These Two Have A Lot in Common

So September 2009 was when I returned to teaching after a nine year absence. I landed a nice maternity leave replacement job, worked like the dickens, and all was right with the world. The teacher I replaced returned, I started subbing with a stack of resumes to mail out for a job for this September. Only now New Jersey public schools are facing crazy big budget cuts resulting in program cuts and layoffs galore. It's looking like this very enthusiastic English teacher with a massive hole in her resume might not be able to find a job for September. It is all pretty frustrating and demoralizing especially when I am also concerned about the cuts being made in my own children's schools. What I ought to do is ignore my troubles with some good escapist fiction: science fiction, chick-lit, English mysteries, but no, instead I am reading books about teaching that make me excited about the imaginary job I probably won't find for next year. Or worse, everything I read that is not about education specifically makes me think about education anyway or about how I would use that material in a classroom. I guess I just like salt in my wounds or a big fat pity party.

Here are two examples: I just read Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion after reading about him in the NYTimes earlier this year. Lemov works in charter schools and has observed many successful teachers working in inner city schools. He has come up with a taxonomy of 49 techniques he has seen these teachers employ to help their students achieve. Some of it is common sense. Some of it is a fresh new way of doing things. Some of it bucks trends in education. All of it interested me and made me wish I had a book like this when I was in school to become certified. If you know someone in a teacher education program right now, I highly recommend this book. It made me think about how I use time, my voice, and the physical space of my classroom. It will remain on my desk as a reference if I should be so fortunate as to have one.

I also recently finished Steve Martin's Born Standing Up and could not help but notice the ways stand up comedy is akin to high school teaching. Both deal with controlling the audience. Both require the person at the front of the room to be entertaining, quick thinking, and reflective. I love Steve Martin from The Jerk to his SNL and Muppet Show appearances to LA Story and his novella The Shopgirl. His cleverness and embrace of the absurd delight me so of course I enjoyed this book about the development and demise of his stand up career. He writes about the stand up act with great affection but also the knowledge that that is over for him. I am still so affectionate about teaching; I certainly hope I do not have to put it on hold due to the economy. So what can I read that won't put me in mind of it? Sports Illustrated? Nope. I have a hundred ways I could use that in an English classroom. Cookbooks? No again. They make me think of Frank Mc Court's Teacher Man. I may have to take up home improvement magazines or nudie ones as there doesn't seem a book out there I can completely escape into at present. So I'm off to get some copies of Playgirl and Popular Mechanics. Just kidding.

What and Why I'm Not Reading Right Now As Planned

For their birthdays back in January and February, my sons were given tickets to a professional hockey game. The game was for five pm today. The boys have been looking forward to it for months. It is the last regular season game for the NJ Devils and it is Fan Appreciation night which apparently means free hot dogs and soda. For my little Devils fan chowhounds it was shaping up to be a great night. My daughter and I had big plans of our own. She wanted us to go to Borders, spend a gift card that had been burning a hole in her pocket. Then she wanted us to come home and read our books on the couch while eating "a simple dinner like garlic toasts and carrots." She is my kind of girl; a little old lady that is. Oh, it was gong to be heaven.

Unfortunately, my seven year old woke up in the night with a stomach bug. After a lot of vomiting, he spent the rest of the day in bed in his pajamas. He, of course, could not go to the game, but was pretty brave about it, even generously offering his jersey to his sister to wear. She wore the jersey, a grim expression, and a book tucked under her arm. Rather than bookstore meandering and reading, I've made toast and Jello, played board games, watched Scooby Doo videos galore, and took a walk around the block with a cross between Alfalfa and Hugh Hefner as my boy insisted it was fine to walk around the neighborhood in his way too short pajama pants, no shirt, and bathrobe. I hope my daughter is enjoying her free hotdog and having at least as many laughs as the neighbors had when they got an eyeful of my walking companion.

What would I have read, you ask. Well, I'm in the middle of two autobiographies, Frank Bruni's Born Round and Tracy Morgan's I Am The New Black. Honestly, neither book is really thrilling me. I am, however, looking forward to The Irresistible Henry House which I plan to read the minute it is delivered via interlibrary loan.

Okay, it's back to Scooby Doo now.

Are You Down? I'm Down

I've got a great, light summer read for adults and older teens out there, Mishna Wolff's I'm Down A Memoir. It's hard to believe that a book which concerns itself with race, poverty, divorce, and identity issues can manage to be a light summer read, but this one does. Without being exploitative, Wolff, a white woman, tells her experience of being raised in a poor urban black neighborhood by her white father who believed he was black. She writes of him, "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esque sweater, gold chains, and a Kangol-telling jokes like Redd Foxx and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn't tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried."
Wolff's entire childhood seemed to be her father trying to make her down. Much of the humor and sadness in this memoir lie in how she fell short of that goal. Being down came much more easily to her younger sister Anora. Both lived with their father when their parents divorced, but eventually the author moved in with her mother and attended an academically rigorous and predominantly white school. This led to further identity conflict. While her situation is certainly unique, Wolff's central story of a girl wanting to belong and to please her parents is universal. For that reason, I think it's a good book to give to a teenager looking for something to read this summer. Plus, it's funny.

I've Always Wondered

I've always wondered if there is a difference between a chucklehead and a knucklehead. Can you use the two interchangeably or is there some connotational difference? Jon Scieszka's recent autobiography, Knucklehead, does not answer my question, but I'm going to let that slide because it's such an enjoyable read. Scieszka, author of more than two dozen books including The Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio series, tells of growing up the second oldest in a family of six boys. Much of this book reminded me of my own childhood. I'm certainly not a boy, but I have three older brothers, and like Scieszka, attended Catholic schools. The autobiography recounts familiar scenes with plastic army men, wild sessions of outdoor play, hand me down clothes, low level pyromania, and beloved books. It's a short and quick read that will appeal to Scieszka's fans and boys in the middle grades and junior high.

Oops! and Who Knew?

The picture I put up yesterday of Lang Lang's book was of a different book by Lang Lang. That's right; he's got more than one out. I wrote about Lang Lang: Journey of a Thousand Miles, but accidentally used a photo of Lang Lang: Playing with Flying Keys which is also an autobiography. This one was written with Michael French for a 9 to 12 year old audience.

My Husband and I: Like a Couple of Teenagers

Actually, my husband and I aren't very much like teenagers. Caring for a pair of sick kids, getting the Christmas decorations up, and dealing with a broken water tank made us seem more like a couple of grumpy old men this week. However, we each read biographies that would make good reading for teenagers. Bill read Lang Lang: Journey of a Thousand Miles written by the pianist Lang Lang with David Ritz. Bill found the story of this world renowned musician fascinating and said he learned a great deal about modern Chinese history and culture as well. It seems that Lang Lang's intense relationship with his father is at the heart of the book. I just finished The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts written by Tom Farley, Jr. and Tanner Colby. It too presents a successful performer affected by a complex father-son relationship. This is a funny and incredibly sad story which of course ends with Chris Farley's death from a drug overdose. It includes over a hundred interviews with Farley's family, friends, and coworkers, including his three brothers, David Spade, and Chris Rock. The interviews are pieced together seamlessly to make The Chris Farley Show read in an easy, chronological way.

My husband and I found ourselves telling bits of our books to each other and discussing the themes of fame and success over the last week or so as we read our separate books. Given the right book at the right time, that is how teenagers can act.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I just finished a fantastic book that would be a good choice for high school juniors and seniors. It is the autobiographical The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine who suffered a stroke that resulted in locked-in syndrome when he was 43 years old. Afterwards, he was paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking his left eye. It is hard to imagine this graceful, beautifully written book was dictated by blinks of an eyelid. Clearly that and all of Bauby's experiences must have been frustrating to say the least, and yet The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is not filled with bitterness. It is wistful and humorous and thoughtful. Bauby describes the experience of locked-in syndrome as being caught in a diving bell, but ultimately, it is the butterfly, the power of the mind and spirit, which triumphs. The butterfly soars through memory and imagination. Bauby travels from his hospital room through memory and in flights of imagination.
Why is this a good choice for teenagers? It is short which is often a selling point. It is well written but never difficult to understand. It is inspiring. It puts one's own problems in perspective when considering Bauby's. Finally, although written by a Frenchman in his forties who had led a cosmopolitan lifestyle before his stroke, it forces readers to imagine themselves in Bauby's condition and how they might handle it.
Sadly, Bauby died just days after the French publication of the book. Recently, it was adapted into an award winning film. I'm curious to check that out next.

Standing Tall

I love a good novel and have to push myself to read more nonfiction. My chief complaint is that nonfiction is often boring. However, every once in awhile a biography or autobiography really moves me and I find myself raving about it to anyone who will listen. C. Vivian Stringer's Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph is one of those books.

Stringer is the head coach of the Rutgers University women's basketball team. That is what got me to pick this book up, as my husband, my three brothers, many of my friends, and I all graduated from Rutgers and have an interest in Rutgers athletics. I'm assuming many people will read it to find out more about the controversy sparked by radio personality Don Imus's negative comments about the team. Stringer does cover that incident, but this book has so much more. What an inspirational life she has led!

With dignity and quiet humor, Stringer writes about the tragedies in her life, including her fourteen month old baby daughter's spinal meningitis which made it impossible for her to walk or speak again, the death of Stringer's beloved husband of a heart attack in 1991, and her own battle against breast cancer. At the same time, Stringer writes of her professional triumphs (bringing two different teams to a National Championship tournament), and personal ones such as her strong marriage and the love and support of her family and friends.

Stringer admits mistakes she has made in her life and extolls the importance of hard work, education, and a can do attitude. It is a fantastic choice for a teenager or young adult, even one who has no interest in basketball.