Another Conference, Accelerated Reading, and Tech-Free Tuesday

I seem to be always attending conferences. This weekend was our graduate student conference—in other words, a conference where just graduate students present. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot. Surprisingly, the session that seemed to garner the most controversy was the one in which the students found in their student that their students were motivated to read more and improved their reading skills because of Accelerated Reader. Personally, I think that program is rubbish—but my complaints with it are anecdotal. Emery’s school, for example, doesn’t have the program, but promotes a love of reading through independent reading from kindergarten. And, I’ve had students who report on how their students become more interested in earning points in inventive ways. I remember my sister fretting because her daughter wanted to read books that fell outside of her reading level. Finally, AR does do a better job of keeping up with current titles, but it’s expensive, its tests test children at the most basic level (recall and comprehension), and in the long term, I can’t imagine what it means for our children when we assume they won’t read, or can’t read, unless they can take a test so their “flower” can bloom.

But, onto lighter issues. We managed to have Tech-free Tuesday again, and this time we had a Percy Jackson-themed meal. For an appetizer, we had Leo tacos (actually cheese quesadillas), for the main course, we had Calypso stew, and for desert, we had ambrosia (blue-colored MM milkshakes).

For next week, Emery and I decided we wanted a Disney-movie themed dinner. We settled on The Incredibles, and we plan to eat a raw food dinner—like the one found in the volcano dinner scene. It seems to me like these conversations about books is more fun than an AR test, even if I get to take it on the computer.

What books have inspired some of your meals?