Did I Mention I'm a Cult Member?

Scenes From St. Augustine -- The Ghostly Experience walking tour. No, there aren't really dead hamsters buried under the brick street. But yes, the Augustin Inn was haunted . . . until they had it exorcised. That's the DH in the green shirt and the white baseball cap.

Yes, I belong to a a cult, a teacher cult that worships reading guru Kelly Gallagher. It all started a couple of years ago when I went to a workshop on reading strategies for at-risk learners. The materials included two of Gallagher's books and I fell in love. So I've been pushing Wayne (hey, Wayne -- you need a blog and a website. You also need to finish that darn book, but that's a different story!) to read Deeper Reading. He's had it, he just hasn't read it. So at the beginning of the year, he finally gave in to the yummy-teacher-goodness that is Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading and now Michelle (the 8th grade LA teacher) and I have sucked him into the Gallagher cult.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Want to know how bad it is? Wednesday morning, I walk by the two having a conversation. Michelle stops me to ask my take on essay-length with middle schoolers. I mention using powerwriting as a teaching technique and Wayne says, "Is that Gallagher?" No, but that starts a whole 'nother Gallagher-worshipfest as we talk about how we're using his techniques and how they're working in our rooms.

Yes, we are sad people.

But if you teach language arts in grades 4-12, you need the Gallagher goodness. Seriously.

(And Anonymous, when you pop by -- all of our ELA teachers in grades 4-12 need a copy of Gallagher's Deeper Reading of their own. We should do staff development with those strategies.)

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Misc. Notes:

1) Hearts Awakened is garnering lovely reviews and is at #2 on the MBAM top ten list!

2) I'm fiddling with my website. If you pop over there and things are wonky, that's why.

3) Monster #1 is at a middle school dance. Considering how much effort he put into his appearance, I do believe scamming on middle school girls was on his agenda. He was horrified when I mentioned possibly chaperoning said dance. I am an evil mom.