I’m going to be “up to” a fair number of things during the coming months, and thought I’d give readers a quick “preview.”  I’ll be writing more in the near future about each of these activities a bit more specifically.

My book (written with Lorie Hammond), called Building Parent Engagement In Schools, will be published this summer.  It combines my nineteen years of community organizing with my six years of teaching experience, and offers (at least, in my mind and in the minds of Linworth Publishing) a somewhat unique perspective on what schools can do to more effectively connect with parents.

I’ll be starting a second blog called Engaging Parents In School at about the same time the book comes out. I’ll just be posting there about once a week, and will continue making this blog my primary online presence.  More “The Best…” lists and new posts in the “What Do You Do?” series are coming-up.  In addition, I’ll be writing for In Practice, the group blog written by teachers working in low-income communities that was begun by Alice Mercer).  And I’ll continue to be trying to figure out Twitter.

During the summer, I’ll also be finishing-up another book. This one will be on using community organizing methodology to teach English Language Learners, and it should be published next summer.

My teaching schedule looks interesting, too.  I’ll have a Beginning ESL class for three weeks in the summer (those are always a lot of fun!), and, then, in the fall, I’ll, as usual, be teaching Intermediate English and mainstream ninth-grade English.  The “twist” in my schedule is that I’ll also be teaching a Theory of Knowledge class in our school’s International Baccalaureate program. I’m looking forward to that class, and to seeing if I can modify some of those lessons for my Intermediate English Language Learners. If anybody out there also teaches TOK, I’d be interested in hearing your ideas and getting any help I can!

Another new adventure I’m beginning is becoming part of the Teacher Leaders Network. I’m still getting a handle on what is all involved, but I figure if people like Bill Ferriter and John Norton are leaders in it, it’s something I’m sure to learn a lot from.

Throw-in family time and basketball-playing, plus anything else Alice Mercer tells me to do :), and it’ll be a “hopping” few months!