Pencils Down! has been forty-five years in the making. It is hoped that by sharing classroom experiences, the reader will be entertained, enlightened, and educated. The ideas presented are written for all educators: veteran, novice, substitute and student teachers, parents who homeschool, college and university professors, as well as for anyone who has a child in his or her care. The guide offers the fruit of my experiences, gleaned from a lifetime in the classroom. Writing this book has been a labor of love, and it is my sincere hope that all educators reading this book will find some fresh insight into the wonderful profession of teaching. Pencils Down! will take you on a journey whose itinerary begins in elementary school and spans more than four decades. I have taken that journey at the head of the class.


Many an author has written a book on education without ever having stepped into a real classroom. I have stepped into many classrooms, many times, over many years, and now feel qualified to write my first book.


Having successfully survived as a teacher forty-five years in the public and private sectors of both the New York and Nevada school systems prompted me to write this book, a book packed with lessons that work, school humor, enrichment activities, and sage advice ready to be used by anyone who desires to instill a love of learning in a child. You may wish to do many of the lessons with your students.


Most of the text deals with activities based on beloved children’s books. I have selected more than fifty children’s books I most enjoyed reading and teaching my students. Although some of these books never achieved Newbery Medal award status, each book teaches something of life’s lessons, and each is a gem. My first priority was selecting excellent children’s books. I have selected a broad and diverse collection of children’s books with the hope that by using these books daily with all elementary school children, each child can learn to love books and appreciate the extended benefits of lifelong literacy.


To give you a true flavor of what is covered, a summary of each part follows. Welcome to Pencils Down!


Part One: School Humor

You are reading this either because you are contemplating a career in teaching or are curious to find out whether a veteran teacher can still be sane after spending forty-five years in the classroom. Part One presents the humorous side to an otherwise serious profession. You will get a glimpse of nineteenth and early twentieth century rules for teachers and peruse a copy of the contract teachers were made to sign. Both will make you wonder why anyone would consider a career in education. You will find out what teachers make and be privy to the public’s low opinion of teachers’ salaries. If you survive the reality show for educators, you may continue reading the book. School anecdotal incidents, accrued from many years in the classroom, will be shared. You will learn why God created the teacher and will be introduced to the new school policy. A test designed for preschoolers will challenge you. Answers from kindergartners and first graders as to why we read and write will be sure to surprise and amuse you. Actual student test answers and parental notes are included, both good for a chuckle. The difference between an educator and a teacher will be clarified. Today’s schools, vs. schools in the 50’s and 60’s, will make you wish you were teaching in a simpler era and make you wonder if schools are still teaching math. An Australian school’s answering machine will make you smile, as will the eleven things you did not and will not learn in school. 


Part Two: Getting to Know You


“Getting to know you,
 Getting to know all about you.
 Getting to like you,
 Getting to hope you like me.”


I played these lyrics from Rogers and Hammerstein’s The King and I on the first day of each new term as a precursor to using the ice-breakers described in Part Two. Two ice-breakers that can be used at the beginning of the school year to help students get acquainted and help you get to know your students are explained. “This is Your Life” and “Guess Who?” are ways to learn about your students while they learn about you. You will meet a very compassionate third-grader in “Wet Pants.” Teachers, remember that you have the entire year to teach the curriculum, but you only get one chance to make a first impression.


Part Three: Lessons with Flair


The best teachers are always looking for new ways to improve their own teaching methods. It is my hope that by using some of the lessons suggested in Part Three will help spark your own creativity, ideas, and methods. You are invited to attend a unique celebration at which time two consonants will be wed. New twists on old proverbs will cause you to smile. A simple trip to the grocery store will turn into a fun writing lesson, while TV commercials prove to have some real value. Allowing students the freedom to tell it like it is when describing their teacher, giving them the opportunity to take over the classroom, and asking their advice on how to deal with problems that arise, will provide insights into their way of thinking. An unusual lesson is followed by a creative way of answering the help wanted ads. These ten unique lessons are worth a try. All proved highly successful, were good learning experiences, and were great fun. 


Part Four: Lessons That Engage


Detailed lesson plans are presented in Part Four, each stressing student engagement. Meet a teacher who teaches fractions by biting a student in half. Discover a simple alphabet book that teaches the ABC’s in a fun way. A cookie-loving mouse, a pancake-loving piglet, and a muffin-loving moose will all teach important lessons. A big bad wolf will try to convince you of his innocence. A little boy who is flattened like a pancake, and can travel the world in an envelope, will encourage you to send him on other travels. Students use an author’s style to create their own imaginative stories. A school building was accidentally constructed vertically instead of horizontally, and in this mixed up school you will meet some very mixed up students. Your students will be on board the day the Mayflower makes its maiden voyage. You are sure to sympathize with the girl who believes someone has put a math curse on her. Part Four concludes with a guide to help teachers evaluate their own lessons.


Part Five: Story Time
Activities for Fifty Favorite Children’s Books by Grade Level


Fifty books are summarized in depth in order to give teachers a true flavor for the story and to see if it meets their needs. The summary is followed by ‘Enrichment Activities.’ Each activity relates directly to the lives of the students. Only by personally relating to the subject matter will students take away and remember what they have learned. It is extremely difficult to classify books by grade level since so much depends on the maturity of the students, as well as their reading levels. In many instances, books that students cannot read themselves can be enjoyed when read to them. Many enrichment activities are geared to class discussions. In so doing, even the poorest of readers can contribute and will feel a sense of pride when their teacher values what they have to say. Some of these activities were carried out during the reading, while others were done after completing the book. It is hoped that you will find favorites among the books I have selected and that you may want to try some of the enrichment activities with your students. Themes covered include love, belonging, friendship, sharing, bullying, loss, survival, prejudice, acceptance, self-esteem, peer pressure, loneliness, and courage. Part Five concludes with an explanation of how to use multiple copies of books with groups of students in a creative way and a spelling activity with a mystery to solve.


Part Six: A Twist in the Tale


Writing the typical book report is not an assignment students favor. Part Six presents novel approaches to the old-fashioned written book report, hence, a twist in the tale. The “Winner is ...” asks students to defend a favorite book and explain why that book should have won a Newbery medal. When students “Write a Picture Book,” they convert a chapter book into a picture book and share their book with a little buddy in a first or second grade class. “What’s on Your Mind?” and “Character Counts” encourage students to explore a character’s mind in several unusual ways. “What a Character” has students making a collection of trading cards, similar to baseball cards, describing the characters from their book. “The Memory Box” calls for collecting objects relating to a book, and is used to present an oral retelling of the story using the objects to help recall story details. “Private Detective” asks students to take on the job of private investigator, solve the book’s mystery, and file a case report explaining the details of the case. Part Six concludes with From A-Z, a collaborative class effort to create an alphabet book that tells the book’s story in words and pictures.


Part Seven: Spanglish


Many of today’s students come from homes where English is not their native language, and in other cases where English is the native language, you would never guess that to be the case. Here you will meet a bilingual dog and be introduced to a masculine computer. It will finally become clear why English is so hard to learn after you meet a soldier who decided to “desert his dessert in the desert.” You will be given an English lesson, and if you do not pass the test, you will be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. Meet Lennie who does not have a clue as to what proper grammar sounds like. Learn “How to Write Good,” when you “eliminate commas, that are, not necessary.” Part Seven concludes by showing you how powerful the comma is. Trying to grasp the English language is no easy task.


Part Eight: Seriously Speaking


Teachers often counsel students and help them through troubling times. The events of September 11, 2001, except for the magnitude of what happened, were no exception. The worst terror attack in the history of the U. S. occurred that day. A poem, written in the style associated with Dr. Seuss, was penned two days later and called "The Binch." The poem, based on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," combines Bin (Osama Bin Laden) + Grinch= Binch. Learn how the poem was used to help students heal. “The Class List” assignment was first used after a bullying incident occurred and thereafter became a tradition in my classroom. “A Teacher’s Random Act of Kindness” will bring tears to your eyes as you read about one teacher who made a difference in the life of a sad and lonely little boy. Finally, "A Salute to Teachers," the poem given as a gift to all teachers, praises the heroism of so many of our unsung teacher heroes.


Part Nine: Pencils Down!: Journey’s End!


As our journey reaches its conclusion at the university, I leave you with a few memorable moments. One such occurred when the “New School Policy” was revisited. Even some college students could not tell that they were being conned. I related the “Shortest Short Story” to a class in which several students preferred to hand in abbreviated assignments. Before the “Final Exam” is a humorous example of what happens when two college students fail to get their stories straight. Students always enjoyed the story I told on the day of “The Final Exam.” Pencils Down! concludes with a letter I received from a student twenty-five years after she left my classroom.