From: Robin Smith <smithr>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 16:51:27 -0500

I am unable to resist a good school story. Because I spend so much of my time in a school, it is where I feel comfortable and at home.
 
      I LOVE Miss Agnes in Kirkpatrick Hill's The Year of Miss Agnes. She is straightforward, calm, and understands the children. She makes no judgments about their lives and builds her curriculum around them. She is a terrific model for how to run a classroom where every student learns. New teachers could look at her methods (specifically how she makes books about each student) and see a find model of an intelligent, humane teacher.
      An older book that I read every year to my children is Rebecca Caudill's sweetie-pie Did You Carry the Flag Today Charley? Set in rural Kentucky, Charley enters summer school with wide eyes and a curious spirit. The children I teach love watching Charley get into little scrapes and eventually triumph in the end.
      Rosemary Well's newest, My Kindergarten, is a terrific example of a school where children embrace learning. Month by month passes where the small learners understand their world and the world around them with the guidance of a loving teacher.
      Andrew Clements' books have marvelous depictions of clever students and teachers of all sorts.
      Katherine Hannigan's marvelous Ida B. has been a huge hit with fifth graders in our school. Though her first school experience is difficult, her second try at school (after some home schooling years) is a breath of fresh air.
      And how about the wonderful teacher/writer in Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light? And Chig's teacher, Miss Barkus, in Gwenyth Swain's captivating Chig and the Second Spread?
      Okay, I will stop with this scratch of the surface. Back to school!
  Robin Smith Ensworth School Nashville, TN
Received on Tue 21 Sep 2004 04:51:27 PM CDT