The first five books:
1. Lesson Plans and Touring Vans by Dallas Thompson
I got this book at the Chicago Zine Fest. Dallas is in a band and they did some touring, but most of the writing focuses on his time in the education program, and follows him through his student teaching experience. As someone who had just finished student teaching, I thought I needed to read it! It was fun to relate and empathize, and hear his funny stories of his students. He also took a course/taught in Ghana, and it was interesting to get a glimpse into what some of the schools there are like.
2. Hip-Hop U.S. History by Flocabulary
I got this to hopefully use in my future classes. It's a cd of hip hop songs recounting all the major epochs of U.S. History, and an accompanying book with the lyrics and additional information explaining and expounding on the lyrics. It has great lines like, "The Mayans knew dope astronomy too". Can't wait to use it in class!
3. Still Sits the Schoolhouse by Road by Frank Bartol
This book was given to me to read at a sub job--I was working in a special ed class, where the students were all studying for finals, and the class sizes were real small (one class was two students, me, and the aide), so she knew I'd have a lot of down time. I read the entire book that day. It's written by a former teacher from that school, who later became a professor at Northern (the college I graduated from). It's all about his two-room schoolhouse in Traunik (a town in the middle of the U.P./in the middle of nowhere. It was interesting enough.
4. Listening to America, by Bill Moyers
This book was given to me years about by Simona, since I'm a huge fan of Bill Moyers. I started reading it a few years ago, but never got very far, but I picked it back up when I started subbing and finished it largely during lunch breaks and prep hours. In this book, Bill travels all across the country in 1969-70 talking to all sorts of people. The reason that I didn't like it as much as other Bill Moyers books is precisely the reason that it is a great book: Bill Moyers' voice is almost completely absent. It is a reprint of everything that the people he talked to told him. The major issues which came up again and again were segregation/racism, and student unrest.
5. On Subbing: The First Four Years by Dave Roche
As a new sub, I had the read this. I'd heard about this zine for a while, but when I came across it now as a book, I knew I had to read it. Dave's experiences are a bit different from mine, as I subbed as a teacher, and only once in a special ed class so far, whereas he subbed in an aide for special ed classes. But it was definitely an interesting read, and made me reflect a lot on my own experiences as a sub and a teacher.
