God in Heavenletters wants us to be inspired.

Your post has touched me more than I can say. I am thrilled that you found this blog and particularly this entry and that you took it to heart and read these books.

You are happy to know there is someone who wants young people to read books worth reading. Imagine how happy I am that one young person I know did go ahead and read them on his own.

Do you have a favorite?

Sometimes classics are hard to get into. As you say, once you get into them, you’re glad.

Jordan, the most fun was sharing them in a class. Can you imagine acting out A Tale of Two Cities? Ninth graders playing the part of Lucy Manette standing all day outside the prison so Charles Darnay might catch a glimpse of her? Imagine a ninth grader playing Sidney Carton as he sacrifices himself? The evil Marquis, Lucy’s old father etc. Such a dramatic story!

One year my ninth grade class took photos of their teachers — close up’s of their teachers — and blew them up and chose Miss Mullens, a gym teacher, to play the part of Mmme. DeFarge and insert her photo in a mural etc. You can imagine what a thrill that was.

I wish I could have had you as a student, Jordan. It is a beautiful thing to see your willingness to learn. Your parents must be so proud of you.

Don’t tell anyone, but I used to tell my classes that spelling wasn’t as important as it was cracked up to be! Not that we didn’t pay attention to spelling, but it just wasn’t suffering over, as some kids did.

How did you find the Godwriting blog? Where do you live?
Have you read any Heavenletters?

What sort of schools are you thinking of going to?

Hope you find this and will tell us more about you.

With love and blessings,

Gloria

Jordan

And what you say about every child’s being gifted — if only everyone could feel that way. It isn’t even how you feel. It’s what you KNOW.

I am sorry to say that sometimes teachers referred to students with terms of disrespect.

And what you say about the learning styles. How nice it would have been if I could have been able to take a few of the “ungifted” students and read to them out in the atrium.

And that video — I wish the whole world would watch it.
And certainly every teacher and every student.

By the way, does anyone out there know a way to get a DVD of the video?

I have been traveling and doing one training after another (parents and teachers). Thank you so much for your response and for the video clip. It is so amazing. I talk a lot about the power we have as adults to instill confidence or the absence of it in kids…buried talents…people who are afraid to go for their passion because they don’t think they can do it, etc…I will be showing this video you referred us to in my workshops…http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html

I love the story about your 7th grader. It is so easy to get kids interested and engaged - sometimes I just can’t believe that the school system doesn’t get it! May I share your story in my workshops?

One more thing - I know YOU know this…I wish our school system would think of ALL kids as gifted students - because they are all gifted - in a million, wonderful, different ways…so often, a small group is designated gifted and they “get to do” marvelous things that exactly fit the learning styles of those kids who are being labeled with “disabilities.” If those kids could do the same things, they would shine, and people would see how gifted they are!

That’s all for now - I’m off for some vacation this time!

How I agree with everything you say. I wish I could have taught with you.

I am thrilled at how you are reaching school systems and helping the schoolchildren learn and be happy in school.

Even before No Child Left Behind Act, childrens’ different styles of learning were not addressed.

I want to tell you that my classes LOVED The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You should have seen the kids acting out the scenes! What fun!

I especially loved what you said about reading to the children. I may have already told about some of my reading-aloud-to-children experiences somewhere else, but I’ll tell you again!

I had a wonderful huge book of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I would read it aloud to seventh grade classes, even those classes erroneously homogenously marked as slow. The children loved it! I rememberin particular one boy who was not much a reader and who was a handful. When I would stop to do my pontifying, he would call out: “Read it! Read it!” And when he got too impatient with me, he would have come up and somehow got himself under my arms and in front of the book so he could be a part of it.

I think I had an enlightened principal because he gave me a special class for gifted students. It wasn’t a regular class, and I forget what they are called. We met once a week, and we could do anything the children and I wanted. I remember reading to them. I even remember one of the books. It was An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden. An excellent story. It also had a lot of specific British English expressions. A run in stockings was called a ladder.

One day there was some state educational group or something like that who came to check out the school. The principal was so happy that the group was impressed to see a teacher reading aloud to a small group of children in the atrium.

Thank you for posting, Mariaemma.