The Teacher in You

This on-going pandemic has definitely changed our lives. Some of you parents have become teachers, whether you'd wanted to be or not. And, to your own surprise, maybe you're the greatest teacher ever. In a way, there's a teacher inside all of us. This pandemic has brought that to the forefront.

If you're doing a lot of teaching and schooling at home, please don't forget to utilize one of your greatest assets, which is your local library.

For any parent or teacher, creating your syllabus and following your state's strict curriculum guidelines can be a real challenge. But, finding a way, maybe a creative way, to set aside let's say an hour or so per week, for your kids (students) to simply talk about anything they want to is arguably your greatest tool as a teacher.

In school settings, a student's classroom participation is a vital part of his or her final grade, but sometimes the quiet kid in class gets misjudged. It's common knowledge that these quiet students have a lot of hard stuff on their minds, especially nowadays with the pandemic going on, and at times, their 'stuff' is traumatic and not so easy to speak about. (Similar to military veterans, like myself, coping with hidden scars and a tendency to bottle things up.) But given the right avenue or outlet, even the quiet kid comes out of his or her shell and momentarily at least, they'll have their moment and comfortably feel relaxed enough to share some of their more-deeper thoughts with the class.

Back in elementary school, 'Show n' Tell' time was great because it laid the foundation for some of you who currently have no issues whatsoever with public speaking. As a student gets older, they may or may not have teachers who will set aside classroom time for them to talk openly about their 'stuff'. But for those teachers who do create these special moments the payoff is great.

I feel so strongly about this issue that I created 'Sit n' Talk' time in my latest short novel 'America: No Purchase Necessary', whereby Miss Pritchett's students gets to speak about whatever they want to in front of the entire class.

Lastly, although it's challenging, try to enjoy the teacher in you. (It can be rewarding sometimes....and please utilize and take advantage of your local library whenever possible.) - Randolph Randy Camp

More at https://www.amazon.com/author/randolphcamp

Randie's Free Library: Finding New Readers

Randie had an enormous book collection. If you'd watched AMY POPILLION 's Facebook live streamed April 9th event you would've seen a portion of Randie's books, and heard how every book has a sticker that says "This book once belonged to the personal library of Randie Camp. To honor her memory, it has been sent out into the world, by her loved ones, to find new readers. May it be as special to you as it was to her." After the April 9th ceremony, guests were invited to take books from Randie's huge collection. Randie's Free Library (located in Des Moines) had many books from Randie's personal collection (but most are already taken, which I know puts a big smile on Randie's face). Also, there's an additional Little Free Library, honoring Randie Danielle Camp, located in Ames, Iowa, near one of Randie's favorite city parks.

Fantastic Book Art done by talented art students from Ames, Iowa in memory of Dr. Randie Danielle Camp, who devoted most of her adult life to teaching the importance of literacy and bibliotherapy.