One of the things I have made a commitment to do this year (apart from improving my terrible cello playing and becoming fitter) is to read a lot more outside my subject area. History and technology books normally make up my Amazon orders and I felt that it needed to change.  As a result, I have created a poster in my classroom explaining that I intend to read 24 different books over the next 12 months (and not directly related to History). Why have I put the poster in the classroom? There are two reasons. The first is to help me keep on track; I know of no better group of people willing to keep someone else on task (!) so they will be my conscience throughout the year. The second reason is pedagogical as I wanted to demonstrate or model publicly that reading is a fun, challenging and legitimate activity.

As part of the challenge, I have asked students to recommend books to me. I am sure I will get a few English class texts in there and I am mentally prepared for the Twilight series (I enjoyed the first film so the books can’t be that bad, right?) but the great thing is that it will create a conversation based on books outside the normal teaching and learning situation. Sure, they may ask me for my opinion on a character or theme they are writing an essay on due in the next day but then the students are engaging in a discussion with someone not teaching the text. I’ll also be able to discuss what I found difficult, what I really enjoyed and how it allowed me to understand something I did not before I read it.

Ultimately, I hope the challenge will demonstrate that learning happens all the time, even to teachers. I also hope that as the year goes on and the grid of books I have read fills up (alongside my scientific five star rating system), some of the students will engage in the reading process. I may have had enough of Bella and Edward by then but if it takes someone away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Gossip Girl DVDs for a few moments every day, it would certainly be worth it.

Image: JerOmm.nz @Flickr

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