The teacher librarians in our district are starting a school library support/advocacy group. While researching other groups on the web I noticed something. Most of the groups discuss ways to strengthen the library collection, sponsor events, etc., but they didn't talk about advocating for adequate teacher librarian staffing. Is there any information available on successful strategies that have been used to persuade administrators to restore teacher librarian positions?
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I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nujood’s story was appalling because it brings to light the cultural practice of marrying young girls to much older men in Yemen. Nujood was a young ten year old who loved her family, playing with friends and didn’t have many cares in her daily life. All that changes when her father who is not working, just sitting around chewing khat and getting high on sucking the leaves of this plant, pledges Nujood in marriage to a much older man. Nujood is not afraid leading up to the wedding since she knows nothing about what will transpire. It is that night, where she is pounced upon by her husband, she runs around the room, escapes the room and calls for help throughout the strange rooms (no one comes to her aid) until she is dragged back into the room and raped her(he promised her father he would leave Nujood alone until she reached puberty). Nujood is traumatized by this man every evening; beaten, hit with sticks and cursed at; until she is raped again and again. It is after months of pleading that Nujood persuades her husband to take her home for a visit with her family. When she is alone with her parents and brother and tells them what he is doing to her and to let her come home; her father, mother and brother all tell her she must stay with him because she is honor bound. It is when she pretends to go to a bakery and instead goes into the judicial district (recommended by her father’s second wife who lives as a beggar in squalor) and seeks a divorce. Nujood has 2 judges and a female lawyer who decide to protect her (they put both father and husband in jail) and grant her a divorce. Nujood becomes an example of the pain inflicted on young women in this culture, but she becomes a role model to many similar girls throughout the world. I loved Nujood’s voice, her fierce personality that would not settle for a life of trauma with a much older violent man just because it is the way Yemen women have been treated. The worldwide response to her plight and the many interviews she granted after the divorce also allowed her to return to school with her sister. But this book only shows how many other girls suffer and makes it a difficult read for the many girls throughout who are being sold as young as ten into a slave-marriage.
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The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Libba Bray’s The Diviners was thrilling to read; I did not want to rip myself away from the 1920s world Bray crafted of flappers, murder, mystery and an impending evil that is being felt by the diviners (those who have supernatural powers to see, feel and predict). Evie is seventeen, bored with her restricted family life but also aware she has powers, which she sometimes uses at parties to liven things up. This gets her into trouble and she is shipped off to live with her Uncle Will in NYC as a punishment. Uncle Will is a college professor who also owns the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. As soon as she reaches NY, Evie accompanies the police with her Uncle Will and his student, Jericho, to the scene of a murder and it is when she touches the dead girl’s shoe buckle that she sees the girl’s murderer. It is in this bustling NYC that we also meet many other characters with powers and pasts they want hidden; Theta, Memphis, Isaiah, Blind Bill and Miss Walker. What is particularly mesmerizing and unpleasant is evil of Naughty John Hobbes; as more are murdered Evie, her Uncle Will and Jericho try to unravel a mystery that involves ghosts, haunted houses, demons, and evil in 1920s New York. I can’t wait for the second book!
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Seconds Away by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The 2nd Mickey Bolitar book is a fast-paced mystery involving the shooting of Mickey's new romantic interest, Rachel and her the killing of her mother. As Mickey tries to visit her in the hospital with his friends providing a diversion, he finds her in her room, but must quickly hide because the sheriff is coming to question her. Mickey goes to Bat Lady in her haunted house to try to get some answers and he is further confused to find out the man from the ambulance when his father died was not part of the ambulance crew, but someone known as the Butcher. This someone also resembles a man who killed many children during the holocaust, but how can that be the same man? As a sophomore, Mickey is excited about trying out for the basketball team and hoping to make JV. But as Mickey digs deeper, he and his friends are at risk of being injured. It is only with his solo trip to the Bat Lady's house, finding someone in the house, seeing the halls filled with pictures of children during the Holocaust and also children who are missing now, and a fiery blaze that pushes him out of the house, that Mickey realizes there is much more at work than he realizes. He doesn't feel he can confide in anyone really, even his uncle. The mystery continues to deepen, I was so involved in the story, I did not want it to end. I was not very happy with the ending, Harlan Coben just didn't leave you hanging the way her did in the first book, Shelter. But I will read the 3rd book and hope the ending is a cliff hanger, like the first.
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Ask The Passengers by A.S. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
King has scored such a success with Astrid Jones, she has the indomitable spirit, but she doesn't know it yet. When she has questions about life, she wants to trust her best friend Kristina. But how can you trust your best friend when she talks to your mom about you on the phone. How can you trust your sister when your mom has girls night with her and never asks Astrid to join? And how can you ask your father anything when he is so busy getting high. Astrid and Ellis lived a wonderful life in a big city before their mom, Claire moved them to perfect little Unityville. Astrid has a few friends and works many weekends at a catering company where she is expert at deveining shrimp. It is here that she meets Dee and they find time to hug and kiss one another in the big freezer. Dee knows what she wants, but Astrid is just not sure. It is when Kristina comes up with a plan for Astrid to act like she is dating a guy and then after the date, Kristina and Astrid will go to the gay bar in town. Even though they are underage, they get in and it is not until much later, that their worlds come tumbling down when the bar is raided. Everyone is in trouble, but somehow Kristina convinces Astrid's mom that it was all Astrid's idea. Astrid still does not come out and tell everyone about herself and Dee. This hurts Dee but Astrid is continually working her way back to real truth and it is through her many talks to the passengers who fly overhead as Astrid lays on the picnic table in her back yard and questions imaginary Phil Socrates that she is able to accept and love herself. Astrid mends fences with her parents and sister, but they are flawed and it is when Astrid realizes this that she can accept their shortcomings. Astrid doesn't buckle under peer pressure but it takes most of the book for Astrid to berate Kristina and rebuke Dee. Until she does this, Astrid uses boys to hide who she really is and she feels very badly. Astrid never likes keeping secrets but she has not become strong enough to combat the lies until the night at the bar when they are all arrested. It is through all the LOVE that Astrid sends out to the passengers on the planes that she is able to march forward, happy with who she is, loving her imperfect life, verbally sparring with herself and Phil Socrates that we get an empowered, happy Astrid who will continue to question herself and others and above all, like herself for who she truly is.
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Wonder by R.J. Palacio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wonder is a must read for all! Auggie is a 5th grader who has been home schooled and is now going to enter middle school for the first time. Auggie is no ordinary child, he has been hit with 2 bad genes that have deformed his face and the resulting operations have not corrected his deformed face. But Auggie has a wonderful family, a mother, father, and sister and dog, Daisy, who proclaim their love daily. The author hits home through different characters that Auggie's face will always elicit responses from screams,shudders, horror and panic. But this book is uplifting and with each chapter and character, Auggie finds an inner strength, friends and champions to combat those who disparage him, bully him or just plain ignore him. You will root for his sister, Olivia and her fierce love. You will cheer for his parents, funny dad and sympathetic mom and especially their dog, Daisy who provides licks and warmth as she sleeps with Auggie, as they honestly deal with Auggie's lot in life. You will love Auggie's English teacher,Mr. Browne's and his precepts that help shape his students. Jack Will and Summer, prove to be Auggie's best friends, but their road to friendship is not easy, but it is steadfast. Students, teachers and parents, you will be inspired by Auggie and all that this book can teach us about the simple things and ourselves. Highly recommended!
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October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I want to thank Lauren Strohecker for this wonderful gift to our library and with it her advice that it is a must read for young adults. I wholeheartedly concur; in 68 poems in this spare, yet piercing novel in verse, the author was scheduled to speak at Matthew Shepard's college and found out just before about the savage beating this young man received. Leslea Newman kept her keynote engagement and spoke and wept at the sheer horror of this hate crime toward an innocent victim who succumbs to death 5 days later. Newman has taken many elements of Matthew Shepard's last hours and imagined what may have been; the road, the fence he was lashed to, the biker, the murderers, the pistol, the deer and so much more. This book is a tribute to Matthew Shepard who died as a result of a hate crime at the hands of gay haters. This book is also a history lesson that every child, young adult and reader needs to explore because in the reading of this book, you will be changed. This book needs to be read by everyone.
I especially gained even more knowledge through the author's introduction, her epilogue, her afterword, notes, explanation of poetic forms and resources. Newman brings sympathy, anger, sorrow, and compassion to each and every word in this book. Highly recommended.
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Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, I really liked this novel, my only complaint is that I have been so busy I had to read it in increments and all I wanted to do was dive in and zoom through it, it was so compelling. Imagine a future where you are CURED of love at age eighteen! Lena's mom was not able to be cured of amore deleria nervosa and had to go through the cure 3 times before she killed herself rather than go through it a fourth time. Lena wants the cure, she is looking forward to the cure, all because of her mother, and her society. The cure takes away the disease of love and replaces it with another kind of happiness. She will be paired with a boy evaluators choose for her, they will get married and have children, but there is something missing in the union, the family, the society. Throughout the book Lena calls love "the deadliest of all things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't." If you are suspected of being a sympathizer you are imprisoned in the Crypts or killed. Lena and her best friend Hana plan to spend their last summer together, running and doing all kinds of things they were afraid to do, before it is too late--you see they won't remember their past memories after the CURE. Hana is beautiful and Lena cherishes their friendship; but when Hana start listening to music that is not approved and going to parties that could be raided by regulators, Lena is torn. Lena wants the cure but she also wants to push the envelope. It is this inner turmoil of Lena's that Oliver is so good at; when Lena unexpectedly begins to falter with her questions at the evaluation; she doesn't understand why she is giving the wrong answers (she is horrified she can't stop herself). When the evaluation is interrupted and she looks up to see a worker observing her; Lena is thunder struck. On a run with Hana, they go beyond a gate and onto a service road; a guard catches them breaking in and he happens to be the worker Lena saw in the observation area. When Lena shakes his hand; an electrical shock passes through her and she pulls away quickly. Lena and Alex begin stealing time together; Hana comes with them many times as they sneak into the places that are off limits. Will Lena be yearning for the cure as she falls more and more for Alex? "This is what I want. This is the only thing I've ever wanted. Everything else---every single second of every single day that has come before this very moment, this kiss--has meant nothing." An intoxicating read, I am looking forward to her next book, Pandemonium.
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The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to their Younger Selves by Sarah Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The compilation of writers and their notes to themselves in their younger years (from the perspective of older, wiser, is very enjoyable to read. I didn't read every letter or comic from each writer, instead I chose to read YA authors I have read. From 64 authors and illustrators,like Julie Ann Peters, Jacquelyn Woodson, David Levithan, Brian Selznick, Malinda Lo, Bruce Coville, Brent Hartinger, Nick Burd, and I especially liked Linda Villarosa's 1968 note to self, and her 1979 revelation to her parents. This book will make you laugh, cry, and truly appreciate the hopeful rousing understanding the older selves of queer writers wish they had known when they were younger.
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Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Vera Brosgol has penned a great graphic novel dealing with self-esteem, friendship, family, and loyalty. Anya came to the United States from Russia when she was a youngster and has gone through the ESL classes, worked very hard to blend in and lose the Russian accent. Anya has a best (only) friend Siobhan who isn't really nice and a crush on a besketball player. When Anya won't give Siobhan a cigarette, an argument erupts and Anya flees through the park and falls down a hole. In this dark cavern, she finds a skeleton and a ghost arises from the skeleton and tells Anya her name is Emily and she was murdered in 1918 and loved a soldier. Anya is rescued and goes home to find Emily, the ghost, has followed her home because their was a little bit of Emily's bone in Anya's bookbag. After some trepidation about Emily, Anya starts enjoying having a ghost for a friend; she gives her answers on tests, tutors her and helps her dress better and get to a party with the guy she loves on the basketball team. But all is not rosy for Anya; the basketball player is a PLAYER and jumps on girls at parties and through a little research Anya finds out Emily is not really who she says she is...and now Emily gets scary and begins to threaten Anya with harm to her family! What is a girl to do? This colors in this graphic novel consist of greys, whites and black, a perfect background for the darkness behind Emily the ghost. A very enjoyable read and even though Anya has issues; she is/becomes someone who cares about others and will stand up for what is right. Highly recommended,
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Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is another visual delight, part pictures beautifully drawn by Brian Selznick and part story about Ben who is hearing impaired, loses his mother and tries to track down his father. Juxtaposed are the pictures which tells the story of Rose who lives many years earlier, is also deaf and leads a miserable existence with her father. Rose is also fixated on a famous actress and longs to run away to a better, more happy life. Through the pictures and story interspersed throughout, you will love finding out what Ben discovers when he travels to New York to try to find any kind of clues as to who his father is. It is when we follow the art work and story that we are treated to the beauty of Selznick's drawings of the New York skyline and the wolves of Gunflint, Minnesota and following 2 characters as they open doors into dioramas, museums, nature,words, city life and country life. Selnick gives us beauty and wonder and so much more in this 637 page book!
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The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book rightly deserved the Schneider Family Book Award which honors the disability experience in children's and young adult literature. The author is also committed to reading writing and running. Jessica is a normal 16 year old finishing a race one moment and as she rides on her school bus going home, disaster occurs. An uninsured truck driver hurdles down a hill into the bus, killing a classmate and depriving Jessica of her leg. Not onlyis she a runner and racer; she is a winner and while losing her leg causes her all kinds of hurt, anxiety, and insecurity; Jessica is the kind of person who always tries to be positive, works hard to be the best and cares about others. This book was so good on so many levels; Jessica has great friends but Fiona is truly a best friend who is willing to wait for Jessica to come around, support her when she is down and find a way for the track team to get Jessica back in action with a prosthetic leg. Jessica's family is supportive; her dog, Sherlock accompanies her on runs and the most supportive person is her coach, Kyro. Kyro has winners on his team because each runner knows what it takes to do their best and they strive to be winners. Since Jessica had to use a wheelchair when she returned to school, she was placed with Rosa who has cerebral palsy. From Rosa (who Jessica barely acknowledged before)Jessica learns how to reach out and help Rosa feel the wind flying on her face and in her hair. Gavin has been her crush for two years now and he contacts Jessica about doing a story about her in the school newspaper. It is because of Jessica's can do attitude that a friendship develops between them, will there be a romance too? You will have to read this emotional book to find out!
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Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Vidya is an Indian girl in the 1940's with a close knit family. Vidya's father is a doctor and she has a mother and a brother. It is during a march when her father helps a woman who has been thrashed by the British soldiers that he is in turn, viciously beaten and is no longer a vibrant doctor but dependent on his family for his every need. Vidya's family must go live with her father's family, work long hours and endure insults and slurs. Vidya once wanted to attend school and even though this seems impossible now, she longs to get an education, which leads her to get permission from her grandfather to "climb the stairs" and spend time reading in the library. Vidya also brings her baby neice while she pores over the many wonderful books. She also meets Raman who seems to like the same books and leads to many long conversations. Her brother decides to go into the army and fight and is banished from his grandfather's home. Vidya can't understand why he is forsaking her and the family. Will Vidya be able to hold onto her dream of becoming educated and bettering the world like her father, or will she be married off in an arranged marriage?
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Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This wonderfully visual book could be a picture book and by using photographs, text messages, newspaper articles, postcards, printing, and so much more. Glory Fleming is a piano prodigy. She has played the world over, lost her mother when she was eight years old and now has a strict father as her manager. Glory misses her mother, practices piano all day long and doesn't have much in her life than her memories and her piano. Until Argentinian Frank moves next door with his family; Glory and Frank fall in love. When her father plans a tour to Europe, will it drive a wedge between Glory and Frank? While on tour, each of Glory's performances becomes marred by her constant playing of Chopsticks. After Glory returns with her father, he takes her to Golden Hands Rest Facility where she has been on numerous occasions since her mother's death. What will become of Glory and Frank, this book is so much beauty and pain, read it, enjoy it, talk about it.
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This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I really love author Courtney Summers but I just don't love zombie books. Sloane Price is one of 6 students who is barricaded in her high school when the world has ended and the zombies are trying to get into the school. Everyone in the high school wants to live but they do not know that Sloane has a pact to die and she is just biding her time until she can take her own life. Why? Her sister, Lily ran away 6 months ago and she promised she would take Sloane. Why? Their misreable father maliciously beats them on a daily basis and Lily was going to run with Sloane to a better life and then Lily ran away and the apocalypse struck! What happens inside the school is totally creepy and scary, I couldn't put the book down. I liked watching characters who gradually stepped up and changed during their time in the school while others deteriorated, turned on others and were just palin human during a truly terrifying time. I so enjoyed watching Rhys become someone Sloane grew to care about; Rhys knew how to handle Sloane (even when he found out she wanted to kill herself)and it was totally maniacal when they decide to run "outside" and make it to a center for aid. Summers does not allow the reader any time to think in this book because there is constant paranoia, dread, and fear. Intense and utterly scary, what will happen to Sloane?
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Wither by Lauren DeStefano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked this book and really felt like I was withering along with all the other "brides" of Linden. Imagine a world where women do not live past the age of 20 because of faulty genetic engineering; there is a master race but now boys only survive to age 25. Rhine Ellery had wonderful parents and a twin brother but her parents are dead now and at age 15 she is stolen off the streets of Manhattan and forcibly taken to Florida to be one of the 3 wives of Linden Ashby. Rhine's narrative is strong but very conflicted; she plots to escape and return to her twin brother but she lives like a prisoner in Ashby's mansion. His father, HouseMaster Vaughn is sincerely scary, trying to find the perfect antidote. Rhine sees/finds that he is experimenting on anyone who dies but cannot share this information with anyone. Through Rhine's eyes we see how cold, fake, and eelike Vaughn is but she knows how to lie and play his game. Linden is sheltered, awkwar,d but a husband to 3 women and the love of his life, Rose dies making Rhine promise she will look after him. I really had a tough time liking Linden. He was weak, and he never knows his father is evil incarnate---but his father was experimenting on Rose after she dies, to try and get that perfect antidote. Somehow Vaughn knows everything that goes on in his home. He knows that Rhine is growing closer to the house servant, Gabriel. He knows she tried to escape during a storm and he isolates her and continues to badger hee and stress her importance in keeping Linden happy. The title of the book Wither was so apt and it is part of the Chemical Garden series. DeStefano does a thorough job of creating a world that is in chaos with a perfect Master Race racing against time to save the children that science has doomed. Since I downloaded the 2nd book on my Kindle, I will be reading it, but I am glad to give myself some distance from the ache of the decay in this first book.
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Every Day by David Levithan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, I just really loved this book, A. and Rhiannon, and the many other people A is each day. But I was also very sad, because when A falls in love with Rhiannon, you want everything to be possible for them, like their first day together when they spend the day at the ocean. Even though it may seem fantastical that A. isn't a person, but someone who becomes another person for just 24 hours. Levithan's A. is sympathetic, has had to get used to something he cannot control since he was born...waking up every day, somewhere else, a male or a female, black, white or any other culture, happy, sad, a jerk, suicidal, fat, geeky, etc. But the day he wakes up as Justin, A, isn't really a fan of Justin, until he meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. She seems tentative around Justin and A. just falls for her niceness, her smile and decides to throw all his caution to the wind and spend a very special day with her. The day at the ocean is perfect. It is only later, in another body, another day that A. becomes driven to see Rhiannon, even if it is 5 hours away. At some point, A tells Rhiannon who he is and Rhiannon, being touched by the special person A is, decides to (a little unwillingly) meet up with A, whenever possible. Will they find true love? Well, there is alot more going on in this book, so you have to read it to find out. But I think teens will love this book! It is full of yearning, honesty (even amongst the lies)and I see it as probing the teen uncertainties---when A. is fat, when A. is a girl, when A is black---how does Rhiannon act towards him? I think teens will see the many possiblities and keep on turning those pages, I know I did! I can't wait to discuss it with my boys and girls because I think both will see the good in A. and Rhainnon. Enjoy this YouTube video of many YA authors who are different characters in this wonderfully compelling story, High recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZjSHv...
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Irises by Francisco X. Stork
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just love Francisco Stork's style of writing and this 3rd book was moving, difficult, and you so want Kate and Mary to survive what life is throwing at them. Kate and Mary are two sisters with a strict minister father they love and a mother who has been in a vegetative state for two years since a car accident. Kate and Mary's lives are changed after their mother's accident and when her father refuses to keep her in a facility, she comes to their home; with some outside help to care for their mother. Mary has always been a gifted painter but finds it difficult to paint since the accident. Kate has secretly applied to Stanford; her wish to become a doctor and help others. Suddenly their father dies and they are pressured to make decisions about their mother, their home and their life. Stork uses imagery and the sister's thoughts, words, and actions to describe their lives before his death. As Mary and Kate struggle with their love and faith, they will meet people who help them deal with the crises that demand decisions during their time of sorrow. Mary and Kate have such different personalities but their love for each other and their mother are steadfast. It is how they choose to move forward that is so compelling. This is a gripping yet beautiful story of the Romero sisters, I highly recommend this. It is deep and I know some students I am definitely going to book talk this to in September.
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White Cat by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Since I really enjoyed the Tithe Series, I knew I was going to love this first book in the Curse Workers series! Cassel "lives" with his two brothers, Phillip (who is married with a baby) and Barron (who attends Princeton) while his mother is in jail. We find out Cassel Sharpe's family are curse workers, but Cassel is not a worker at all. But Cassel apparently killed his friend, Lila; but he doesn't remember anything but standing over Lila and lots of blood. Their mother is in jail for conning a millionaire and Barron is trying to get her out. While she is in jail, Cassel attends a prep school and tries to be normal but he is a bookie and enjoys some small fame. Until he sleep walks and wakes ups on a roof at school and can't get off. Cassel can't remember how he got there but in his dream he was chasing a white cat. While he has been suspended from school, his grandfather comes to help him clean out his house that sounds alot like a hoarder's home with all the junk they are wading through. As his best friend, Sam keeps the bookie business going at school, Cassel sees the white cat and it seems to be "telling" him, he is responsible somehow and must do something. This is a suspenseful, lots of twists and turns novel with Cassel as a very likable hero who at times really hates his worker family; even more when he realizes they are erasing his memory and working him. Holly Black's world of the paranormal is edgy and gritty and students will enjoy Cassel's predicaments, his schemes and how he WORKS his own family! I am really lookng forward to Book 2 Red Glove.
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Great teachers are invaluable, yet too often their tireless work goes unnoticed or worse, unappreciated. While teacher appreciation week is in May, why wait to recognize the incredible work of our educators? These individuals dedicate their lives to developing the next generation. They come in early to prepare special lessons and stay late to help tutor struggling students. They capture the imagination of students by showing them the world of books, the power of math and the lessons of history. Great teachers make schoolwork come alive and they are not satisfied by helping students just achieve good test scores; instead they strive to spark curiosity, foster learning and encourage new discovery among the young scholars they nurture.
Almost everyone can relate to being inspired at some point in their lives by a great teacher … someone who took an interest and gave support, helped with mastery of a skill, taught us how to conquer a problem or made it possible for us to take a dream of who we wanted to be and turn it into reality. More than ever, we need teachers that not only educate our students, but help connect them to their passions and explore the possibilities of what could be. Teachers deserve our thanks every day for all they do.
A new video, “Salute to Teachers,” (http://youtu.be/ypFRxw9czi4) thanks these important mentors by showing the dynamic influence of educators. They ignite students’ minds and passions by asking simple questions like “what,” “why,” or “how.” Once the curious fire of learning is stoked, great teachers have the ability to build on that excitement and desire for discovery. Engaging teachers bring personal commitment to the classroom every day and that kind of interactive connection between teachers and their students motivates learners of all ages to test boundaries and become a part of the larger world around them.
Surveys have shown students are greatly influenced by their teachers. The mentorship of a teacher can solidify a student’s success in high school and beyond into college. Last fall a Microsoft survey found that a majority of college students studying science, technology, engineering or math decided to enter those fields because of a teacher. Great instruction sparks interest in exploring the world––one teacher can encourage a student to make a lifelong commitment to learning.
In a world that is ever changing, the importance of teachers is a constant. Teachers play a critical role in the future of our planet. The GLOBE Program (http://www.globe.gov) is taking this opportunity to salute teachers everywhere—for all of the things they do. GLOBE encourages you to thank teachers for their work on the frontlines and for pushing the world to be a better place by inspiring students everywhere. Share the “Salute to Teachers” video with all of the educators that have impacted your life. From your elementary or secondary school teachers or college professors, to the teacher who inspires your child, show your appreciation by posting the video on their Facebook page or to your social media profiles, as well as by sharing the link with others so they can also thank the great teachers in their lives. Together we can show teachers how much we appreciate all that they have done – and continue to do – for our communities and us each day they are in the classroom.
