Teachers Are Readers Too!
Posted by Kim Murphy on 30 Jun 2009 | Posted in: Inspiration and Motivation, Life After School
From my experience, teachers generally have a love of reading. I know one of my favorite activities is to curl up with a good book, and there’s no better time to read than during the summer months! Magazines abound with recommended summer reading lists and best books for the beach. So I thought we would try our own little teacher-approved recommended reading list on The Mailbox® Blog. What are you planning to read during the summer months? What are some of your favorite books from past summers? Type me a quick note to name your all-time favorites! Then you can use the recommendations to jot down a list of potential books to read. Hey, all of these books are teacher-approved—just like our ideas in The Mailbox® magazine!
All the best,
Kimberly
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63 Responses to “Teachers Are Readers Too!”
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More Comments Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 » Show All Comments
I try to keep a balance between reading for pleasure while mixing in some educational reads that give me some new ideas for the upcoming year. Jodi Picoult and Susan Elizabeth Phillips are my two favorite authors. For the romantics, “Match Me If You Can” by Phillips is great, and for Picoult “Picture Perfect” and “The Tenth Circle” will have you flying through books!
I love to read as well! I’m a first year teacher and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for professional books that might help with the stress and nerves?? Thank you for any help!!
During the summer I like to catch up on my “pleasure reading” as well as professional reading. I just finished up the first Twilight book and now I am reading the newest book from Nora Roberts. As far as professional reading goes, I am reading Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller. It has great ways to organize your classroom and get rid of clutter. I am an avid reader and my love for reading does not stop when the school year starts. I try to make time before bed each night to catch up on my latest novel. Sometimes I even share with my class what I am reading at home if it is appropriate. I think they like to see that teachers are readers too.
Part of my daily routine during the school year is ’silent reading’ time shortly after lunch. Everyone gets out a book to read for 15-30 minutes. To set a good example as well as get in some reading time myself, I too read. When students see me reading a novel they begin to realize that it takes me longer than 10 minutes to finish it and use the same bookmarker I make for them at the beginning of the year. What great modeling I must be doing because so many of my fourth graders mock what I do during this time - even using their bookmark to same way I do! I continue this habit during the summer but change the time to the evening and for a much longer period of time. Since I live rather far from the closest town I get my books at the grocery store. Suspense, mysteries, biographies - are all for me. I’ve completed three of James Patterson’s ‘chance’ novels he wrote with Andrew Gross since June 3. Sweet iced tea, a lounge chair on the deck, phones turned off and lock the dogs inside so I can enjoy the air, trees, and nature in general. I try to stay on a schedule of sorts planning for next school year. The Mailbox is what I refer to the most for fun! I have some from 1989 that are a treat for me to pull from because no one at my school was even out of middle school by then. It’s the best thing I share to get tongues wagging (so to speak).
I take turns reading MY “adult” book; then I read a book that my students have read or a new book for future sharing with my class. Plus all of the articles in my magazines… I crave more time to read. A colleague gave me a book, Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns, and I couldn’t put it down! It was a fast read for almost 400 pages. I’m ready to read her next novel, Leaving Cold Sassy, if I can find it. I also read the children’s book,The Mysterious Benedict Society BY Trenton Lee Stewart. Great book!! I’ve already bought the 2nd book by the author, so I’m anxious to finish my grown-up book, Finding Life by James Graham. Finding Life is wonderful also!! Plus, I’m taking an online class and reading the book, Time to Teach. I think I’ve got all bases covered, don’t I?
I love to read “fun” novels during the summer! I enjoy Charlene Harris, Diana Gabaldon, Catherine Coulter, and Patricia Biggs to name a few! I also like to purchase a few teacher resources and mark pages and make a note of things I want to try in the new school year. It’s fun to do when I have plenty of time and no deadlines! I also love to cook, so believe it or not, I read cookbooks!! Just for fun, I decided to re-read A Wrinkle in Time this summer. It was my most loved book in Elementary School. Happy Reading everyone!
I absolutely love to read. In the summer months I try to read a little for myself and for my kids. My all time favorite book is Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. After using it as a novel study last year, I read the sequel Ghost of Spirit Bear. Awesome with real life situations going on in todays schools. I also just finished the Kidnapped series by Gordon Korman. Great adventure and very easy reads.
I also love to read! I don’t have alot of time during the school year to sit down and read all day, so I wait till summer vacation to “catch up”. My favorite authors are Nora Roberts, James Patterson, and Patricia Cornwell; for light reading-Southern Living magazine. When I finish my books I pass them on to my mother who is an advid reader and a retired teacher.
I couldn’t pick a favorite read if my life hung in the balance…well, maybe under that condition. I just read a book borrowed from my daughter that she bought because it “looked interesting”. As it turned out, it was set in Virginia not too far from where I live and my daughters grew up. In fact, the author, Jason F. Wright moved to the Shenandoah Valley area after having fallen in love with it while researching it for the book, The Wednesday Letters. He also wrote the New York Times bestselling book, Christmas Jars that I intend to read as well as his newest, Recovering Charles.
I write a weekly column, “wee Notes” for a small hometown newspaper The Southside Messenger.
I too am an avid reader — and I read just about anything. Just finished my 4-5 book for the summer. If I don’t slow down I am going to start raiding my beach bag - I buy myself 4 books for the week at the beach, park myself under that umbrella and start reading. I love historical fiction, but mystery is just as good sometimes. I can get very picky. Loved Harry Potter and the Twilight series. The Septimus Heap series is pretty good too. Last year I read the chronicles of narnia. I agree with Diane though alot of summer is spent catching up on magazine articles and figuring out better ways to organize my “Stuff”!
I use the summer to “cleanse the palate” when it comes to reading - I read Danielle Steele, Patricia Cornwell, Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult - and maybe will read one education-related book. It is a time to catch up with all those magazines, like Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, and just grab a big cup of iced coffee, kick off your shoes and turn down the phone - me time in its finest!
I love to read and try to instill that love in my own children as well as my class. I have already read three books this past month and many magazines. I love to read short articles because I have two younger children but this year they have given me more time to read. I am so excited!