Welcome to our CLA Blog

BY LAUREN AIMONETTE LIANG

Recess is over. They are lined up right in front of the door, sun-warmed and gently sweating. The line undulates with their moving bodies and there are bits of grass and wood-chips clinging to backs and knees and tousled hair. Some smiles, a few grimaces as they squint towards the building, and some half-hearted shoving as they get ready for me to open the door. I brace myself as I swing open the entrance and they rumble past with that distinct sour-sweet smell of warmth and unbrushed teeth, tangy feet and good dirt. The line breaks with children slurping from the water fountain, slinging jackets onto hooks, and funneling into the classroom…

Class is about to start. By this point in the semester they are quite comfortable with our community and chatting as they set down coffee tumblers and water bottles, pull out notebooks and pens. I overhear light gossip about the new café that opened in the Student Union while I answer questions from a student excited about our visit to read-aloud in the preschool next week…

Whether they are our preschoolers or our graduate students or anywhere in-between, we miss them right now. We miss getting to know them better as individuals, and we miss the rush of an amazing class discussion. We miss watching their faces light up with understanding; we miss the shared experience of reading a book together.

This is a challenging time for teachers everywhere. For many of us, we have abruptly moved into teaching in an online context for the first time, and in a world that changes every day. Worried for our students, and perhaps unsure of how this new classroom environment will work, we are doing the best we can. However, incorporating literature into an online class that may not have easy access to certain books we typically use, or even to any titles at all, is particularly hard.

CLA hopes to help and support our members and the greater education community who are using children’s literature in their newly online or remote settings. We will be posting new blog entries on Tuesdays at Noon EST and Thursdays at Noon EST. Each entry will either highlight a great online resource available for teachers at this time and how it might be effectively utilized, or will offer a description of a short lesson using children’s literature that educators might be able to use in their newly located classes.

Please visit this blog and check out the posts every Tuesday and Thursday. Share it with your peer educators, colleagues, and friends, and consider volunteering to contribute a post as well.

On behalf of CLA, I hope that you and your families are safe during this time. My heart is filled with gratitude and awe for you—the amazing teachers who are overcoming extreme hurdles in order to continue serving their students in all possible ways. Thank you.

Lauren Aimonette Liang
CLA President, 2019-2020