Category: BOOKS
Great #BOOKTok
This 4 minute listen is an inspiring story about the work it takes to get better at reading. Oliver James ( https://www.tiktok.com/@oliverspeaks1) was willing to put himself out there to share his journey from illiteracy to becoming an avid reader. He compares it to exercise/fitness training.
Even though I’m a visual art teacher, not a language arts teacher I encourage all my students to force themselves to read no matter how much they hate it or how difficult it is for them. Reading is the #1 way to learn. I’ve also begged parents to read to their kids. It’s a cycle; The more you do it, the better you get at it, the easier it is for you, the less you hate it, the less you hate it, the more you enjoy it… etc. etc
I encourage all of you to listen and share Oliver’s story. Former students need to know that rather than be embarrassed by their poor reading skills and devaluing reading for their kids, they can overcome their deficits and then help their children’s teachers (you) help their children. Current students, esp. 6-12 need to recognize how much powerful and less gullible reading makes them and how valuable it is even if they think it’s boring or hard and as Oliver James says in this interview, it’s easier to learn and build skills when you’re in school than it will be as an adult.
And finally (and I need to do this myself, I’m not being an elitist, judgemental snob, I’ve become really lazy about this, honestly) WE ALL NEED to be disciplined about reading every day and promoting & encouraging reading with our students- even Art, Music, PE, & Math. Reading is learning. There’s very little other critical thinking like analysis, interpretation, synthesis and application without reading.
I bet it takes you less time to listen to this interview than it did to read this email. I DARE you to resolve to make reading matter.
Sharing your Classroom Lending-Library
Fellow Teachers,
This Summer I discovered a great new free app for organizing your classroom lending-library. I know, who has time? It actually doesn’t take a lot since it allows you to scans the book’s UPC code from your phone.
Whether you’re interested in trying it for yourself or not, I ALSO wanted to use it to offer up 29 years of books about teaching, especially for any of you new to our profession. Browse the “Teacher Ed.” section of my classroom library at https://www.libib.com/u/maldog/l/1423153. Let me know what you’d like to do borrow and I’ll put it in your mailbox or the brown envelope to Dow City, or come on by the Art room and grab it yourself.
Frankly, since we’re talking about 3 decades of Teacher/Ed, I might even be open to selling, trading or gifting some of them. (SOME of them).
Meanwhile, look at some of the other 16+ categories at www.libib.com/u/maldog, I have books on Art (obviously), Art Education (for K-5 teachers who want something), Photography, Graphic Design & Journalism (for Business or English/ELA types), Psychology, Philosophy, general Literature etc. etc.
Just because I’m not an English/ELA or Reading teacher, I believe that literacy & reading make all our other disciplines possible and, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to do what I can to encourage and promote reading for kids. Hopefully my English/ELA colleagues will be okay with my sharing my extensive Comics & Graphic Novel categories with students!
Have a great Semester everybody; Happy “New Year!”
Check these books out
‘Cheesebread & Coffee’ are humor pieces from the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Mapleton PRESS 2002-2008. Not political, not too religious.
‘Max Nix’ is a collection of poetry from 1985-2020. I know, poetry isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I’ve been told mine is short, approachable, relatable and keeps you reading.
‘Dear John’ is a series of reflections on the book of 1 John. Not exactly a devotional, not exactly a Bible study- somewhere in between. It deals with some current issues though, love and who is our brother?
‘Prophet, Priest & Pirate,’ 2004-2020 essays on politics & religion. Yep, more progressive than most voters in Iowa’s 4th District, but more moderate/conservative than most of the rest of the U.S. Basic thesis: Democrats can be Christian too, and while we’re at it- let’s be careful not to make either political party or their candidates into false idols.
Need a Summer Read?
https://tedmallory.wordpress.com/books
No, it’s not like I suddenly wrote four books since March. Actually I’ve been blogging since 2002 and I’m compiling things I’ve written into self-published books you can order on Amazon or Goodreads.
Here’s micro-synopses on each one:
‘Cheesebread & Coffee’ are humor pieces from the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Mapleton PRESS 2002-2008. Not political, not too religious.
‘Max Nix’ is a collection of poetry from 1985-2020. I know, poetry isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I’ve been told mine is short, approachable, relatable and keeps you reading.
‘Dear John’ is a series of reflections on the book of 1 John. Not exactly a devotional, not exactly a Bible study- somewhere in between. It deals with some current issues though, love and who is our brother?
‘Prophet, Priest & Pirate,’ 2004-2020 essays on politics & religion. Yep, more progressive than most voters in Iowa’s 4th District, but more moderate/conservative than most of the rest of the U.S. Basic thesis: Democrats can be Christian too, and while we’re at it- let’s be careful not to make either political party or their candidates into false idols.
I hope that at least one of these will interest you. I have another three or four “in the pipeline,” but I’d better take a break and focus on school for the rest of the Summer. Hopefully I’ll try to get another one or two out later this Fall of Winter.
Happy Reading.
Join the Crew
https://www.facebook.com/PPPirate
Funny thing, usually they create facebook pages to promote books. I’d already created a facebook page back when it was a blog (about the time I abandoned said blog) but now guess what? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Re-purpose, Up-cycle whatever you want to call it!
If you happen to buy it or read it, I hope you’ll post your positive reviews on this page. If you hate it- send your rants & complains by private email instead. If you’re ambivalent or have questions or just want to talk with other people about the issues mentioned in the book, or the book itself- guess what? Instant community; it’s already here for you.
I hope you’ll like/follow it. Treat it like a guestbook if you want. Remember when websites had “guestbooks?” Geez. It’s like 1994 was 26 years ago!
Coming Soon; Something Positive
https://www.facebook.com/DoctorJoy/
I’m a hs cheerleading coach. A couple of years ago it dawned on me that just like the student athletes on our sports teams, our faculty and staff need occasional encouragement and morale boosts too.
Last year I sporadically emailed pithy quotes and inspirational wisdom to my fellow teachers. They seemed to like it, they even dubbed me “Doctor Joy,” their resident “Joyologist.”
Life got hectic that I haven’t kept it up. Lately I’ve noticed that morale has once again been faltering. So, I’ve decided to establish this blog as a place to post the positive. Feel free to copy & paste so that you can forward, or click whatever buttons you need to “share” any of these anywhere you like (in the interest of full-disclosure, that’s kind of how I find many of these anyway).
I totally dropped the ball. However, I also spent some time writing blog posts that were essentially a Bible study on the book of Philippians. Now… I’ve discovered self-publishing, so ‘Joyology’ will combine that Bible study with a variety of other reflections on gratitude, trying to nurture and support others, and struggling with depression and anxiety- which a lot of us can relate to these days.Watch this space for upcoming announcements about the book!
Unconditional Love Requires Radical Forgiveness
BOOK REVIEW- I’ve only just started reading ‘Unconditional’ by Brian Zahnd and I have to say Wow. Zahnd gets to the very core of Jesus’ ministry; love & forgiveness. In the first couple of chapters he discusses stories from holocaust survivors Simon Wiesenthal (‘Sunflowers’), Corrie Ten Boom (‘The Hiding Place’), and Deitrich Bonhoffer (‘The Cost of Discipleship’).
This book is from years ago, but here is a YouTube message he gave at Word of Life church in St. Joseph, Missouri a few months ago where he shares the same thing- Jesus’s call for His followers to share radical, infinite forgiveness. Matthew 5:44 Christianity is the only Christianity that can really change the world.
I began following Zahnd on Twitter and reading articles and blogs he’d written a few months ago and the longer I do the more Scriptural I find his theology and the more Christ-centered and love and grace based I find his opinions.
Zahn is the rare antidote for so much of American evangelicalism- neither the legalism, fear and anger of some hypocritical Pharisee types nor the shallow materialistic empty promises of those preaching nothing but blessing and triumph. This is authentic discipleship. Depth of meaning, sincere hope that isn’t based on or dependent on works-righteousness, but at the same time demands change, commitment and real repentance.
He’ll challenge your thinking and your assumptions.
I want my Christian friends who are prepared to put Jesus ahead of all other political, social and philosophical world views to give him a read. They may just find that the Jesus of the Bible and the early church of the New Testament aren’t what Western society would lead us to believe.
I want my friends who are thinkers, readers, skeptics and searchers to give him a read. They may just find that Jesus and the early church are not as far from the likes of Dostoyevsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Wiesenthal , MLK, Ghandi and others as American evangelicalism would lead us to believe.
And I want those of my friends languishing in limbo who feel like “the Church” doesn’t want them because they’re too worldly but that “the World” also doesn’t want them because they’re too “religious” to give Zahd a read, because they might just find that they aren’t as alone or isolated as they may have been feeling.
His newest book out is actually ‘Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God,‘ which I wanted to read first, but I couldn’t find it in the major Christian bookstore where I looked and I’ll be honest, I was too cheap to order it online- so, when I looked for it at 1/2 Price Books, I found ‘Unconditional’ instead. I’m glad I did. I look forward to reading ‘Sinners’ next, even if I have to pay full price.
On re-reading ‘Slaughterhouse 5’
I’ve read Elie Wiesel, Victor Frankel, Cory Ten Boom, & Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Somehow, this is the easiest story to take. No doubt because the brutal reality is tempered with not only the seemingly light hearted science fiction, but also with the superficial & banal life of the American bourgeoisie. Yet we never realize that Vonnegut’s not making fun of Billy Pilgrim. He’s contrasting the suffering of war with the luxurious complacency of empire.
Like any good humorist, Vonnegut let’s us forget that this hell was real by making us imagine that it’s fiction. We’re comforted by imagining that the absurdity of his story is fabricated and temporary, when what we don’t realize is, he is only mirroring the permanent absurdity of reality.
Need to get this off my chest
John Steinbeck kicks Ayn Rand’s ass. Just sayin’. While I’m at it, so does Kurt Vonnegut. And just so no one thinks I’m sexist, if they were writing at her time, so would Janet Evanivich, J.A. Jance, Sara Paretsky AND Anne Lamott!
SO THERE!
BOOK REPORT; ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’
I read it two or three years ago now but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. This is a book that stays with you for years after you’ve finished it.
Recently I’ve been reading a couple of books on teaching with methods of inquiry and conceptualization. Pirsig’s constant struggle is between what’s measurable and what’s meaningful. In this novel that tension seems to have led him to a breakdown. I feel like this is the same struggle we have in American schools today.
Teachers want to challenge students to become intellectually curious and develop into whole, healthy, principled individuals capable of participating in and contributing to society- whereas politicians, administrators and officials have been stressing accountability based on data from standardized test results.
Really it’s a false dichotomy, we need both differentiation and standardization, but the tension and dissonance are putting enormous pressure on professional educators and their schools resulting in frustration, confusion, and perhaps even an identity crisis just like Pirsig has to recover from in ‘Zen.’
But my identifying the central conflict with education really minimizes the book. Hit resonates on many more levels. It’s got plenty so say about self awareness, self acceptance, relationships, and parenting.
Riding from Minnesota to Montana on back roads and county highways with his son, Pirsig has hours to experience, contemplate, and think. This book is his “chautauqua,” hoping to help us deepen some of our channels rather than blaze new trails. Interesting so far. I think this is what I had hoped that Kerouac’s, ‘The Road’ was going to be like, but it wasn’t
What books have ‘stuck’ with you for months or years after you’ve read them? What books have had a major impact on your life or profession, or personal world-view or outlook on life? How did they effect you? Why did you relate to the characters in those books?
Anyone else out there read this book? What did you think? How would you compare it to ‘The Road’ by Jack Kerouac?
maladjusted.us 