My new favorite song

Hands Across America. Is baby sign language an essential or a rip-off?

I have been saying this for a while, nice to get some back up.

Hands Across America. Is baby sign language an essential or a rip-off?: "Hands Across America
Is baby sign language an essential or a rip-off? by Pamela Paul
April 7, 2008"

Summer Reading List

And so it begins---
The Reader (haven't seen the movie yet and won't until I read this)
One Size Fits Few: the Folly of Educational Standards
Iconclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently
Letter to my Daughter
Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggressive Girls
Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
Still finding many more-----
Two weeks to go and freedom to read, read, read--- ahhh.

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

Just found this video and purchased the dvd from Itunes. Love, love, love this idea and the movement.

Olga Loya

On May 2nd, 2009, I attended the Stan Little Conference in Palm Desert with my dear friend Cassandra. We arrived a bit after the keynote speaker had begun but I certainly was captivated by Olga Loya. Olga is a storyteller (see the link above to her website). She was raised in East Los Angeles by parents who did not want her to speak Spanish and she shared her life experiences as a Latina woman trying to understand her heritage and the shame that families from Mexico seemed to feel about where they had come from.
I also enjoyed how she reminded us all of the idea that every family and every child has a story. I used her reminder to tell the participants in my workshop that they had to build on the family stories of the children they are working with to engender excitement in literacy. All children (all humans for that matter) want to know who they are. They want to know where they come from. We all enjoy hearing about when we were little or when our parents were little. Our grandparents have wonderful stories to tell. Not only can effective teachers "mine" families for stories, they can and should use the classroom events to make books and stories about the children.
So, get out that digital camera and begin writing the stories that will engage the children!