. . . . just one more chapter

A goal of mine in the past two years has been adding diverse books to my collection. In reading the selection  by Smith-D'Arezzo and Musgrove (2011), I see there are a few more things that I need to look at when choosing books. I thought it interesting that the reader sees the story and pictures differently based on the race of the reader. This made me think back on a comment a teacher made when passing through the library at South Elementary. I had a group of books displayed on the top of a shelf. The books were new and focused on character values. The book that she pointed out was Come Clean, Carlos : Tell the Truth . The cover had a picture of a hispanic boy. The teacher said, "OK, that cover is almost funny in a bad way." She was implying that hispanics can be known for being dishonest and stealing. I certainly had never looked at it that way, but I wonder if students had. When adding titles of books so that my students can see themselves in books, I want this to ...

Some of the readings for this week really broke my heart. "Girls Like Us" will just not leave my mind. I had never heard of special education students referred to as "speddies". It's hard to think that children would call each other that, but then I know that children are that mean. It's so disheartening to see how kids treat each other in this day and time. It keeps getting worse. What is happening to our world? (Maybe we could start with our president, but that's a whole new post and a different day.) One thing that I always told my students in the classroom was- You may not always be able to be the best in reading, or the best in math, but every one of you has the ability to be nice to others. I found myself telling a group that the other day when teaching them about digital citizenship. We were talking about being nice online and about your words being permanent. The digital world and lack of empathy are really scary. Some of the topics in this ...

I was very interested in learning the detail and collaboration in which the book And Tango Makes Three came to fruition. The thought and detail with all that were involved makes the book all the more special (Young, C. A. 2011). To be honest, I had heard of the book, but I hadn't read it before this class. I love the book for many reasons, the biggest being that I love animals. It is such a natural response to the love that the penguins have for each other. I’m bummed that parents wouldn’t want their children to see this and see natural responses from animals in a true setting. In reading a response from a parent that by reading this book, her child may be encouraged to be gay, I am amazed that a parent would think this. How can a children's picture book encourage the sexual orientation of a child? I need to become more familiar with responses and situations that I may become confronted with. I have had two situations in which a parent has complained. One was a note fro...

      I was looking forward to tonight's discussion after the compelling books that we were required to read and hearing what others had to say. One thing that I knew would come up is library collection, and I was hoping to get some insight into thoughts of others. I have checked out system wide collection policy that states goals and objectives of instructional materials. Some of them are as follows: provide a wide range of materials that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration the individual needs and varied interests, abilities, socio-economic backgrounds, learning styles and developmental levels of the students served provide materials that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values and ethical standards provide a background of information that will enable students to comprehend their role as citizens in society to place principle above personal opinion and reason above prejudice in the select...