Speak the Speech I recently had the honor of giving the commencement speech to the eighth graders culminating from William Jefferson Clinton Middle School in South Los Angeles. Go Eagles! A few quick facts about Clinton (taken from their website): it's an inner-city middle school serving 900 students in a "predominantly commercial warehouse/industrial district that also resides in one of Los ... MORE ▶
Say hi to Miss Martone's class at Cathedral Chapel School in Los Angeles. Hi, class! Miss Martone is front right; your author is playing Waldo in the middle. Miss Martone has been teaching Eleven to her students at CCS this spring and invited me by for a mid-book check-in. These kids are excellent readers, and we had an ... MORE ▶
The sixth-graders at McKinley Avenue School have been diligently working through Eleven this semester. (You can read more about them and see pictures here.) One of the central mysteries in the story revolves around a character known only as The Man in the White Shirt. Midway through the book, our amateur sleuths were asked to say who they thought The ... MORE ▶
Today, I'm going to brag about my kids. All thirty of them. Mr. Shapiro's Class, Room 26, McKinley Avenue School Since January, I've been teaching Eleven to the students in Jeff Shapiro's sixth-grade class at McKinley Avenue School in South Los Angeles. They are serious scholars, every one. Mr. Shapiro is an old friend and has ... MORE ▶
Welcome to the Neighborhood! Glad you could stop by. When I was growing up, my mother used to drive me and my brother crazy making lists for everything -- grocery lists, chore lists, homework lists, lists of lists to keep track of her lists. So I’m sure she’ll be pleased to see me start off this blog with a list. ... MORE ▶