I’ve been hugely gratified by the responses I’ve gotten from teachers around the country about using BE A CHANGEMAKER: HOW TO START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS in their classrooms. The very first of these was a lovely 8th-grade ELA teacher from a private Catholic school in Louisiana. She reached out to me before the book was even released, and let me tell you, her
To my delight, I’ve had several teachers contact me about speaking to their students at the kickoff of a unit using Be a Changemaker in their classrooms. While I’m always thrilled to do a quick, live Skype call if the timing and permissions work out, so far it’s been easier for everyone if there’s a pre-made video that they can
November is here, and that means it’s time for Picture Book Idea Month. So far, I’m two for two: woohoo! Remember the Howdy Doody theme song? Did you ever notice how PiBoIdMo has the same number of syllables as “Howdy Doody?” Now that I’ve noticed, I can’t get it out of my head. So, I thought I’d share my little earworm
On Monday, I reviewed a new alphabet book, ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE!: A GAMER’S ALPHABET, written by Chris Barton and illustrated by Joey Spiotto. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Chris! Chris was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about writing ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE! Read on for the interview: LT: I have a sort of love-hate
ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE! written by Chris Barton, illustrated by Joey Spiotto published by POW! Kids Books, October 2014 32 pages From the publisher’s web page: An ironic yet informative alphabet that defines the most important gaming terms that everyone needs to know, Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet is the ultimate crossover gift for our age, a book that can actually bring
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being the special guest at an incredible event, Stratos Product Development’s annual company open house. The company is mentioned on page 138 of my book Be a Changemaker, because they were one of the original funders of Edward Jiang’s StudentRND venture, which I profiled in chapter 12. As you can see, this
THE SCRAPS BOOK: NOTES FROM A COLORFUL LIFE written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster, March 2014 72 pages There have been several picture-book autobiographies of children’s book authors and illustrators over the past few years. Sadly, most have left me feeling just a little underwhelmed. While I personally enjoyed them, I felt like they were
Quoted in BE A CHANGEMAKER, chapter 1, taken from a speech the President gave to his supporters in Chicago on February 5, 2008.
I had a wonderful time presenting with Mary Cronk Farrell at the 2014 WLMA Conference last Saturday! The title of our talk was “Fostering 21st Century Learning with Today’s Nonfiction,” and we delivered it to a room overflowing with teacher/librarians (aren’t t/l’s the best!?) who were looking for new ideas and book recommendations. Our presentation discussed how much of the
My publisher for BE A CHANGEMAKER, Beyond Words, does an awesome weekly series of live video webinars with their authors. Here’s the recording made from my spot on September 10, 2014. Check it out: maybe you’ll discover your passion and figure out how you can be a changemaker!