See what new paths I discovered this September! photo cred 

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Who Should Decide What High School Kids Read? I work with high school teachers and we have had these very same discussions. I think librarians and teachers should definitely be a driving force in the decision of what students should be reading. As long as standards are being met, there could be a great deal of changes made to some required reading lists for high school students.

Should Schools Ban Homework? While I think some homework is good every night (especially requiring that a student read a self chosen book), I know that it can also become overkill at some schools.

Alternative teacher certification programs are a hot topic right now (think of Teach for America).  I know of only one person who has done one of these programs. She is an international teacher. The article says that 1 in 5 teachers in the US is going to join the teaching profession via an alternative teaching program.  Clearly some are better than others. I cannot imagine feeling adequately prepared to teach with an all online course (like the article mentions Texas uses).  However, it is a very economical choice to make while living in a country with over 1 trillion dollars in student loan debt!

Books

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak- 5 stars. I finally read this book that many of my friends and family have been talking about for the past couple of years. They were right. The writing was fantastic. Some parts are hard to read as it is about a girl living in Nazi Germany, but it is a new take on a dark time. Great!

Looking For Alaska– John Green- 4/5 stars. I loved the first half of the book because it sounded like a very believable tale of a teenage boy in love with a fascinating girl. Alaska is a wonderful character and I wanted more of her in that book. This is a very real story of what happens when people drink and drive and the aftermath of one terrible night.

Music

I have been obsessed with Sam Smith this month!  If you haven’t heard of him and you like John Legend, you should give Sam Smith a listen. I’ll only post my top three favorite songs by him, but I haven’t heard a song by him that I didn’t like!

The first song I heard by Sam Smith was on a So You Think You Can Dance episode, “Stay With Me“. As soon as I heard his voice I began searching for the song online.

Once I got caught up in Youtube I watched the video for “I’m Not the Only One” which was so powerful I had to watch it again just so I could focus on the music.

Another really powerful song by Sam Smith is, “Leave Your Lover“.

I also really love this song by Ingrid Michaelson ft. A Great Big World (who I mentioned in last month’s round up), “Over You“.

TV

Being a bit of a nerd for the occasional comic while growing up, I was really excited to hear about Gotham coming out this month.  How did Batman become who he ended up being? Where did Catwoman and Penguin come from? I was excited to watch and learn. While the pilot episode looks nice, and I really want to like it, I think it will be one of those shows that I watch a couple of episodes of and then I just lose interest.

Since I love //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=teachiwande01-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00FR23S3W&asins=B00FR23S3W&linkId=6TOMJXSNBJB3PI7Y&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true” target=”_blank”>Scandal so much, I couldn’t wait to see How to Get Away With Murder!  It is a fun take on the courtroom drama.

Note: There are Amazon affiliate links in this post.