It's back-to-school mode for educators and students around the globe. While it has been 10 years since I retired as a districtwide administrator, I began consulting with school districts. I taught teachers new ideas to bring a fresh look to learning using a mix of standards.
With the weather being extremely hot in many parts of the country, it is important to keep students focused. This can be accomplished with new books, new classroom layouts, collaborative lessons, timely topics, and joyful learning.
The moon has been trending as a timely topic with two different moon looks in August. Last week, I reviewed Irene Latham's new book, The Museum On The Moon-The Curious Objects on the Lunar Surface. It is an exciting book that will be ready for public viewing on September 19th. It will make a great mentor text to explore a variety of poetic forms and nonfiction information about the moon as not only a marvelous sky phenomenon but a museum of curious objects. Are you intrigued?
I believe that children will enjoy reading this book in collaborative groups that will lead to research, writing poems with different formats, and presentations of final products from an across-content area perspective. A final project like the creation of a moon gallery will showcase children's talent as artists, actors, and young writers/poets. Educators involved in joyful education in havens of learning offer students a wide range of exciting projects. Perhaps, this book will become a classroom favorite.
The time has passed and I did not even realize it but I am still posting this to Two Writing Teachers as this week's Slice of Life. I hope that every educator will enjoy this school year and help students become wonderers of learning and life.
