Past Winners of the Norman Mailer Middle and High School Teacher Award

Past Winners of the Norman Mailer Middle and High School Teacher Award

Walter Dean Meyers Dies at 76

Wrote of Black Youth
for the Young

A Conversation with Walter Dean Myers on NCTE Blog ReadWriteThink

Duration: 27:02

If there is anyone in the world of children’s and young adult literature who could be described as a living legend, it’s Walter Dean Myers. Tune in to hear how his own experiences as a reader have shaped his approach to storytelling, what he seeks to offer young people through his writing, and the thinking behind a select handful of his novels – books that incorporate concepts as varied as magical realism, the social contract, and oral histories with our nation’s war veterans.

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources
/podcast-episodes/podcast
/conversation-with-walter-dean-31109.html

/conversation-with-walter-dean-31109.html

Read the full New York Times article

https://alyssamoore.youcanbook.me/

You want to send me an invite, try using youcanbook.me.  The link is below.  I'm trying it out for the first time this year.  I learned about it from a fellow student at USC.



https://alyssamoore.youcanbook.me/

Lyrics to the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I heard this song in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" with George Clooney and it's hard not to draw parallels to today's financial woes. I've been in awe of the author who came up with "where they hung the jerk who invented work," ever since.

Roger Whittaker - Big Rock Candy Mountain lyrics

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning, 
Down the track came a hobo hiking, 
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, 
There's a land that's fair and bright, 
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, 
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again, 
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels, 
No axes, saws nor picks, 
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day, 
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

I'll see you all this comin' Fall

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

 Lyrics | Roger Whittaker lyrics - Big Rock Candy Mountain lyrics

Test Podcast - ELA 9B

In class today we created a podcast. I recorded a preview of a lesson I will teach next week.  It's a little choppy, so don't judge too harshly.  Thank you NCTE and NPR for the inspiration.

Click: Test EDUC 550 with Dr. Pascarella

Only a Teacher

Only a Teacher  

I am a teacher!

What I do and say are being absorbed by young minds

who echo those images across the ages.

My lessons will be immortal,

affecting people yet unborn,

people I will never see or know.

The future of the world is in my classroom today-

a future with the potential for good or bad.

The pliable minds of tomorrow’s leaders will be molded

either artistically or grotesquely by what I do.

Several future presidents are learning from me today-

so are the great writers of the next decades

and so are the so-called ordinary people

who make the decisions in a democracy.

I must never forget these same people

could be the thieves and murderers of the future.

Only a teacher.

Thank God I have a calling to the greatest

profession of all.

I must be vigilant every day

lest I lose one fragile opportunity

to improve tomorrow.

~Dr. Ivan Fitzwater