Monday, September 10, 2012

Quick 9/11 Book Reminder

Egads did 9/11 sneak up on me. Had a teacher instant message me today asking if I knew of a good book.

AAAACK! I should have been talking it up! I should have been making 15 minute appointments to go to classes and read it to them. (Sad ... 15 minutes to get through lots of classes but then miss out on a very important part ... the discussion).

One of the few "I remember exactly what I was doing" days. Listened to a CD on the way to work so didn't hear anything on the radio. I was in my second year as a HS Spanish teacher. Heard a couple "rumors" from the kids and then the department chair came in and said something.

We watched the news most of the day. I can't even imagine what elementary teachers did. SO hard to "ignore" it themselves but really not appropriate to have to watch live, that young, without parents.


14 Cows for America14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




BEAUTIFUL artwork. A beautiful story that could be read ... I would say 2nd grade and up? Maybe just looking at some of the pics with 1st. It's a picture book and not even a super long one. Don't forget. Find it. I know there are others that cover that day and probably good ones ... but still, look for this one. The painting where you can see the NYC skyline in the boys' eyes? So powerful.

There are a couple "fan" made trailers out there that are cool ... until they add images of people jumping from the buildings. To me that is just not something to replay over and over. I mean, I don't know. We can tell kids people died that die. But just pre-watch any trailers you might "google" to make sure you feel like they are appropriate for your classroom. None of those images are in the book.

Photobucket

2 comments:

  1. And my only thought on this is "You gave up teaching Spanish to do library?" I still have far too many days when I wish I were still teaching Latin. Sigh. We have too many teachers who do 9/11 research and are surprised that I Have ONLY 15 books. Remember the Alamo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True. There are days when I really miss the older kids. Still eventually trying to get to a secondary library. But ... yes. I mean, really ... I guess there are possibilities for research. But isn't it more about some reflection? And then maybe volunteer work or something? Tell them to go do all the research and then go WRITE THEIR OWN GOOD BOOK about that topic. ;] Cause that is sometimes what I feel like telling teachers when they are frustrated by the number of "Texas" resources we have. I get just about everything I can find that is remotely good. Our curriculum can be so full of itself.
      That's cool that you taught Latin! We had a Latin teacher in our department. Pretty sure they still have one.

      Delete