Never Stop Learning
By Maryann Manning

Joining a monthly book club and making time for personal professional reading are just two great ways to enrich your own learning.

I recently spent a pleasant day learning with a group of teachers. Because I've had my share of professional development sessions, as I drove to the meeting I wondered if it would be worth my time. Would I be bored or would I learn something new? I knew the topic of the workshop was writing instruction and I have considerable respect for Great Source Professional Development, who was conducting the workshop. By the time I arrived, my mixed feelings about attending the session had grown, and I was late as well.

Mixed feelings
My mixed feelings result from my belief that you can usually divide most professional development into three types, ranging from: (l) a stimulating experience where you learn new things that you can use the next day, (2) a pleasant ego trip because you learn that you are already doing many of the good practices being advocated and (3) a complete waste of time because there is nothing new or the topic or presenter was uninteresting. In the area of reading and writing, we have all had hours and days that we can classify into one of the three types.

I'm very pleased to report that my day was an experience of the first kind, because even though I know a lot about the area of writing, the presenter had some new ideas on both instruction and assessment in writing. Billie Lamkin from Phoenix, AZ, often referred to her real classroom experience as she shared sample after sample of student writing. Her workshop, entitled "Write Traits, 6-Trait Instruction and Assessment," was excellent. Everyone was given a resource guide with a wealth of information, and my favorite part was the extensive list of quality children's books to use for mini-lessons. Because every few minutes there was interaction between the teachers, nobody was bored. Also, the content was compatible with my beliefs that no scripted program should drive the writing workshop.

There are so many ways that I love to learn; here are just a few of my favorites.

Book clubs
For several years I've belonged to a book club that meets once a month at a local bookstore. Most of the members are primary/elementary teachers, with one administrator (my friend Deborah Camp) and three university professors. We meet at 6:00 p.m., pick up a sandwich and find our way to a table where we discuss our book. This month we are reading ,em>The Report Card, a great children's book by Andrew Clements (Simon & Schuster Children's, 2004, ISBN: 0-689-84515-4). I leave the sessions in awe of the thinking of my educator friends and anxious to begin my new book so I can return to this safe group of friends for discussion.

School visits
Every state has schools where you can visit and learn something. A school in my region that I really enjoy visiting is Woodmeade Elementary School in Decatur, AL. I learn of new books from the school principal, Reba Wadsworth, who is always sitting in her rocker, reading aloud to students.

Conferences
I never tire of conferences because I can hear the people whose books I read. Because I especially enjoy hearing children's authors, IRA and NCTE are stimulating experiences. I like conferences so much that I chair the MidSouth Reading and Writing Institute every June in Birmingham, AL. Consider coming this year (June 16-17) to hear many literacy leaders – www.midsouth.info/

I also like to visit exhibits because I get to see new materials. I will stand in line for hours to meet an author just so I can leave with an autographed book. Meeting the authors also gives me ideas on authors we want to bring to our area for conferences and school visits.

Working together
Reading a book and discussing a chapter each week during a planning period or after or before school can fit into the lives of very busy teachers. A good book that has been used for literature circles includes the new edition of a favorite book of mine, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers by Richard L. Allington (Allyn & Bacon, 2005, ISBN: 0-205-44324-9).

Studying a media program together is another good use of professional development time. I really like Diane Snowball's new multimedia CD-ROM entitled Teaching Comprehension (AUSSIE Interactive, 2005, ISBN: 0-976-11800-9). This interactive program focuses on six comprehension strategies and includes lesson plans and activities. To order, visit www.aussiepd.com

Viewing video series filmed in other teacher's classrooms is another impetus for rich discussion. Two terrific videos that I have learned from recently were Debbie Miller's The Joy of Conferring (Stenhouse, 2005, ISBN: 1-571-10423-2) and Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey's Reading the World (Stenhouse, 2002, ISBN: 1-571-10379-1).

Personal professional reading
I just can't read too many professional books and I'm sure you're the same. But two new books I have enjoyed recently are Bobbie A. Solley's When Poverty's Children Write: Celebrating Strengths, Transforming Lives (Heinemann, 2005, ISBN: 0-325-00751-9) and Penny Kittle's The Greatest Catch: A Life in Teaching (Heinemann, 2005, ISBN: 0-325-00710-1).

We belong to a profession that is young in terms of studying deeply about our practices in reading and writing. Yes, there have been large numbers of schools in our country for a couple of centuries, but there is so much more we can learn about literacy. We have so many achievement gaps between different groups and there are so many adults who can read but don't like to read and write. Only through our own professional development will we change the face of literacy in our country.

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

February 2006, Vol.36, No.5