Ok, I’ve got a grumpy crabby post that I was thinking about, but then it hit me, it’s Read-In day!  Why would I ever want to spread my curmudgeonry on to anyone else on a day like this??

 

For those of you unfortunate  souls who don’t know, our Read-In is the one day of the year where reading is just that, reading.  It’s not tested, poked, prodded, put into some kind of box or bubbled up, it’s just about reading.  Students bring in their silly slippers (at least mine did), their blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, lawn chairs, and a pile of books.  The singular goal: read.  This year, we started reading at around 8:45 in our multi-purpose room, got kicked out for lunch at 10:30, then got back in at 1:00, reading until 2:30.  That’s close to four hours of reading for pleasure those good fit books, the ones they want to read.

 

The temptation for teachers is to use this a time to check a paper, do a lesson plan, or use this time to get caught up with something, but I will have to say, I saw none of that this year.  Me, I was reading Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, the book on which the movie, “Field of Dreams” was based.  I read this for a long while, then moved to my gardening magazines: Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News.  The students were very curious about what I was reading as I also had Lincoln on Leadership by Donald Phillips and Readicide by Kelly Gallagher too, both of which I didn’t get to. “Why are you reading those books?” “What are they about?” So, we had a book talk of my stuff, letting them know that yes, adults read books too.  And yes, I read for pleasure, but I also read to learn too.

 

All in all, this is one of my favorite days because we can talk about books, reading, and celebrate the fact we have this time to read what we want.  At some point I’m sure this too will pass because we need to do something, but until then, I savor this day like a do a good piece of chocolate, with a smile on my face! 🙂