. In your case, however, they might be. Words call you. You aren't content to merely take note of life swirling around you and rising within you. You want to have a say about it, and talking isn't enough. Talking is evanescent. You want some permanency to your words."

 English teachers know the name Tom Romano as the author of many books about the craft of writing and most significantly as the face of the multigenre writing movement. He has inspired many teachers with his words and his teachings but long before he was inspiring future English teachers, he was inspiring me, a young impressionable child, not even a decade old yet. You see, Tom Romano is my uncle.

But even before I read every single one of his books, he was my writing role model from a very young child. He modeled a writing life for me and I am a writer today because of his influence.

I still remember the summer my family stayed with him and my Aunt Kathy when we moved to northern Kentucky (they live in southern Ohio, not far from Cincinnati). At the time, he was working on his very first book, Clearing the Way. I didn't know what a big deal this was until years later when I became a teacher and actually read the book for myself. But what I do remember from that time is that he would get up very early in the morning, hole himself up in his office, and write for hours.

He explained to me, a rather boisterous and opinionated 6-year-old, his strict rules about noise level and distractions in the house until a certain time of the morning. If I woke up before 11:00, even if it was 10:59, the mandate given by the resident author of the house was as follows: “No TV before 11:00!”

This became such a routine that I found myself, upon awakening every morning, walking down the hall, peeking my head in the doorway of his office and chiding him with an exasperated, “I know! No TV until 11:00!”

Reading with Uncle Tom as a wee one

But even if he weren't my uncle, it would be very hard not to be inspired by his words. Because for him, writing is life. It's not a pedantic set of rules and regulations one must follow in order to be considered talented or proficient. In his mind, in order to be a writer, one must write. Trust the gush. Revel in words and language. Write to elucidate your own thinking. It's as simple as that.

With Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy at my recent graduation party

And so, as I suspected, Tom Romano's seventh book is just as inspiring as all of his others. Write What Matters has a somewhat different feel to it though. It has more of an imperative tone than his previous books, but it's done in a kindly way that compels one to write, not a condescending and sanctimonious way that will discourage young writers. *coughcoughThe Elements of Stylecoughcough* Romano comes across as the wise but gentle sage, ready to take on his young charge, not unlike say, a lovable and revered Mr. Miyagi or Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I especially appreciated the short chapters in Write What Matters, making them easily transformed into mini-lessons or quickwrites to share with students. I already know of quite a few chapters I will be sharing with my own students.  And as a self-proclaimed foodie, I will no doubt be using the "Make Me Taste It" chapter as a writing prompt in class. After all, one of the reasons I'm a such foodie to begin with is because I take pleasure in not only experiencing the flavors and textures of a perfectly executed dish, but also in describing those flavors and textures with language. I drive my husband a little bit crazy when we try a new restaurant because I spend just as much time describing my food as I do eating it.

So if you're looking for a book that will inspire your students (AND YOURSELF!) to pick up a pen or stare down the blinking cursor of a blank computer screen and say to it, "You don't scare me," you'd be hard pressed not to find inspiration in Write What Matters.


Write What Matters: For Yourself, For Others by Tom Romano
Published: October 20, 2015
Publisher: Zigzag Publishing
Pages: 158
Disclosure: Copy gifted to me by the author

Links Worth Talking About 1-24-16

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

So this has been an interesting week in the world of Children's literature. Scholastic did something unprecedented. After only being in bookstores for a matter of days, they pulled the book A Birthday Cake for George Washington after furor of its overt racism. Lots of people seem to be weighing in on the topic without having actually read the book so rather than give my opinion, I just shared a link of someone who is more informed than I am.

Despite the unfortunate situation with a book being pulled from publication, this has been a rather prolific couple weeks in announcing children's literature book awards. In addition to the ALA Youth Media Awards, we also just learned the winners of:
Charlotte Zolotow (award for best picture book text)
Amelia Bloomer  (award for feminist literature from birth to age 18)
The inaugural Walter Award that was created by We Need Diverse Books 

Mr. Schu interviewed Newbery medalist Matt de la Peña this week and it was just as wonderful as you'd imagine.

This week I wrote a post about how a story in Elizabeth Gilbert's  Big Magic inspired my class to create a new mantra: Be the lobster.  

My friend Gary Anderson wrote this wonderful post about his top ten favorite interview questions for hiring English teachers. This post is so on point that the next time I have a job interview, I will ask these questions to myself and then answer them for the interviewers if they don't. :) 

I am a huge fan of the 826 organization that was founded by author Dave Eggers. We have one 826 location in Michigan, in my soon-to-be hometown of Ann Arbor, and I am elated to find out that Detroit will also be getting an 826 location.

This is an important article from the New York Times about Ivy League and other highly selective universities rethinking their admissions process.

Feeling burnt out? Pernille Ripp shares 12 ways she got her life back in balance as a teacher.

For those of my teacher friends who give their students choice and agency in their reading lives, you should be applauded. But Erica Beaton wonders what happens when we don't ask our students to push themselves and read hard things they wouldn't choose on their own. 

I need to put these words somewhere prominent as something to say the next time I have an anxiety attack.

This is an amazing TED talk by author Linda Sue Park: Can A Children's Book Change the World?

"In order to find yourself in a book you have to lose yourself in a book."

 Did you know you can order cards by beloved illustrators Jon Klassen and Christian Robinson? Check out Red Cap Cards.

And finally, if you haven't seen this parody of Adele's "Hello," but by a teacher wishing for a snow day, it's brilliant. 

Be the Lobster

I recently read the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and was absolutely gobsmacked. The book is a paradigm shift in how we should approach creativity. Gilbert posits that we need to throw away the trope of the tormented artist in favor of lightness, curiosity and play in our creative work. She has definitely inspired me in how I will approach my writing life from this moment forward. 

To illustrate an important point in this book, Gilbert tells the story of an American artist who goes to Paris to be inspired. One day he finds himself at a cafe and meets some charming aristocrats. In the course of their conversation, they invite the American to a costume party at a castle in the Loire Valley. Being the starving artist that he was, he had to use his creativity and ingenuity to come up with a costume for the party. 

Upon his arrival, he immediately realized that he missed something in translation of the invitation: the costume party was a theme party -- a medieval court. Everyone was dressed in period gowns and were dripping with jewels. The young American came dressed as... a lobster, replete with red tights, a painted red face, and giant foam claws. 

At this moment, the young American had two choices: run away in shame, or stay and risk the torment of being the only one not dressed like everyone else. In that moment, he decided to descend the stairs and join the party. In so doing, he ended up being the life of the party and even danced with the queen of Belgium. 

I read this story to my students this week. They wrote about it in their writer's notebooks and we talked about it as a class. As I discussed this story with all three of my 8th grade classes, there was the inevitable suggestion that, "Hey! Let's all dress as lobsters for Halloween!" Or, "We should all go to homecoming dressed as lobsters next year!" As some students nodded their heads in assent or verbally expressed their enthusiasm, I immediately thought to myself that some of them had missed the point. 

So the next day, I brought in the picture book The Hueys in the New Sweater by Oliver Jeffers. This is a book about a group of people who are all the same. Until one day one of the Hueys decides to knit a sweater and be different than everyone else. At first the Hueys are horrified, but eventually the sweater catches on, and then this happens:

So now the new mantra in our classroom is BE THE LOBSTER. But let's make an important distincton here -- "be THE lobster." Not "be A lobster." When given the choice to be like everyone else dressed in gowns and jewels, walk down those stairs into the ball wearing your red tights and giant foam claws and dance with the queen of Belgium. Put yourself out there. Be vulnerable. Don't be like the Hueys. 

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres

Links Worth Talking About 1-17-16

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


 I hope you'll join us tonight at 8 PM ET on Twitter for the first #nctechat of 2016, hosted by members of the brand new NCTE Assembly on the Studies of Literacies and Multimedia (SLAM)

Speaking of #nctechat, remember that time Newbery Award-Winning author Matt de la Peña co-hosted the chat for Banned Books Week? I know I do. :)

I'm still so happy and thrilled about the news from earlier this week that Matt's book Last Stop on Market Street won the Newbery medal. After I heard the news, I read it to my students the next day without the pictures and asked them to write about what they thought made it distinguished. Many of them had trouble articulating just what made it distinguished, but even those who seemed a little dubious of this choice still could tell that there is something special about this book.


Caldecott medalist Sophie Blackall, illustrator of Finding Winnie, tries to put some of her feelings into words. 

 Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, author of the Newbery honor book The War That Saved My Life, talks about hope. 

Here's a great NPR interview with both the Newbery and Caldecott medalists. 

And Kevin English reminded me of this great video from last year's Caldecott medalist, Dan Santat, where he talks about his art influences. A wonderful mentor text to share with students to have them ponder their own artistic influences.

I found this Washington Post article fascinating:
The totes amazesh way millennials are changing the English language
I have a confesh: I am totes guilty of totesing. I approach language like a linguist, not a grammarian. I love studying (and participating in!) the ways in which culture causes language to evolve.

And speaking of millennials, John Green has some words for the adults in the room:
Stop patronizing young people and start listening
I've been saying this for a long time. You can either yell from your porch to "get off my lawn" or you can bother to listen to young people and seek to understand what they have going for them. If you hadn't noticed, all adolescents are self-absorbed. It's called being an adolescent. You were no different.

The book Quiet by Susan Cain changed my life. It made me realize that not only am I an introvert, This article really resonated with me because, yes, as an introvert, I abhor small talk. but that in a culture that only seems to embrace extroversion, it's time to find ways to value and nurture the introverts of the world.

An important article from the New York Times:
How Measurement Fails Doctors and Teachers





And apropos of nothing:
All the Times President Obama Lost His Chill Around Kids

Celebrate all the things

There are so many things to celebrate this week.

The first of which is that a picture book won the Newbery award! And it wasn't just any picture book. It was Matt de la Pena's picture book. Matt is one of the most amiable, generous, likable writers in the children's literature world so the fact that Last Stop on Market Street is a Newbery-winning book now, just makes my heart happy.  Matt co-hosted our Banned Books Week #nctechat back in September with current ALAN president Jennifer Buehler, so I had the opportunity to work with him on planning that chat and I can attest to what a committed and giving person he is despite his busy schedule. To see such a prestigious award granted to such a deserving person, I tip my hat to the Newbery committee. I love that we are changing and evolving in our understanding of what literacy is, what is literary, and what it means to be distinguished.

This is probably my favorite Tweet from the reactions of the day:

Average length of a Newbery winner is like 200 pages and @mattdelapena's all Nah man, I've got this in 32. BADASS.

— Cristin Stickles (@ThtsWhatSheRead) January 11, 2016

*~*~*~*~*

Back in October, I wrote a post about the need for change. That as much as I love that my husband and I have made a beautiful home in our condo, I am ready to move into a house of our own in a town that we love -- Ann Arbor, Michigan. The deal was that I had to finish grad school first.

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I graduated on December 19th. We were already meeting with a realtor on December 23rd. On January 2nd we went and looked at four houses. We fell in love with the first one we saw. On January 4th we put in an offer. It was accepted. We're closing at the end of February.

I said my One Little Word for 2016 was Do. I wasn't messing around.

*~*~*~*~*

I let my students listen to music when they're writing at the computer because for some it genuinely helps them concentrate (it totally distracts me, but to each his own). One of my students was listening to music Old School style this week. It totally cracked me up. I love when students do things to amuse me.

Links Worth Talking About 1-10-15

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

Today I am the guest poster on Nerdy Book Club: Top Ten Books that Colored My Whitewashed World.

Another post on Nerdy Book Club this week that inspired me: Schools That Read Together: Cultivating Reading Communities at the Secondary Level by Heather Rocco

I am so excited that Gene Luen Yang has been honored as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Further proof that #ComicsAreRealReading.

Speaking of comics, Colby Sharp just informed me this week that Cece bell and Tom Angelberger are going to be guests at the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival (formerly known as Kids Read Comics) this summer! Woo hoo!

And speaking of authors coming to Michigan (I need to find some better segueways :-P), Ruta Sepetys is coming to Ann Arbor in February! My calendar is already marked! 

Are you watching the ALA Youth Media Awards webcast tomorrow? I know I am!   

Are you submitting a proposal for NCTE 2016 in Atlanta? Don't forget proposals are due this Wednesday. In this video Susan Houser and Jason Griffith give some proposal writing tips.

This post by Art Markman is important for teachers to read: 4 Things You Learned in School That Make You Less Creative. 

If you ever doubted the power of poetry, this poem by Matthew Olzmann about the gun control debate might change your mind: Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czeslaw Milosz.

Speaking of gun control, this is a really powerful post about the need to sit beside our neighbors and get to know them rather than seeing everyone as suspicious and cause for carrying a gun.

As someone who only recently gave my anxiety a name, I am intrigued by this article:
The Secret to Making Anxiety Work in Your Favor

More reason not to lose hope in all humanity:
These 23 pictures prove that 2015 was not as sad as it seemed

Links Worth Talking About 1-3-16

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

Every day since December 26th, the Nerdy Book Club has been announcing winners of their annual Nerdy Awards.Today was the last day of the Nerdy Award announcements and I'm honored to have been part of them. I wrote the review for the YA winner, The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds.

On my book blog, read my top 15 favorite books of 2015.

When I return back to school from Christmas break, I'm going to have my 8th graders write an analysis of their favorite choice to win the Caldecott Award that will be announced on January 11th. I love this post by Jessica Lifshitz about how she did a mock Caldecott unit with her 5th graders. Lots of great ideas to adapt to 8th grade.

Austin Kleon's weekly newsletter is one of the few weekly emails I receive that I actually read faithfully (that and NCTE's Inbox newsletter). I loved his recent post about the benefits of boredom.

As someone who has kept a journal since I was 11-years-old, I don't need convincing about the benefits of keeping a journal. But some of you reading this might, so here's 9 reasons why keeping a journal should be your only resolution this year.

If you're on Twitter and you're not following Shawna Coppola, do something about that right now. I think you'll especially want to after she blows your mind with this blog post: Four Stories That Homework Tells Children About School, Learning, & Life. (Spoiler alert: they're not positive stories).

I love this blog post by David Abrams about the best first lines of 2015. Definitely a mentor text to share with students.

My husband often makes fun of me for calling myself an introvert because whenever I go to conferences and get-togethers where I'm in the presence of my bookish and teacher friends, I'm anything but quiet. Which is why this article resonates with me: 10 signs you're an outgoing introvert. 

And apropos of nothing...

This is a pretty awesome mashup of the top hits of 2015 in 2 minutes.

I have never watched Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but since he recently interviewed President Obama, I thought I'd give it a gander. It was pretty funny.

As someone who has only seen the original Star Wars movies because of an essay I had to write in college and has no interest in seeing the new Star Wars movie, this made me crack up: Someone who never saw 'Star Wars' hilariously live-tweeted the original trilogy

"Two Words: Space Voldemort"

Celebrate One Little Word

I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions. I get the importance and symbolism of new beginnings and setting goals, but I think resolutions fizzle out more often than not. So I was excited last year when I learned about One Little Word from Ruth Ayres. Rather than make a new year’s resolution I would likely break in a month, I decided to follow in others' footsteps and choose One Little Word to be my focus, motivation, and source of meditation throughout the year. For 2015 my word was Brave. That word served me well and was a nagging reminder to “dare disturb the universe” when it was easier to just stay safely silent.

This year, as I watched many in the public eye hide behind their “thoughts and prayers” while standing idly by, I have decided my One Little Word for 2016 will be Do.

Do what scares you.
Do what inspires you.
Do what you know is right.
Do YOU dare disturb the universe?