It's Monday! What are you reading?

Full disclosure:  I experienced a reading slump this summer.   I finished only five books, though I scanned and began several others, and purchased many more.   For reasons known and unknown, I just had a hard time losing myself in handheld text (with the exception of revisiting one of my favorite characters, Harry Dresden, in a collection of short stories--those, I devoured!).

I did read a bit online--blog posts, news articles, personal interest stories--so I wasn't avoiding text altogether.  And being a deadline-driven worker, I'm sure I'll polish off a few more kidlit books before students return to our library in seventeen days.

Among my recent book purchases are my personal professional learning choices for the upcoming school year; several were recommended by fellow educators.  I avoided reading them this summer, so I've decided that I will tackle one a month starting in September, taking a break during December.

Three books are about self-care for educators:  Paul Murphy's Leave School at School and Exhausted:  Why Teachers Are So Tired and What They Can Do About It; and Take Time for You: Self-Care Action Plans for Educators by Tina H. Boogren.  Self-care is a big goal of mine this coming school year.

Three books focus on reading aloud to students:  The Enchanted Hour:  The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gordon; Reading to Make a Difference:  Using Literature to Help Students Speak Freely, Think Deeply, and Take Action by Lester L. Laminack and Katie Kelly; and The Ramped-Up Read Aloud:  What to Notice As You Turn the Page by Maria Walther.

The seventh book is these 6 things:  How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most by Dave Stuart, Jr., written about increasing basic skills and knowledge acquisition across the curriculum.

I've never attempted this much professional reading in one school year!  The topics are personally relevant, so I'm hoping for some wonderful inspiration to bring new energy to my library program for my seventh year in the stacks.