Boys and Books...Let Them Eat Cake!

Today Pam Allyn, author of Best Books for Boys from Scholastic and Your Child's Writing Life (Penguin), led a webinar on Facebook.  She addressed questions about boys, books, and other struggles related to helping our boys read.

The best part for me was when Pam said, " One of the boys I work with said to me that he wishes teachers would allow for more choice in reading in school and offer more than (his words) "the kind of books teachers like that have medals on them"! 

I smiled widely.

"Thank god!" I thought. 

If we listened to kids more, perhaps as teachers and parents we'd struggle less.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Are you listening?

I am.  Off to by more books.  No medals either.

You can follow Pam on Twitter ...

Pam Allyn (@pamallyn) on Twitter

The Proclamation

Jon Scieszka posted this on Facebook tonight.

It sums up everything I feel about kids books and writing them.

Read and believe.

http://www.thepicturebook.co/

Birthday Blues

"Piz, piz" were his very first words.  Picasso was asking for a pencil (lapiz).  From the time he was a baby little Pablo knew he needed to sketch, paint and create.  Today, October 25th, is Picasso's birthday and today second graders in my class celebrated Picasso's "blues".

Day of the Dead blue altar boxes along with sculptures born from  recycled paper items infused an air of creative focus and celebratory buzz.

Giant bulls, guitars, violins, pianos, drums, flutes and prism-faced sculptures now adorn our classroom. The children created an entire orchestra and said they now need a conductor.

The birthday blues never felt so good.
I'd say the kids did a great job filling his birthday shoes.

I imagined Picasso wearing blue suede shoes.

Picasso would have approved.