"Book? Good? Read?"

Funded Jul 16, 2013

This year has been particularly challenging for me. Two big changes have had an impact. First, I was split between two schools this year. I start at Colfax in the AM, working with students Grades 4-8. This is a real mix of kids from around the globe: immigrants, children of visiting scholars, most brand-new to the US. I have more students than I've had before, but need to compress them into my four periods in the morning. In the afternoon, I cross town and work with intermediate to advanced English Language Learners, most of whom are the children of Somali refugees. Most were born in Kenya, Tanzania or Mozambique camps and have been in the US for quite a few years. I'm helping them to develop more vocabulary and writing skills, hoping that many will test out of ESL this year. Challenge number two was that my partner teacher and I learned a week or two into the school year that we needed to move to a 'cozy' new classroom, only 40% of the size of our old room. So organization has been critical!

Our new bookcases were delivered, just before our move. I now have a bank of shelving along one wall. The new short black bookcase has books about immigration, kids from other cultures (Thanks, Betty!), books about the USA, and picture books. My next short bookcase has a bucket on top for books currently being read in school, a teensy half-shelf of some of my favorite international artifacts (I needed to give most away because of the space), and supplies I use during classes. Because the room is so small, I need supplies on the open shelves and also in the supply cabinet on other side of room because it is so hard to get around the kids. My next short bookcase holds the supplementary books I use for my curriculum. Then, the piece de resistance, the large black bookcase, is right by the door to classroom. I bought many dollar store baskets to organize the books. In this bookcase, I organized by easy reads, chapter books, nature, sports,fantasy/mystery, series, chapter books, poetry/mythology. After much thought and reshelving, I have found it works best to identify and pull out the easy reads and picture books and then to mix proficiency levels by genre. For instance, in the sports baskets, there are biographies of Roberto Clemente ranging from Grade Level 2 through secondary. (TY, B) Mixed in are Matt Christopher sports novels, books about skateboarding, etc.

The impact of your generous funding has been huge. Personally, it helped me tremendously during the very stressful move, to know that I would not need to get rid of the books I've found for my kids. In my new room, my students come in and out of the room all morning, by grade level. It has been so great that they can access and borrow books by themselves now. They find a book on the way into class, as we're settling in, write the title and their name on paper I post, and then cross off their name when they return the book. At times, I give book talks and give them class time to find books. It's great fun to hear them recommending books to each other, using their new English skills. Hoping 2014 is good to all of you! Mary”

With gratitude,

Ms. King