Commitment

This year has been a great year in my reading life as I have made time during the day to allow my students and myself to read. As summer approaches, I am afraid of what my reading life will look like when I need to clean the house, prepare meals (apparently kids need to eat!), and all of the endless "life" jobs we all need to do.  Often, I admire Anne's dedication, or just desire, to read every day, so I started to think "why can't I do that?"

So here it is: I am making a public commitment to read at least 20 MINUTES EVERY SINGLE DAY this summer.

Yikes.  What's 20 minutes, right?  No matter the vacation, craziness of the day, number of meltdowns Aiden has had in the last 24 hours, I am going to give myself 20 minutes.  Because I can and I need it.  Because it's what I believe in and what I enjoy.  The reason for the commitment: I know myself.  I am competitive and very goal-oriented; this may not be a strategy for all, but it works for me. Wish me luck!

Here are the titles I will start with (not in any specific order):

Just Mercy was a book that was recommended by a friend who teaches middle school as a good book to pair with To Kill a Mockingbird.  Since TKAM is a 9th grade book, I thought I would give it a shot.  Written by a lawyer, Bryan Stevenson writes about the case of Walter McMillan who was sentenced to death for a famous murder that he didn't commit.
















American Street was a book that was recommended by Pernille Ripp at a conference.  Not going to lie, the book cover is what sold me on this book.  The other part about this book that caught my attention was the topic of immigration from a Haitian perspective.  Excited to read this one!

I am a sucker for YA romance literature (this somewhat explains my binge watching of Gilmore Girls this past spring).  Gross, I know, but when Pernille Ripp suggested this book as a light, romance novel, I was in.  First and Then could be great, or it could be ridiculous.  We will see!

This last title is a professional book because who doesn't love getting some good PD during the summer?  Seriously, I love it.  Choice Words has been in my office at my house for the past two years.  One of my graduate professors recommended this book as one of the top books every educator should read.  He fully admitted that Peter Johnston comes from elementary land, but according to my professor, all grades would find useful information in this book.  With the increase of conferring in my classroom, this book has been calling me for the last two years.  I am hoping to learn more language to use during conferring sessions to put students at the center of the learning and to increase student accountability.






Here we go!  Even though summer hasn't "officially" started, I have no students today or tomorrow, so I'm starting my commitment today.  Finally, freedom.