Changes

I know it has been awhile, but I've been busy. In between several meetings and a week long conference, I had to pack up 13 years worth of teaching materials---including a huge classroom library. It is so weird to even type these words, but I am leaving Maplewood Middle School. I took a position as the Menasha High School Literacy Coach. Same district: new office, new principal, new staff. However, I won't be leaving Maplewood completely as part of my job is to help bridge the two schools. The best part is I still get to work with Barb Novak, the current Literacy Coach at Maplewood! Love her!

Now that I have had to condense a classroom and decide what to bring to my new 8 ft by 12 ft office, my home office is overflowing with young adult literature. I left some books behind for my former colleagues but I have a plethora of great books that could be used at the high school and am donating most of them to English teachers who expressed interest. I would rather my former students have the opportunity to read them than sell them at a garage sale or even to Half-Price Books.

So now that my belongings are moved from one school to the other, the new furniture has been chosen and picked up by our wonderful district maintenance staff and is resting peacefully outside of my new office--which is waiting to be painted and re-carpeted., I have another list to tackle. My summer reading list. It has taken a different spin.

My summer reading list:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck (Just finished!)


Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction by Jim Knight


Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction by Jim Knight (Amazon says it is arriving today. Note that this title says "Dramatically Improving Instruction" and the first one by Knight just says "Improving Instruction.")


Coaching Conversations: Transforming Your School One Conversation at a Time by  Linda Cheliotes and Marcela Reilly.


Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines by Doug Buehl (I started this one back in March or April and the book binding fell apart, IRA sent me a new copy and I just haven't gotten back into it yet.)


Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading By Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey and Diane Lapp (I also started this one but haven't been focused enough to finish it.)

I am both overwhelmed and excited--and not just because of my reading list!  This blog may end up taking a tiny spin in a different direction, but I do have several blog posts that I had been working on with activities and ideas that I planned to develop and will still share.  Rest assured that through this blog I will continue to share the lessons, the struggles, and the learning that develops from this new endeavor!