Book Club for Teachers

Professional Leadership

Margaret Greene

The things I have learned about the new literature have impressed me and I have been appalled with my lack of knowledge. I realize I had been stuck in the past and not as aware as I should have been of new developments. After talking to some of my co-workers, I came to realize I am not alone in this.

Therefore we agreed there was a need for us to develop a forum to discuss the new literature and share with each other.

We held the first Book Club meeting on Monday March 13, 2005. I brought several of the books we have read in this class to start off the discussion. I began with an explanation of Post Modern Picture Books and discovered this to be a new term to several. I then shared Black and White and we had an interesting discussion about this book as compared to most of his other books, several of which we found in the library. We also discussed Voices in the Park and Zoo using insights from our class discussions.

We agreed it was exciting to take this chance to share books with our colleagues and that we would try to meet about every two weeks. I very much enjoyed this experience and have had a couple of teachers who didn’t come to the first meeting ask about the Book Club and say they plan to come next time. Not only is it important to stay in touch with current literature trends, I think this can be a positive experience to help build a much-needed bond between those of us who rarely have time to talk. It is amazing how little time people who teach in the same school have to speak to fellow teachers. I also see this as a way to share love and excitement for teaching. To All Interested Faculty:

Some of us have discussed beginning a "Book Club" for those who would like to have a support group to increase awareness of new books being published. We would like a forum to discuss and evaluate new literature. We are going to have a meeting on

Monday, March 14 at 2:15 in the library. We will meet for about

15 to 30 minutes and of course anyone can leave when they need to.

Bring your favorite book and those who are attending the reading conference bring new ideas.

Thank you,

Margaret Greene