Books Mrs. Gary recommends

My all-time FAVORITE book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Anyone who knows me knows this. I have read this novel more than 80 times, and I love it more and more every time I experience it. (AND I discover something new within it - and about myself! - every time I read it!) My favorite character in any book I have ever read is Atticus Finch, mainly because he possesses the characteristics I hope to one day fully attain. And Jean Louise "Scout" Finch is the fictional character with whom I most identify. Scout's inability to conform to social norms when she is young and her epiphanies within her moments of self-discovery as she grows up within this novel remind me of who I have been my entire life. Like any true classic, this book is timeless in the lessons Lee teaches through Atticus and through the people in Maycomb, Alabama, in the early 1930's. I only hope I do it justice each time I share my love for this literary great with my students.

A friend of mine who teaches second-grade told me about The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, and I was immediately intrigued by it. I checked out the book from the library and, about 33 pages in, I was so frustrated with not being able to highlight in the book that I ordered my own - and three others! - on Amazon! Once it came in a few days later, I started reading it from the beginning again just so I could highlight all of the statistics, anecdotes, and analogies that I found important points to be made about the effects of reading out loud to children. (I'm a little embarrassed to say that most of the pages within my book are now yellow!)

As a parent, my eyes were opened to the undeniable fact that my young child, just like every child, spends an average of "900 hours a year in school and 7,800 hours outside school" (Trelease xxi), making me and his father his primary educators. What I love about this book is that it "is not a book about teaching a child how to read; it's about teaching a child to want to read" because, after all, "what we teach children to love and desire will always outweigh what we make them learn" (Trelease xxi). Common sense tells us all that "the knowledge of almost every subject in school flows from reading" (Trelease xxv). Thus, if we want our children to be successful life learners, we MUST foster within them a passion for reading.

This book has transformed the way that I view my role as my five-year-old son's parent, and it has fine-tuned my long-held beliefs about reading within my classroom. I have always known that the more we all read, the smarter we are. However, I was never able to articulate why this was certainly true. Until now. Trelease provides this information time and again throughout this book, and he backs up every single claim he makes with evidence from reliable outside sources.

If you have young children or grandchildren, there is no better gift you can give them than the knowledge you will attain for their sakes by reading this book. I promise you won't regret it.

SOURCE: Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.

*I attained even more admiration for the author of this book after emailing him to express my appreciation for such a well-written, well-researched text and, in return, receiving a response directly from Jim Trelease himself! I will be sharing excerpts from our correspondence with my students throughout the school year.

"Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.

Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them.

It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers.

The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss."

SOURCE: "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust Paperback – April 7, 2014." Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust: Immaculée Ilibagiza, Steve Erwin: 9781401944322: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2017.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

I read Night by Elie Wiesel the summer before my senior year in high school, and it changed me forever. I had never before read about the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. Once I learned about this period in history, I found it hard to wrap my mind around all that happened in Europe during that time. I still struggle with how so many people could have participated in - or turned a blind eye to - such unbelievable cruelty.

The words above haunted me when I read them. They haunted me after I heard them read during Oprah's first interview with Elie Wiesel. And they continue to haunt me today. This is one of those books every human being should read . . . in order to ensure the continued existence of humanity within us all.

SOURCE: Wiesel, Elie. Night. N.p.: Hill and Wang, 2016. Print.

In 2000, Ron Clark received the Disney "Teacher of the Year" award. In November 2001, Oprah Winfrey named him as her O, The Oprah Magazine's first "Phenomenal Man." Winfrey encouraged Clark to write a book about the rules he implements within his classroom. And, as Clark himself has stated, "when Oprah Winfrey tells you to write a book, you write a book!"

The proceeds from the sale of that book (after Winfrey's glowing endorsement) were placed in a foundation with the intention of creating a charter school for underprivileged students, where Clark and other amazing educators like him could do things differently than how they are done in traditional American schools - and where they could teach others to do the same.

On September 4, 2007, Clark and co-founder Kim Bearden opened the doors of The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, GA, and, in doing so, opened the doors to teachers everywhere. RCA is a place where teachers can go to learn about what true rigor and student engagement look like, and where the 55 rules Clark discusses in The Essential 55 are on display at every turn.

The rules target the "whole student" and not just the academic version of each child. Some of my favorites include:

Rule 2: Make eye contact. When someone is speaking, keep your eyes on him or her at all times. If someone makes a comment, turn and face that person.

Rule 6: If you are asked a question in conversation, you should ask a question in return. If someone asks, "Did you have a nice weekend?" you should answer the question and then ask a question in return. For example:

• • Me: "Did you have a nice weekend?"

  • You: "Yes, I had a great time. My family and I went shopping. What about you? Did you have a nice weekend?"

It is only polite to show others that you are just as interested in them as they are in you.

And MY personal favorite, Rule 14: Answer all written questions with a complete sentence. For example, if the question asks, "What is the capital of Russia?" you should respond by writing, "The capital of Russia is Moscow." Also, in conversation with others, it is important to use complete sentences out of respect for the person's question. For example, if a person asks, "How are you?" instead of just responding by saying, "Fine," you should say, "I'm doing fine, thank you. How about yourself?"

Ron Clark is living, breathing proof that you can choose to sit on the sidelines because of perceived obstacles, or you can choose to DREAM BIG and work hard to make those dreams realities. Ron Clark is my professional hero. And, since going to the Ron Clark Academy, it is my goal to live my best teacher life every single day of the school year (and then spend every day of my summer "break" trying to be even better in the classroom!).