Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Last Thursday, Brooke Geller read this book to us to close out our small group reading workshop session. It was powerful, it was moving, and it was a perfect ending to our week together. This book was written after Marian Edelman’s June 1, 1996 Washington, DC, speech about the importance of putting children first. 300,000 attended that rally 18 years ago.
Do you stand for children? What would evidence of your stand look like?
Back at the end of June, Chris Lehman wrote a post on his blog titled, “When There’s No White Horse: Being Our Best Advocate“. If you haven’t read it yet, go read it. Chris wrote that post as a response to another blog that had challenged ideas in Falling in Love with Close Reading authored by Chris and Kate Roberts. Chris chose to take the high road when he said:
“We, as a profession, need to advocate earlier and often for the policies that come our way. We need to shape the decisions that are made in our districts. We need to be active with our administrators. We need to offer our professional expertise so by the time something gets to the babble stage, it’s actually worth babbling about.” (06.25.14, christopherlehman.wordpress.com)
He continues on and tells us in the next caption, “We Can’t Wait for Advocates, We Need to BE Advocates!” (It’s not too late, you can still go back and read it!) Use his “small steps” to get started!
- Take back edubabble
- Don’t malign district decisions, get in there are help to make them
- Connect with other passionate educators
Your voice is needed! Stand for children! Don’t wait for someone else!
What do you stand for?
Resource - Full 
Love the idea of us being at the forefront of the “edubabble” 🙂 Great new word. And a real purpose for our blogging, I think! Thanks for this.
Maureen,
That’s totally Chris’s language but I love it, too! I like how you have connected it to purposeful blogging! We have great ideas but sometimes we just need that nudge into action!
Thanks for commenting!
I love that word, “edubabble.” This is a great post, Fran! Thanks for the link to Chris’ post. I haven’t read it, but I will now.
Jennifer
Jennifer,
Do read what Chris posted. His ideas are practical for keeping teachers in the “decision-making” loop. We must be part of the conversation and the solution!
We love the passion you have in all of writing. Your voice always shines through regardless of your topic. Thanks you for inspiring us continually.
Clare and Tammy
Thanks, Clare and Tammy!
It’s important that we continue to draw our inspiration from the BEST of us because we can and do make a difference each day we work with students!
Appreciate your comments always!
[…] and July Reading Institutes. See previous posts for a compare and contrast lesson #CCSS here, Stand for Children here, and a book review […]