Thanks again to Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for hosting IMWAYR?

Lots and lots of thinking around books this time of year (especially) and I read a great post over at Two Writing Teachers that made me think a lot about the words that we use  and share and give importance to in our classrooms. Words matter, and intentionality with our words matters.

I do a lot of work with my students around quotes, and this year we will hold this book very close to us as we travel the school year together: 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts, by RJ Palacio.

One of my favorite things about Wonder, by RJ Palacio, was Mr. Browne’s precepts — principles to live by. From goodreads:

In the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Wonder, readers were introduced to memorable English teacher Mr. Browne and his love of precepts. Simply put, precepts are principles to live by, and Mr. Browne has compiled 365 of them—one for each day of the year—drawn from popular songs to children’s books to inscriptions on Egyptian tombstones to fortune cookies. His selections celebrate kindness, hopefulness, the goodness of human beings, the strength of people’s hearts, and the power of people’s wills. Interspersed with the precepts are letters and emails from characters who appeared in Wonder. Readers hear from Summer, Jack, Charlotte, Julian, and Amos.

There’s something for everyone here, with words of wisdom from such noteworthy people as Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., Confucius, Goethe, Sappho—and over 100 readers of Wonder who sent R. J. Palacio their own precepts.

I started to introduce daily precepts from the book during Morning Meeting or Closing Circle, and the class would have strong conversations about the meaning and the relevance of the different precepts. We started to collect our own, too, such as:

I like the idea of choosing a few to focus on long term, across the year, and then picking up our book, 365 Days of Wonder, for daily inspiration. I am thinking of keeping the ones the students collect in a separate notebook. At any rate, I am excited to start the year with 365 Days of Wonder!

Here is the precept for today, August 17 (from the book):

The things that make me different are the things that make ME. Piglet (A. A. Milne)

 

Have a great week! 😉