I remember it like it was yesterday.
(cue weird time warp sound...)
It was my first year as a 3rd
grade teacher and I was teamed up with a fabulous partner.
You know when you are lucky enough to just
click with someone? That was her.
She was the yin to my yang,
the peanut
butter to my chocolate…
well you get the idea.
Anyway, one day she tells me we are going to be reading Holes with
our classes.
She pretty much wrote my
lesson plans
back then so I was fine with it, but I had my doubts. It didn't seem like a story I would
like at
all. If I don’t like the story,
it’s
really hard for me to fake it.
But in the name of peas and carrots
I said, “I’m
in”.
More than a decade later and I have
read Holes with
every class
(except for that horrible year in first grade when I got all
my gray hair).
This story is super high interest.
Bad Boys
Fate
Underdogs
Buried Treasure
Even reluctant readers
can’t wait to
find out what happens to Zero and Stanley.
I've revamped my Holes Novel Unit
by adding
more diverse responding activities (charts, thinking maps, etc.).
I usually read this one at the end of the
year
as a sort of “send off”, but my class is going through novels so quickly
this year
I may have to bump it up in the rotation.
So here’s to you TG!
She’s still out there teaching,
though
sadly not with me or even at my school.
But I think of her often,
and the teacher I am today
is due in no small
part to her influence.
Have you ever had that special partner
who made you a better
teacher?
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