Day: August 11, 2014

Posted in Uncategorized

Top 10 Picture Books for Activists in Training by Mathangi Subramanian

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

A must read!

Nerdy Book Club

Here’s the thing grownups constantly forget about childhood: sometimes, it sucks. Kids all over the world face poverty, war, bullying, discrimination, and oppression. Being young doesn’t protect you from the pressures of adulthood. It just gives you fewer ways to deal with these pressures, not to mention less control over your life.

But here’s the other thing grownups constantly forget about children: they’re smarter than us. Most of the time, they’re also stronger, more hopeful, and more creative. I’ve met kids all over the world who greet each morning joyfully despite the fact that they don’t know where their next meal is coming from, or where they’re going to sleep that night.

Although I constantly encounter diverse, fiercely optimistic children in real life, I hardly ever see them between the pages of children’s books. Too often, stories for young people feature protagonists whose sanitized adventures occur in immaculate suburban neighborhoods…

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Posted in Uncategorized

TOP TEN WAYS TO TURN YOUR CLASSROOM INTO A HOTBED OF ENTHUSIASTIC READERS by Megan Ginther and Holly Mueller

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

Useful Tips for Parents as well esp 1, 2, 4, 9 and 10.

Nerdy Book Club

We are intermediate grade teachers who have learned over the years that there are practices that get kids excited about reading.   We tried to rank them but decided they were all equally important.  We can’t imagine eliminating any of them, so these are not in any particular order.

1.  Know your kids.

Did Katie’s hamster die last night?  Is Michael upset because his parents are getting a divorce?  If you know your kids, you can connect readers with books.  LOVE THAT DOG may help Katie express her feelings about her beloved pet.  BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX may help Michael see his parents as people and forgive them.  Books speak to our students.  Keep students in mind when you read books.

2.  Read aloud EVERY DAY.

We know there is not enough time in the day for all you have to do.  But don’t give up reading…

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Posted in Prose

19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Readings, Reflections and Prayers

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By

Noel A. Ihebuzor

Love, peace, truth, kindness, justice and faith, key elements in our life and journey on earth are mentioned in the readings for this Sunday. Easy to say words, but often difficult to actualise in our daily existence. Though mostly lived in society and in the company of others, life is a personal search for meaning and self actualisation fired by a vision that drives our mission and purpose on earth. In our search for meaning and for what is good, we end up searching for God, our creator and the author of all that we are. We usually search for God in the big events of life and in so doing lose the many opportunities to see Him, to meet Him and to engage with Him in the more simple events where His presence may be found – in lonely places, in the face of our neighbours, in the stranger looking for love, in the cry of a child whose parents have been killed in airstrike, in the battered wife looking for protection and in the lonely drunk dazed and lost. Yes, we miss such opportunities because we forget these unforgettable lines – whatsoever you do even to the least of these brethren of mine, that you do unto me.

And faith too. We profess it like Peter, perhaps even more profusely. Come the least wave, the slightest suggestion of a storm, of an upheaval and we sink. And we scream our faith to the roof tops but do not match these with good works – James 2 is an inconvenient read…..but “too much talk is not good for evening mass” – So, let me end this short sharing with prayers for us all

  • May you find God in the simplicity of ordinary day to day events;
  • May you meet God in the quietness of small moments;
  • May truth and kindness meet and unite in your life;
  • May justice and peace embrace, kiss and fuse in our lives;
  • May our faith give you courage to walk on troubled waters and not sink;
  • May faith be our bridge over the troubled waters of life;
  • May your faith be revealed through and matched by your good works;
  • May love, truth, kindness, justice and peace fused as one become our operating software;
  • And may we see the kindness of God and be granted His salvation.

HAPPY SUNDAY, HAPPY WEEK and may God bless you.

Noel