At My Fingertips

When it comes to memories, I have a ridiculous time managing them.  If I want to know how many years I've lived in my new house, I ask my cousin Laurie, who seems to be the keeper of such things.  (I hate to think what my senior citizen years could be like.)  Remembering what I read can be an issue too, so about eight years ago I started keeping a quote journal.  Whenever I read a professional book, I write my favorite quotes from the book in my journal.  Honestly though, I'd do this even if I had a great memory.  There's something about having such a collection of wisdom and knowledge right at my fingertips.  There's no more, "Now, where did I read that?" while I rummage through my shelves of reading material.  Plus, I think it increases the odds of the author's words finding their way into my teaching.  Reading a good book alone is usually not enough to see it take root and create change.  What's the next step?  For me, it's this journal.  Just looking through it inspires me.  These words have helped shape my teaching philosophy.  It's my own version of professional development.

Here are a few of my favorites.  Honestly, it's hard to narrow it down.  I wish I could share them all, but that could present a problem since there are pages and pages of them.

Regie Routman: "Only you as a knowledgeable teacher, can decide what your reading program should encompass and how it should be organized.  There is no best program or perfect model of teaching reading."

Debbie Miller: "We must be deliberate in September."


Lucy Calkins: "By supplying a topic from my experience and giving it to my students, I indirectly taught them that their lives aren't worth writing about, that they don't have their own cherished bits of life."


Regie Routman: "If you're reading everything your students write, they're not writing enough."

Lucy Calkins:  "In the name of education, teachers are told that after we plant little fragile seedlings, we are to uproot them every few hours to measure whether their roots have grown."

Donald Graves:  "Writing taught once or twice a week is just frequently enough to remind children that they can't write, and teachers that they can't teach."

Richard Gentry:  "I believe three things determine the successful development of literacy:  time, time, time.  Stand in the doorway of your classroom and ask yourself this question:  'How are my students spending their time?'"

Debbie Diller:  "My cardinal rule is that if it takes longer to make something than it does for children to use it instructionally, then don't bother making it."

Regie Routman:  "Most of my planning consists of trying to figure out how to make reading and writing as authentic and purposeful for students as possible.  Once I have that authenticity, I can teach anything."


Gail Boushey and Joan Moser:  "We move slowly to eventually move fast.  The payoff is enormous."

Regie Routman:  "I do it.  We do it. We do it.  We do it.  You do it."

Debbie Miller:  "Real life isn't scripted.  Neither is real teaching."

Amen!