TJS Teachers and Staff Share Their Favorite Summer Reads

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TJS Teachers and Staff Share Their Favorite Summer Reads

BY LAURA SPAULDING Staff Writer/Consultant

Do you ever wonder what Joy School teachers do in their free time? Well, for one thing, they are reading! Just this summer, our faculty and staff collectively read over 200 books during the two-and-a-half-month summer break. Twenty-four of those books were read by Christine Dinh, our Instructional Technologist, and fifteen were read by one of our learning support specialists, Courtney Scott. Staff favorites included the novels Remarkably Bright Creatures by Van Pelt and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and some non-fiction faves included The Anxious Generation by Johnathan Haidt and Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire by Rafe Esquith.

Middle School Language Arts teacher Brady King spent his summer practicing what he preaches to his own 8th-graders about being lifelong learners and readers in both his travels and the books he read. Mr. King finished off his summer by reading George Elliot's Middlemarch. This classic 19th-century British novel follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters facing changing fortunes in provincial 19th-century England. When asked what about this novel most appealed to him, Mr. King praised Elliot’s command of the English language, her timeless storytelling, and how she makes her readers think deeply. He especially appreciates the way Elliot’s female characters question and challenge the social and cultural norms and mores of the time. While Middlemarch is not on the list of novels Mr. King plans to share with his 8th-graders this year, he has started the year sharing his love of language through the abridged version of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

Kate Lilly discovered a new book this summer she can’t wait to add to the list of books she reads aloud to her kindergarteners every year. All About U.S.: A Look at the Lives of 50 Real Kids from Across the United States by Matt Lamonthe is a beautifully illustrated picture book that chronicles the daily lives of 50 real kids living in each of the 50 United States of America. She hopes this intimate and authentic glimpse into the diverse realities of families from various geographic, social, religious, and economic backgrounds will help her students embrace their own stories with confidence even as they grow in compassion and understanding for the unique stories of others.

An avid reader myself, my favorite summer read was ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD by Penn Holderness. Part memoir and part self-help, Holderness shares the intimate and often hilarious details of what it was like for him growing up with, and then learning to adult with, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. After working in the fields of education and learning differences for the last couple of decades and reading dozens of books on ADHD in that time, I was not expecting to be so thoroughly captivated by another book on this topic. And I definitely was not expecting to resonate with so many of his experiences and recommendations, both personally and professionally. I suppose I should not have been completely surprised given the primary expert he consults and references throughout is psychiatrist and world authority on ADHD, Dr. Edward Hallowell M.D.-- a longtime Joy School friend and former luncheon speaker who helped shape much of our school’s thinking about Attention Deficits and Executive Functioning Disorders in our early days. In ADHD is Awesome, Holderness does an excellent job of capturing both the unique challenges and blessings that often come with an ADHD diagnosis, even as he drives home the point that every individual with ADHD is fundamentally different with different needs, limitations, and gifts. I highly recommend anyone with an attention deficit or anyone who loves someone with an attention deficit to read this book!

Our academic admin team spent their summers reading Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors by Robyn Gobbel. Gobbel offers both hope and practical strategies for parents encountering unexpected or confusing behaviors in their children. She has a way of humanizing difficult behaviors and encouraging parents to think about a child’s baffling behaviors as an unsolved problem instead of a reflection of who the child is. Her philosophy is in line with how we think about our student’s behaviors here at The Joy School, and our deans have decided the entire staff should read this book. Not only as a reminder that all behaviors will make sense if we can figure out where they come from, but also because the practical strategies offered in this book aptly apply to all children and all classrooms.

So, next time you wonder what your TJS teachers and administrators are doing in their spare time, you can assume they are living out their love of learning both professionally and personally. And this year, the entire TJS faculty and staff will be reading Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors together. We will then be spending a portion of our Wednesday professional development meetings thinking about and discussing our students’ baffling behaviors, both big and small, as we seek to set every one of our students up for success in learning and in life.

For more information about the work we do at The Joy School and how we meet the unique needs of students with learning differences, visit our website or join us for a campus tour

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