Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week, we had a Professional Day in my District and I went to this event: Krashen Redux where I got to virtually watch a Steven Krashen talk and have numerous “discussion” breaks to talk about what we were thinking/learning in response. This was a fantastic morning with rich discussion about what the research reveals about free voluntary reading and what exactly makes a difference for children.

At our table, we talked about the importance of not just access to books and time to read them but also about how essential classroom climate is to help students become avid readers. High school teachers talked about reading when their students read to be models. When my students are reading, I am listening in and conferencing with different children. It is not about reading in front of my students that is the key piece – it is about the personal reading that I do at other times. I need to be a passionate reader who knows books so that I can book talk books, generate excitement and put the right book in the hands of the reader who needs it.  I also need to share my reading life. I tell my students about books I am reading to my children. I share with them about fantastic picture book discoveries I made at the library, books that followed me home from the bookstore and books that kept me up half the night. My students know I am a reader because I share this part of my life fully with them.

So today I am celebrating my rich reading life. Right now I am reading:

My current novel:  Listening for Lucca by Suzanne LaFleur

The novel I am reading to my children: The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Nonfiction titles I am reading to my children: The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins and Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia  written by Sy Montgomery with photographs by Nic Bishop.

The novel I am reading to my students: Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

Nonfiction titles we have on the go in the classroom:

• Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester 
• Lifetime written by Lola Schaefer and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
• Down, Down, Down by Steve Jenkins

With my student book club (grades 4 to 7): Just starting Jinx by Sage Blackwood

With my Junior Book club (grades 2 and 3): Charlotte’s Web written by E.B. White

And then of course there are the picture books that are everywhere. Titles I read at breakfast, while folding laundry, while waiting for my daughter at her class, while brushing my teeth, etc., etc., etc.,

So many books to celebrate! I feel lucky to have such a rich reading life and amazing reading communities to celebrate with like #IMWAYR,  #nfpb2014 and #nerdybookclub

Read anything great lately? Please share!