Boothbay Literacy Retreat Update

Today I just saw that the tentative agenda for the Boothbay Literacy Retreat was updated, and I am very excited about a couple of things. As if the line-up of presenters and guests wasn't already amazing enough, now Erin Gruwell and Penny Kittle will both be there as well. I have mentioned that I am a fan of the Freedom Writers story before. I had the opportunity to meet three of the original Freedom Writers at a summer institute, and one of my colleagues at my previous school was a Freedom Writers teacher and wrote one of the entries in Teaching Hope. Being able to see Erin Gruwell speak will be inspiring, I am sure. This spring I did several posts reflecting on Penny Kittle's book Write Beside Them. I can hardly meet to see her in person!

The one disappointment was that it looks like Nancie Atwell will no longer be there. Nonetheless, I can tell it is going to be an amazing experience. I will be heading over to the east coast in exactly two weeks.

Speaking of Heinemann, the last couple of days I read iWrite and Reading Ladders while I was at my mom and dad's house. Watch for my thoughts on the books in the next few days.

Teaching Hope

This spring break I was cleaning out my closet and came across my copy of Teaching Hope and realized I never did a blog post upon completing it. I had been really excited for the book because I loved all the other books: the original The Freedom Writer's Diary, Erin Gruwell's memoir, and the teacher's guide. I also had an opportunity to meet three of the original Freedom Writers when they came to an institute that I was able to participate in. As an added bonus, I knew that one of my co-workers from my last school was going to have one of his pieces of writing in the book. He had mentioned what he was going to write about before, and I couldn't wait to see how his story turned out.

The book has very diverse stories. While reading some I could not relate to the rationale of the decisions, while in others I felt a strong connection between our experiences. I loved the way the stories were woven together just as the original book with some common themes emerging. My previous co-worker's story was great. Even though I knew part of the story he was going to tell, I didn't realize the full story, which was pretty amazing. I enjoyed learning more about him through the book.

Here is Erin Gruwell's description of the book: