Sunday Salon: A Round-up of Online Reading

I take comfort in Janet Gurtler’s Nerdy Book Club post, Growing a Reader: her son was a reluctant reader, but he eventually found the right books for him (dystopian fiction!) and now he’s an avid reader of that genre. Still searching for the right stories for my son!

Donalyn Miller’s post about a negative review of The Book Whisperer is a must-read. I teach pre-service middle and high school teachers–not one of whom has ever experienced a workshop classroom in their own K-12 education. So I’m with Donalyn: what should be “common knowledge” and even common sense most definitely is not.

I really enjoyed Five Ways to Nurture Talent (Without Being a Psycho Parent). A timely read too–my son had his first soccer game of the season on Saturday, and I was able to try out the six words that bring kids happiness: “I love to watch you play.”

The Colorful Principal reminds teachers to be aware of the ways that our students may be Living in Crisis.

Carrie Gelson has a thoughtful post about the times when things don’t go so well in our classrooms.

Renee at Learning to Muse attended a blogging training session and shares her learning so we can all benefit.

My son has been losing his mind with stress over the Smarter Balanced tests that will start next week at his school. Julianne had an interesting discussion with her students about their experience taking the practice test.

Ken has a provocative suggestion: let’s EXCEED the lame Common Core standards. (Lame is my word, not his.)

You’re following Pernille Ripp’s blog, right? Loved this post about how we need to bring more joy into our classrooms regularly, every day, for all students, especially for the ones we’d rather be punishing. (That’s good parenting advice too–and just what I needed to hear this week!)

The Reading Zone has a thought-provoking post about whether we should expect all teachers to be passionate about their work. Katherine Sokolowski follows up with an equally thought-provoking response.

Finally, this one is for the cat lovers: photographer Alexandra Crockett takes great photos of hardcore heavy metal fans and their kitties. These photos totally made me day.