Tuesday is book club day....

Monday's are the longest day of the week; if not already damned by the simple curse of being the first day of the work week, my day is blessed with only a lunch and a 20 minute planning period at the very end of my day. My planning period falls at 9am on Tuesdays, which is a better option than my marathon day, but leaves me questioning my desire to stay after with a group of 5 or 6 students for an additional hour to discuss books...

Then we start talking, and talking, and talking. I have given up trying to think I am in control of the conversation. We all read the same book (which someone has "convinced" the others to read the week before) and we try to talk about the characters, or why we liked the book (or didn't) or the message the author was trying to share, but we never stick with that one book. As all good readers know, everything is connected, this character reminds you of that character, this passage reminds you of that movie, and this movie reminds you of that book... somehow we end up far from the book we started with. It is beautiful. I laugh; we share our lives, the characters lives, our dreams, the characters dreams. I laugh, I even cry a little (usually from laughing so much, but sometimes just because I'm moved).

Then we try to decide on a new book for next week.

Today's conversation went like this:

Joe: Mike thinks we should read Rules.

Mary: Mr. K likes that one too

Sue: Okay, but can we take two weeks to read this one, I have this (plop) pile of books I want to read this week too! How 'bout we read to page 89.

Joe: hmmm, page 120

Sue: page 104 (She really doesn't understand how to negotiate I thought)

Joe: okay, 89, I want to read this (plop) pile of books
.
Me: (lol) Rules it is.

The students leave, and I reflect on my day, thankful I stayed.

Teacher post script... In the 2 hours before book club I received an excitement filled hug from a girl who had "lost" the book she was reading. When I told her the chorus teacher had found it she leapt across the room and gave me a bear hug. A reluctant read, who hasn't read a whole book in months, finished off Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac, a book I handed him yesterday with the instructions "Read chapter 1 tonight and come back and tell me about it."

What a day! I think I will go back tomorrow!