Monthly Archives: January 2010

We’ve been working for change in Room 204.  We’ve been working for Haiti. We’ve been working for change:  for quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies.  The children have cleaned closets, made beds, emptied dishwashers, cleaned rooms, and taken out the recycling.  … Continue reading →

Samuel Clemens wrote as Mark Twain. Charles Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll. I was thirteen years old, living in Jerusalem,  and I wanted a pen name, too.  I kept it a secret.  In the gold trimmed pages of my red … Continue reading →

By invitation, Shakespeare comes into Room 204 and takes over.  Once in, his language and stories are so powerful that it is impossible to keep him out!  Children seem to be getting to know someone whom we can’t see.  But … Continue reading →

I almost always cry when I finish a really good book.   When I  finished Teacher Man by Frank McCourt on a plane, I closed the book with a quiet sob (and no, it was not a sad ending). I … Continue reading →

I’ve read a lot during this holiday break—and am reminded that most of what I know about reading I’ve learned on Christmas vacations. And summer vacations. I’ve learned about reading in tree houses and on trains; on sandy beaches and … Continue reading →