Mid-August Roundup
Just a Few Things I Find Interesting
Everyday my inbox is flooded with news, adverts and other miscellany that makes it hard to focus. So, I thought I would round up a few of the things that stuck out to me in the last couple of weeks and that I thought were worth passing on. Enjoy.
August 15th is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica. (This gentle reminder is mostly for my kids 😀)
Love John Green’s response to Fisher’s, IN ridiculous book banning which they are now trying to walk-back. If you are wondering, John Green’s books are absolutely wonderful fiction reading for teens and have generated deep learning discussions in my own classrooms.
Rivermouth is in my TBR pile (which grows taller each year!). You can listen to Alejandra Oliva discuss Rivermouth with Ellen Elias-Bursac.
Upcoming Writers Workshops that sound interesting (so many workshops… so little time!!!):
Creating a Sustainable Writing Practice (Zoom) – September 8th (always an interesting topic)
Prosthetic Dreaming: Using ChatGPT, Meditation, and Surrealism to Unlock Creativity (Zoom) – With Henry Lien and Jerry Lee Davis – October 21st (Ya, I know the title is a little strange, but Henry Lien’s workshops are AMAZING.)
Hemingway and The Art of the Sentence (Zoom Seminar) – November 12th (Ya, I know… Hemingway… BUT… I love sentence structure so could be interesting!)
Romance Readers – Check it out… The Ripped Bodice received a shout out in The New York Times. They now have a store in Brooklyn, NY in addition to their flagship store in Los Angeles. If you can’t make it into either store, you can buy online… they are fabulous!
And because I can’t help myself… interesting tid-bits in education:
Teachers Strike in the UK may continue into September. I have so many conflicting opinions about this. On the one hand… pay teachers what they are worth. On the other hand… stop holding the student’s future hostage.
The Russell Group has adopted new guidelines for responsible incorporation of AI as an educational tool. (It’s about time! Trying to ignore AI, is like trying to pretend students don’t use Wikipedia. Instead of banning it, let’s teach them how to properly use it. You can’t un-ring this bell.)
If you are interested in fostering language development in young children, this workshop is a must: Language-Rich Learning Environments and Experiences: Increasing Opportunities-to-Learn for Today’s Young Children