The Book Love Foundation Podcast

This podcast is amazing! I love hearing all of the enthusiasm for reading in HS. All HS teachers need to listen to this and truly reflect what we are teaching and students and why we are teaching it! Thank you Penny Kittle!

I chose this podcast as I have been a fan of Penny Kittle and her work with reading and literacy for years. I figured that anything she was willing to put out into the podcast world would be worth my time, and I was right! I chose this particular episode (Season 4, Episode 1) to listen to as I have seen Chad Everett speak several times at NERDCamp in MI – so a conversation involving his perspective is always inspiring and interesting as a former ELA teacher and now, administrator. Although this episode is a year old, originally being released in April of 2020, it’s [unfortunately] still applicable to today, as we are dealing with the pandemic and virtual and blended learning. Chad’s thoughts on equity and access when it comes to internet and device access are questions that have been at the core of my concerns as an educator through the pandemic and school building closures. His emphasis on knowing students and connecting with them and their families to help facilitate their learning as much as possible are ideas that can and should be implemented no matter if we find ourselves in a pandemic environment or not! A year + past when this episode was recorded, the ideas present in the conversation between Julie and Chad have been proven to be the reality for students and educators all over the United States. I feel very strongly that conversations like this one – where classroom teachers, administrators, librarians, and all other education professionals can sit down and talk openly about their concerns, strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for moving forward with education in times such as these. The focus these two put on being honest about how the pandemic and switching to distance learning really put a spotlight on the roles schools play for students is refreshing and a must-listen for educators!

The work that Penny Kittle and the Book Love Foundation is doing is invaluable. By putting books into the hands of students, they are making a difference in not just the academic standing of kids but their present and future lives. Penny facilitates such natural conversation with the teachers interviewed here. They tell beautiful and inspiring stories of how these books make a difference for their students and schools at large.

Stories of reading lives and recommendations by my reading mentors-people like Donalyn Miller and Kylene Beers. So many books to get into the hands of students!