Teachers-Authors of the Future

I love to read the USA Today paper (you know the pretty paper). Thursday is my favorite time to take my time and go over every inch of the paper. There are no coupons to clip in this paper, no grocery store ads; there are no obituaries to read unless they consider you to be famous. On Thursday, this paper lists the top 50 best selling books in the nation. I always try to see if my favorite authors are listed.

As I look at the titles of the books, I try to imagine what the books are about. Then I read the papers description. My ideas are a lot more imaginative than theirs-mine usually have something to do with the world of education in one fashion or another. Here are some examples that I came up with.

At one time the number one book was The South Beach Diet. Wouldn't most educators love to get away to South Beach and diet on real food? Most educators bring lunch or find some fast food, and they like most of the country are overweight and stressed out. This book could be the saga of the stressed out, overweight educator who escapes to South Beach for a little R&R and discovers a famous student who was an underachiever that flourished in his classroom. This student is now an innkeeper with a mysterious secret. Yep, you guessed it a mystery that only a trusted educator can solve. Educators solve all kinds of problems each and every day from "I don't have any paper" to "I don't have any place to live".

I love this title The Five People You Might Meet In Heaven. In heaven there would be the first grade teacher who made you sit in the corner and miss recess after you hit the little girl next to you "just because". This incident reminds you each day that you must learn to control your temper, and you can't hit someone without some sort of consequence. Then there would be the seventh grade teacher that read your note you had written to that someone special. This teacher gave you back the note after correcting your spelling. You now proofread everything that you send out even with the advent of spell check. There would be the band teacher that moved you from the clarinet to the French Horn which by the way you continue to play today in the community orchestra. Of course there would be the career and technology teacher, you know the one that insisted that you take the SAT/ACT test. The teacher that first gave you a career interest survey that sparked your interest in a particular career. The one who gave you an idea of what you wanted to major in college. The one that you think of each time you go to your place of business. Last but not least, there would be the homeroom teacher. This teacher was with you for your entire high school experience. The homeroom teacher saw your report card before you did. They checked your schedule, told you that you could do better, and always gave you encouragement. This was the person who knew more about you than any other person in school. This teacher became your parent at school. All of these teachers plus others would be in heaven to welcome you with open arms.

A cookbook entitled Fix It and Forget It is one of my favorite titles. This has recipes for a slow cooker. You put in all the ingredients, mix, stir, whatever, then you cover it, turn on the correct temperature and you can't go wrong-the meal is perfect. I image a teacher covering information, mixing up activities, stirring up conversation with every student present, on time and attentive. The students would be asking questions, retaining information from days gone by. The teacher would give that warm smile of approval as she covers all the information. A test would be given and everyone would pass-the class would be perfect.

Book titles seldom tell the entire story of the book. You must read the book carefully to get the full meaning of the title. Good teachers seldom teach just their subject matter. They educate our children. Good teachers are like good books; they are more than their subject matter. They are the authors of the best sellers of the future--our children.