Hello everyone! I had Colby Sharp on the podcast back in 2017, and we talked about sharing our stories as educators.Years later, Colby has released new books, podcasts, and so much more, as he spreads the good news of literacy and books with his audience.

Last week, we spent our time talking about classroom libraries, how Covid changed Colby's perception on what's important, and how proximity to books and having multiple access points to literature is key to building independent readers.

This week, we continue talking about the importance of proximity to books, but also discuss librarians, what it means when people say schools aren't teaching kids to read, and why it's important to foster reading joy in children.

This episode is sponsored by EVERFI. Everyone remembers THAT teacher. The study hall teacher who walked you through your first college application. The social studies teacher who taught you what taxes were AND how to file them. The math teacher who used student loans to show you how interest worked. YOU can be that teacher—and EVERFI wants to help you make that kind of impact with FREE digital lessons for K thru 12 students. From budgets and banking to credit and savings, you'll find a financial literacy topic that's right for your classroom. And especially during April, Financial Literacy Month, there's no better time to equip students with smart decision-making around finances. Learn how you can share these FREE resources with students and give them a financial foundation that lasts a lifetime. Just go to everfi.com/TeachMe. That's E-V-E-R-F-I dot com slash Teach Me.

This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices by Lorena Escoto Germán.

With Culturally Sustaining Practice as its foundation, Textured Teaching helps secondary teachers stop wondering and guessing how to implement teaching and learning that leads to social justice. Lorena Germán shares her framework for creating a classroom environment that is highly rigorous and engaging, and that reflects the core traits of Textured Teaching: student-driven and community-centered, interdisciplinary, experiential, and flexible. The actionable strategies Lorena uses to bring Textured Teaching values to life illuminate what is possible when we welcome all types of texts, all types of voices, and all forms of expression into the classroom.

Learn more about how to become a culturally sustaining educator. Visit Heinemann.com to download a sample from Textured Teaching.