7.1 New Opportunities

Mary and Shannon catch up with each other after the summer & podcast break.     They chat about their own children, their personal lives, and their plans for this upcoming school year.   They discuss the implementation of Georgia's dyslexia bill this year.   They share about their professional reading and learning.  And they fill listeners in on the activities they've done through their Patreon community and about some free reading guides they've created over the summer.   This new year is full of changes and possibilities!   



RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Strive for Five by Tricia Zucker and Sonia Cabell *Amazon affiliate link
2. List from GA DOE Universal Screeners
3. GA Dyslexia Videos
4. Bonus Episodes access through your podcast app
5. Bonus episodes access through Patreon
6. Free Rubrics Guide created by us
7. Finding Good Books Guide created by us
8. Information about our Patreon membership

Transcript

7.1 episode season opener New Opportunities

Shannon Betts: [00:00:00] Are you searching for more specific ways to help support your readers? 

Mary Saghafi: Want to hear some details about the resources and activities that we're using with our own students? In addition to our regular bi monthly episodes with guests, we are now offering exclusive monthly bonus episodes to our paid subscribers.

Shannon Betts: With just 5 a month, you'll get all of our current podcast season episodes ad free and you'll get the extra bonus episodes with the two of us chatting frankly about our own teaching practices. 

Mary Saghafi: If you're an OG Reading Teachers Lounge listener, think of these episodes as an extension of Season 1, where we're sharing details about our own reading lessons.

Shannon Betts: There are two ways you can sign up for the bonus subscriptions. The first is through the link seen in the show notes in your podcast app. You'll be directed to input your email address and payment information, and then you'll receive a follow up message with the private podcast feed [00:01:00] link. 

Mary Saghafi: The other way, and the easiest in our opinion, is to sign up for any paid tier in our Patreon community at www. patreon. com / reading teachers lounge. Through the Patreon app and messages, you will get the ad free regular episodes, plus the exclusive monthly bonus episodes, plus behind the scenes info, and an invitation to join us on Zoom each month for a Q& A. 

Shannon Betts: Come join the conversation and sign up for more Reading Teachers Lounge.

Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge, where you can learn on the go by eavesdropping on experienced reading teachers chatting about best practices that have helped their students grow. Mary and I, along with expert guests, share what we wish we'd studied in college, what we've discovered works with the students we teach, and what we're continuing to learn from the science of reading.

Mary Saghafi: Learning to read is fun. Hard and sometimes teaching a child [00:02:00] how to read feels even more challenging. 

Shannon Betts: The Reading Teacher Lounge is here to help you navigate the right choices for your readers. Come join the conversation.

Mary, can you believe we're here, we're past a hundred episodes. We're here starting season. Seven. I did not think we would get here when we started. 

Mary Saghafi: I was chatting with someone over the summer and they said, are you still doing the podcast? And I said, season seven. And I don't know, I'm also really deep into Harry Potter.

So the number seven is really like, like in my, in my purview right now. And so we're not going to end at seven 

Shannon Betts: though, like Harry Potter did. 

Mary Saghafi: Well, that's just the story that ends right there. So no no, we're not ending, but I do, I'm really pleased with our evolution of this podcast. I think that you and I have really done some cool [00:03:00] professional things on a platform that was very different for us to use as a teaching tool, but I think we're reaching a lot of good viewer listeners and it's very, I don't know, rewarding to me.

It's all 

Shannon Betts: been recorded, like, watching your girls grow up, and then watching my boys get older, and then all of my job changes. 

Mary Saghafi: Yeah, your professional trajectory has just been, you know, It's been all over the place. Yeah. 

Shannon Betts: Right. So, and it's all been documented through the podcast. So I think that's really, really cool that we have a record of, you know, how our life is changing.

Mary Saghafi: Me 

Shannon Betts: too. Yeah. And, and like you said, like how our professional development has grown just. You know, I, I, we were learning about the science of reading and then, like, almost immediately at the same time or shortly after, like, it seems like all the school districts learned about it too, and that's really, really cool.

Even this morning, I got a thing from our school district, Atlanta Public Schools, [00:04:00] saying, you know, public service announcement, just announcing to the community that they are embracing science of reading and doing all the best practices and implementing it out in the schools, which I think is great that they're on record saying that 

Mary Saghafi: I do too.

And I also feel like even though professionally, I'm not in the classroom, which was a place that I had, you know, anticipated being. The, my, the way that I've kind of like taken my career path this way, I'm so happy to still be in the realm and still continuously learning and still continuously supporting other teachers and other students and their families just you know, through a different route than as a classroom teacher.

But I feel very connected to classrooms all over because of our work here with the podcast, which is so amazing. Yeah. Yeah. 

Shannon Betts: So fill me in. Since we recorded, what'd you do this summer? It went by really, really quickly. 

Mary Saghafi: Same. No, we have had a lovely summer actually. I am [00:05:00] really trying so hard to embrace good, healthy boundaries for our family and prioritizing family time.

And I think I did a better job of managing my tutoring schedule this summer because it gets very hairy. I have learned in the past. And so I have to be very strict about when I am available and holding strong to that availability for my parents, because the consistency is really critical for the kids, first and foremost, and I don't take that lightly but secondarily, and also like in the, maybe as an equal I think my kids really need me over the summer as well and I need to be as present for them as I can be as well.

So we were able to visit all of our family members which was really great. Even though the state was? 

Shannon Betts: That's amazing. 

Mary Saghafi: Yes. So we took a trip and we even got to visit some friends too, who we haven't seen in about six years. And so the same group of people six years ago, when our kids were very small.[00:06:00] 

My youngest was not even one yet. We got a house all together with all the kids and all the families on Lake Michigan. And we were able to do it again this summer. And it was so great. So the kids ranged from age 12 to 3. There were 9 of them. And it was every single age down the line. That's really cool.

The multi age play I think is the best. It's a beautiful thing, and it is remarkable, and I don't think that we embrace it quite as much as, I don't know, maybe we did when I was a kid. I don't know if that's true or not, but multi age play is really wonderful, and so the kids played on the beach, they created gardens in the sand, and would it was just their creativity was lovely, and they Needed very little adult support supervision.

Yes, but not support, which was just beautiful and lovely and I have a new niece in my family and I am so excited to spend time with my sister and the new baby and my brother in law when I can. And so I had [00:07:00] some really great baby cuddle time this summer. And then we got to see my husband's family as well.

And so the girls had some. Structured out of town, but unstructured time. So it was, it was so special. And 

Shannon Betts: they did camp just like my younger son, right? 

Mary Saghafi: Yes. And sleepaway camp. And we did one sleepaway camp this summer. For the first time I was an vis wreck like . So funny. I knew it was the best thing for her, but I got no letters back from Camp , and of course I wrote her every single day.

When I came to pick her up, she said, Mom, you might have written me too much. Oh my goodness! 

Shannon Betts: Wow. 

Mary Saghafi: I was like, oh, really? Huh. Isn't that maybe better than getting no letters from your family at all? 

Shannon Betts: I think I wrote the right amount, which was sort of every other day, but mine didn't have cash in it like their grandparents letters did, [00:08:00] so mine were not as well received.

Mary Saghafi: So I have to keep this on the down low a little bit. She does sometimes like listen to the podcast every now and then, but not, I mean, I don't think she understood that there was like a camp place where she could spend money. And so she did not spend any money. I did get a letter back like a month late, it got lost in the mail or something that said you should have given me stamps and envelopes.

And I knew that she could actually buy them there. So I didn't leave them there. Yeah. I'm going to keep that. Remember that for next year. Yeah. I'm going to keep it under reps for a little while. So, but I, I have other friends who's. Kids have spent gobs of money at the canteen or whatever. 

Shannon Betts: My son didn't want anything like the first day when I dropped him off but then he wanted tons of stuff leaving, I guess, you know, he really got, you know, integrated into the camp environment and he's so loyal to that camp that he wanted all the t shirts and things now and he got to go with his first cousin My sister, my little nephew, [00:09:00] which they got to share a cabin, everything, which is so cute.

I never had, I never had any female cousins close in age. I think that that's really neat that they had that experience together. 

Mary Saghafi: I happen to have a female cousin who is two weeks older than I am. And so we didn't live in the same city, but we did get to go to college together and like any family.

That's awesome. We got to travel abroad together. It was, she is a very, very, very special person in my life because it's almost like a sisterhood with your cousin that's that age. So I'm happy for Henry. I would have loved to have gone to camp with my cousin. I had four 

Shannon Betts: boy cousins and I was in the middle of their ages.

Like I had some that were like two or three years older than me and then some that were a year or two years younger than me. And I'm really close to them, you know, but it was very much like I got to know about He Man and Star Wars and all the things. You were indoctrinated into the masculinity 

Mary Saghafi: of it all.

Shannon Betts: But my aunt adored me because I was like the girl, you know when she could have around until, you know, my my [00:10:00] cousins got married and then she had. You know, daughters in law and granddaughters and things, but anyway, so also my big thing this summer I'd mentioned in the in the finale episode was that we were doing the big room swap.

And that ended up being massive. So my boys have shared a room their whole lives and they're getting the age. My oldest is starting high school. And so it was just getting the age where like they needed to split up. And so we we have three bedrooms, but one of the bedrooms has been like my office and guest room for, for ages.

And so we had one of my, my youngest son take over the master bedroom. And then we moved the master bedroom down into the basement. Guest bedroom and so that was so it was ended up being just really stressful and like I was having a panic attack one day and called one of my friends and she was just like you have every right to be stressed.

You're moving without moving. You know, exactly 

Mary Saghafi: that's that's the perfect way to describe it and you were getting carpeting put [00:11:00] into. So yeah, so we really had to move it 

Shannon Betts: twice. We had to move it twice because we had to clean the rooms for the carpet, then put everything back and then clear it all again.

So it was, it was kind of hectic. We still haven't unpacked everything as we put all these things in duffel bags. And. Like I bought 24 big duffel bags and we just have been putting everything in this duffel bags. And so I'm trying to unpack a duffel bag or two a day but I don't think I'll be done.

Maybe until like the weather changes. Like my goal is to be done in the fall. But it is really nice. Like I love the new bedroom set up and the boys are like not fighting as much cause they have separate rooms, but that's pretty much my whole summer. We, we went and visited family too. We went to the beach.

That was really good. I'm excited. Actually at the end of the month, I'm going to the beach by myself. It's going to be the five year anniversary of my brain injury and car wreck. And since I'm doing like. I'm semi retired now and not in a school environment. I just thought, let me just kind of go away by myself and just take the time to process and reflect.

[00:12:00] And so I'm going. 

Mary Saghafi: Oh, I'm so excited for 

Shannon Betts: you. To the barrier islands here in Georgia, which is like my favorite beaches. And I'm just going to have like four days to myself. Excited. 

Mary Saghafi: I don't know if I've had four days to myself. Since children. 

Shannon Betts: Yeah. I'm so excited. Like, I mean, I'm such an introvert. I could spend like four months to myself and not be bored or anything, but I'm excited to have four days of quiet.

And one of my friends from high school lives out there, so I can see her too, but anyway, I like, 

Mary Saghafi: I like the celebration of that and, and just. 

Shannon Betts: So I think that's a good segue into kind of what we're doing for the school year. So it's very surreal that my kids have started school now. My son, I cannot believe I have a high schooler and then I have a fifth grader.

So it's his last year in elementary school. We've been going to that same elementary school 10 years. So this was like the last open house to go to that. I was kind of just sad, even just to go to the open house and greet all the teachers and everybody that I know and realize this is the last year [00:13:00] we're going to be at that school.

But then my husband said, well, we're going to be at this high school for eight straight years.

Mary Saghafi: So we're switching 

Shannon Betts: school environments, but so that's going on and changing my personal life. But then I'm still on the emails at my old school because I'm still getting a lot of. I was the contact for a lot of tech companies and a lot of other rational things that we did. And so they need to keep my email active for a while, just so nothing gets lost in the translation in the transition.

And so I am still getting all the emails at work, but I can just delete them immediately because they're not relevant to me. So that's like kind of really fun. Really interesting. I mean, it feels a little like, Oh, I'm not going to be pre planning. This is the first year in 22 years that I'm not going to be at a pre planning that, that, that stings a little, but it's also exciting.

Like, cause I'm just [00:14:00] excited about the new things that I'm doing. I've already got a tutoring client and I love him. Wonderful. Yeah. 

Mary Saghafi: Really great name. You know, pseudonym cause we always give pseudonyms to our kids, but I'm going to think about this. I happen to also know this same client that Shannon's talking about and just a gem.

Shannon Betts: He's awesome. I told him we're going to be besties by the end. So I'm, I'm just enjoying this new stage. And like, a lot of people were asking me, you know, like, what is this year going to look like? And it's the first time I'm like, I don't know, like I've just sort of teachers always follow this very predictable school year schedule.

And you think about the year in terms of like August to May, you know, and. You kind of always frame your life around the school season and the nine weeks that you're in and things like that. And so it's very interesting to approach my life without that in mind. But it's exciting too. 

Mary Saghafi: I think that the, the one that really resonated, resonated with me is [00:15:00] that that first day of school back.

I love that first day of school feeling and I always get a little The smell. Smelling. Well, yeah, it's like, I even like how the smells. I'm a little jealous, but like the energy is just so I don't know. It's like, it's a, it's a brand new year. It's a new start for everyone and everything. And No, I saw like 

Shannon Betts: the, well, private, the public school I was at before I was at the private school they had posted on Facebook that they were like dancing and singing at pre planning, you know, kind of like a icebreaker session.

And it did, it did sting my heart a little bit to go, Oh, like, Oh, look, they're all bonding and like getting ready for the new school year. And 

Mary Saghafi: yeah, well, I think as teachers and I know that there are. Many, many, many teachers who are like us who are transitioning to a school year that is not the traditional school year into a school setting, even and, and, That's a new kind of uncomfortable feeling, but at the same time I think that lots of teachers are making different paths for themselves, even within [00:16:00] their school buildings too, right?

Yeah. You know, I think that embracing the school year for its differences is really special and important to when my kids started, I'm so pleased that joyful feeling was just there. Lovely. To start the school year and both of them feel really comfortable and confident going into the school year.

So I had a kindergartner last year. She's in first grade. She thinks she because last year y'all 

Shannon Betts: change schools because we rezone. So that was a big transition. 

Mary Saghafi: It was a big transition and it was a big transition for my older daughter too. And we had some bumps along the way, but not as big as I was predicting.

Thank goodness, right? And I think that this, this new year moving from third to fourth grade is a big deal. And yeah, I'm just, I'm eager for, for this school year to kind of get underway. And I'm eager to be supportive. There's lots of dyslexia work happening within the school awareness and understanding and programming.

And so Is the [00:17:00] law 

Shannon Betts: coming into effect in Georgia this school year? Yes. 

Mary Saghafi: Okay. So yes, we had a house bill that passed in 2019, and they have kind of led up to it coming into this 24 25 school year where students are going to be assessed starting in kindergarten and first grade, and they're going to be tracking a little bit more carefully, and they've rolled out some Some training programs for teachers to have a better understanding of the science of reading and how to really reach students who fall in that lowest category and have maybe tendencies of dyslexia.

We, we need to remember that schools don't diagnose dyslexia. It would be categorized as a specific learning disability under. Eligibility categories for special education. If they, if they meet that criteria a psychologist excuse me, a psychiatrist can diagnose did I just say that backwards?

Yeah. A psychologist can diagnose dyslexia. And that's, that's a, that's a different categorization. Anywho, I'm super excited. But [00:18:00] every school district 

Shannon Betts: needs a universal screener then? Did they, did Georgia give them some choices? 

Mary Saghafi: Yes, to choose from. And if you're curious, one of 

Shannon Betts: those map or Acadian stibbles 

Mary Saghafi: or there is a whole list of resources.

So if you go and you're curious to look at the Georgia Department of Education website, you can link to it in our show notes. Yep. It's pretty well done. I'm, I'm eager. You know, I've seen some rollouts better than others, but I'm, I'm eager for this information to really get into the hands of people who really need it.

Shannon Betts: And let's remember too that Georgia they did a really good job of making like a video series describing what dyslexia is and things like that. I learned a lot from those when they rolled out. So we'll link to those as well. 

Mary Saghafi: I'm sure I think I was the one who shared those with you. Did I share them with you or did you find them a different way?

Do you remember? 

Shannon Betts: I can't remember but we both like attended that like launch party online, where the first video was released, and they were done with University of Georgia [00:19:00] and with some of the researchers there and they're, they're fantastic like animated videos but they do a really good job of explaining exactly what dyslexia is.

So, anybody, not even just living in Georgia. Would benefit from watching those. So you're gonna do more of the same right? The school year. You're just gonna continue your advocacy and tutoring work. 

Mary Saghafi: That's what I'm doing. Just keeping on, keeping on. I'm really enjoying it. I have some clients who, you know, I've had some good longevity with and they're ready to probably have this year with me one or two more, and then they're gonna launch into middle school and they'll probably need less.

Support with reading and more support with executive functioning skills, so I'm always kind of doing that dual instruction to make sure that I'm being as explicit as possible with working on executive functioning skills as well as self advocacy and teaching the reading concepts. 

Shannon Betts: Well, you're always fueling them to at some point not need you one day.

Mary Saghafi: Of course, work yourself out of a job. 

Shannon Betts: Yeah, 

Mary Saghafi: that's, [00:20:00] that's always my goal with advocacy too. What I really want are the parents to feel confident enough to have the language to approach the school, to really build that relationship with the team of teachers who's working with their child and, and know and understand what their child needs.

And help their child identify what they need so that they can continue to launch. So it's been really enjoyable. I think I'm feeling, you know, just the same with when, when you've been teaching and doing it, I feel like I've been doing this for, this is my seventh year doing tutoring and advocacy full time.

And I'm feeling more confident and self assured in, in my practices to hear. So I wasn't, I'm 

Shannon Betts: saying I'm excited about my school year, but I will say this whole summer, I was plagued by nightmares like really kind of vivid dreams about getting random teaching assignments that were kind of scary, you know, like you know, you know I think that's it.

I don't think that's the right word. I don't think that's the right word for it. It's like, I don't know how you would like to put it in a multi age classroom and just saying, here you go. Or like I got like [00:21:00] a. Math intervention job that I didn't feel prepared for, or, you know, they gave me all of the behavior issue children in one year.

And that was the first year teacher. And so I wasn't prepared. and I just sort of had like a different teaching scenario every night and I think that was myself. You know, subconscious, just worried about the uncertainty of the school year. But when I was at the beach just, you know, at the end of July, I had, I finally had a good dream about a job.

And so I'm hoping it'll manifest into something, but it was a really, really detailed dream and ended up like at a charter school here in Atlanta, and they were trying to convince me to work full time. And I was like, no, you know, I was explaining my brain injury and the challenges and that I need to work part time.

And so they were like, well, we're starting this reading lab and we really need someone to take charge of this reading lab. And it's only two days a week. And I'm like, yeah, sign me up. And so then, like, I got to set up the reading lab. Like, I dreamed about the principal giving me the tour of the school, [00:22:00] meeting all the staff members, me setting up the reading lab, then me doing the orientation of the reading lab with the students, describing, like, the routine of the reading lab.

And then I even dreamed, like, driving home and realizing, oh, I know how to get home from this school. To my house and I woke up that was so relaxed the next morning. I was like, Oh, this would be really cool. This is like the first like school job that I've kind of gotten excited about. So I love that.

Mary Saghafi: All the tree putting it out into the, I know, 

Shannon Betts: but if there is a sort of reading lab out there, that would be really, really cool. It was sort of like a library, but like an intervention. Lab library. Does that make sense? So anyway, so 

Mary Saghafi: cool. 

Shannon Betts: So we'll see if that manifests itself. But for now, I'm just I'm going to take sabbatical.

Like, that's why I'm going to the beach in this month. And I'm kind of going to do lighter work for August and September and just sort of really take this time. You know, like I said, the 5 year anniversary of my accident [00:23:00] to just process, reflect, you know and then I'll kind of go into more hourly work and different sorts of things and take on more tutoring clients starting in the fall in October.

So 

Mary Saghafi: that's great. I'm, I'm really thrilled to Shannon and I have had a lot of chats recently about how to support our tutoring clients and you know, what that looks like, how to set boundaries with parents. And it's just, I'm, I'm really excited for you on this journey now. Cause I think you're really talented and the kids that you support are really going to benefit.

I'm already getting 

Shannon Betts: a lot of and so I just didn't get the job satisfaction just with my one tutoring client that I have so far, because I told you, like, last school year, I just ended up being just buried in so much paperwork and documentation that I just wasn't even seeing my intervention students a lot.

My parapro was seeing them more than I was. I mean, I, I, what fuels me as a teacher is those aha moments that, you know, when I see the joy of learning, when [00:24:00] they get engaged, when they say things are fun and I start to see the master skills and I'm already seeing that with, with my tutoring client. And so it feels really good to just like be sitting, I've just always said in my career, I just want to sit across, you know, face to face across the table with a struggling reader and help them.

And so tutoring allows you to do that. It 

Mary Saghafi: really does. And it keeps you on your toes and fresh and 

Shannon Betts: yeah, 

Mary Saghafi: yeah. Great. Well, I, and so speaking 

Shannon Betts: of like, we're going to be, if you like us talking like this, like we, a lot of people really listen to our season openers and season finales. Cause that's sort of like you and us chatting about our teaching practice, like we did all of season one.

And so something new that we're bringing to this season seven especially because I'm going into the tutoring realm and that's new to me and so Mary's acting as a tutoring mentor to me. We are going to be adding bonus episodes every month. So if you like us just chatting about our [00:25:00] practice and the curriculum we're using, the books we're reading, the things we're doing with our students, you're going to want to Check out the bonus episodes.

So there's going to be two ways that you can access access. Thank you. That was the verb. I was looking for access the, the bonus episodes. So one way is through just the podcast app that you listen to. You can subscribe to the feed. It's going to be 5 a month, or you can join our Patreon at the insider level, which is our 5 level, which also includes behind the scenes info and some other benefits.

Thanks. and they will get the bonus episode as well. And then, and the additional benefit that either choice is going to get is that they're going to get access to all of our regular episodes ad free as well. 

Mary Saghafi: 5 for ad free. That's really great. That's 

Shannon Betts: worth it in itself. But then also, if you want to hear about like, I can't wait to tell you, like, I'm using the UFLA curriculum with my [00:26:00] tutoring student and so I'm really excited to use those resources and I'm already seeing some success with them.

And so I just, I, I miss chatting with you just one on one. I really like all our guests. I really like all the professional reading we do and all the chats we have on our other episodes, but I really. We started this for a whole year before we started recording. We were just sitting around your kitchen table.

Yeah. You know, talking about this is what I do with this student. That's what I do with this student. What should I do here? What should I do here? And that's what those reading teacher sound conversations are going to be like in our bonus episodes. So. 

Mary Saghafi: Yeah. 

I'm going to talk a little bit about how I differentiate for students who have ADHD and how I can kind of really tap into those executive functioning gaps that they may have.

I'm going to talk about how some of my favorite games for fluency on that feed as well. So I think that it's going to be a big value. So 

Shannon Betts: check out our show notes and we'll be talking throughout the next, you know, starting episodes about how you can access that bonus content. [00:27:00] What 

Mary Saghafi: I really liked what you said when we were really planning out and mapping out some of this information for our listeners was that our regular feed is for teachers who are DIY.

They really, they, they want to listen to us. They're going to open up their bag of tricks. They're going to be driving to school. They're listening. They can take whatever information we're giving them. Here's information about how to 

Shannon Betts: be better teaching fluency or better to teach vocabulary or more information about comprehension.

Mary Saghafi: Or this you know, this expert that we were chatting with has some great information and I want to learn more. So I'm going to check out their book, whatever that is. So those are, we know that our major listener, our majority of listeners are DIY teacher experts. If you feel like you need a little bit additional support or if you want us to spell it out a little bit more for you you will find that kind of content on our Patreon feed or, or this 5, um, [00:28:00] level with with some of our bonus content.

So I hope that So we have three 

Shannon Betts: levels of our Patreon. We have the 5 insider level, and then we have the 35 bonus level. Small group work with us and then the 70 one on one with us. And I think that's kind of self explanatory. Like if you're in the small group with us, you're going to have some access where we're giving you a lot of, you know, a good bit information.

We do monthly deep dives on various variety of topics like this month. We're going to be sharing just how to set up. For back to school so that you have a really successful efficient school year and that you can work smarter, not harder. We've had some about writers workshop about systems for reading teachers.

We really love those presentations and our current Patreon members really like those as well. In addition to that, we have a huge library that's constantly being added to with strategies and resources modeled. So, you know, this decoding strategy modeled, this fluency activity modeled, this vocabulary activity [00:29:00] modeled.

And Mary and I met this summer and we mapped out literally our entire year of what we're going to be recording and sharing with that library. And it's going to be, you know, I mean, it's what I would have wanted, even just a few years ago, to be able to have access to that. To go, oh, this is a strategy that Jennifer Saravala says to do when reading aloud.

Oh, this is the thing that Wiley Blevins says to do for blending. That's, now I get it, you know, just sort of watching another teacher 

Mary Saghafi: do it. Yeah, exactly. 

Shannon Betts: Yeah. And so You can go to patreon. com backslash readingteacherslounge or just go to readingteacherslounge. com and kind of all over the place on our website we have links for our patreon information.

But if you don't want to just do the DIY approach and you might be in a season in your life where you are early in your experience or maybe you're new to a new grade level or maybe, you know, you've had a young child and you just need a little more support because you don't have as much time to do it all yourself, then you [00:30:00] can join the Reading Teachers Lounge support and we can be there to help you implement all the things that we have learned and chatted about and, you know, have gotten in our own teaching experience.

So, really like working with the current patrons we have, and we're excited to have others join us. 

Mary Saghafi: Yes, me too. It's been it's a really great way I think for us to continue our teaching journey this way. You know, I really. love and miss my colleagues who are directly across the hall from me in my classroom, but I do feel like you and I have established our, our reading teacher's lounge so that we can access other people who are, are feeling similarly.

And, and Ah, I'm excited about this. We've also updated a couple other things too. We have some freebies. We do. If you're going to our website, check out the freebies. You want to check those out? Yeah, those are right 

Shannon Betts: quick links. Reading Future Sounds backslash quick links. Or you can go, there's a, I think there's a link called.

There's a link. There's a tab at the top called like resource [00:31:00] library or something like that. But we already had a decodable text guide. And now we have a rubrics guide, which I love. It's like the activity with chocolate chip cookies that I used to do to teach my students how to use rubrics really effectively.

And then we also. It's so cute and so well done. And there's like pictures of my cute students and the, and the guide of them doing the activity. And then, There we made a finding good books guide this summer with Patreon. We did a book club and it was strive for five conversations, which was just a fantastic book, especially to read over the summer.

And it was all about supporting building language comprehension skills through conversation. But it was a really good review of all the different strands of the reading rope. That are in the language comprehension and that we got a lot of fresh ideas and sources for finding really good books we kind of talked about that with our [00:32:00] Molly Ness episode about read aloud, but this one in this in this guide we go.

We give a lot more resources than just that about what to look for in good books when you're choosing ones for you know, content areas or read alouds or whole group instruction or small group instruction. So you can check those out. We'll also link to them directly in our show notes if you want those.

Mary Saghafi: You know what I neglected to mention when we were talking about summer was educate and rejuvenate. Yes. We were Participating in a virtual conference called educate and rejuvenate. So if you were listening last season, you probably heard us chat with wife, teacher, mommy, who is now rebranding to educate and rejuvenate.

And we were a part of the virtual conference that she had, and we did talk a lot about systems. And then we gave a kind of a bonus about these, these books and finding books. And we had some great feedback from that session as well. And so I'm, I'm eager to share that resource about how to find best quality text for your, your [00:33:00] students.

Shannon Betts: Yeah. Cause there's, that's just not in my, I don't have the time or energy to go out and search for what's the latest in children's literature. What are these great nonfiction titles? What are these great fiction titles? Where can I find great diverse books to use for my students? The good news is there are a lot of other people that that is in their wheelhouse and that's what they spend their time and energy doing is sharing great book titles with the world.

And so we share those sources with you so that you can just go directly to them because we feel like they're, you know, we curated the sources. That we think are our favorite places and who we trust in book recommendations 

Mary Saghafi: sort of on a similar plane with that is that I went through and created some of our favorite books and linked them as an Amazon affiliate link.

So another way to support our podcast is to go to our. Link in bio on social media feed and you can check and see the Amazon list also on our quick links. It's [00:34:00] also linked on our website. If you were to use those links, we get a small percentage of the books and that also supports our podcast work and our endeavors here.

So We also really love a lot of the books that we've listed. I've also listed some other classroom items that were helpful and important to Shannon and I as we were teaching, so. 

Shannon Betts: Mm hmm. And I think that we've proven in six seasons so far that, like, we don't recommend anything that we wouldn't reuse ourselves, so.

Yeah. We are very judicious. We get approached a lot. 

Mary Saghafi: Yeah, right. 

Shannon Betts: About what to share with our audience, and we say no to the majority of it. True. Because we only want to recommend the things that we use ourselves with our own students. And And we truly 

Mary Saghafi: vet them. 

Shannon Betts: Yeah, yeah. And so we want everything that's in the Reading Teacher's Lounge to be, you know, what, what we have seen to be best practices.

So what really works with students. So let's you want to give a little teaser about a couple of the episodes. We're going to have in season [00:35:00] seven. 

Mary Saghafi: Yes, I am quite excited about our season seven. Let's see. So we're going to talk a little bit about Season six 

Shannon Betts: was like putting it together, right? That was the theme.

Season five was all about reading brain. Season four was science of reading. Season five was about the reading brain. Season six was about putting it together. I think season seven is going deeper with putting it together. I haven't come up with like a cute phrase or anything, 

Mary Saghafi: but I know I was going to say we don't have one, but I do think it's like.

Effectively engaging students in texts in appropriate strategies in making sure that we're choosing strategies to evaluate our curriculum and making sure that, that we are, we're going a little bit deeper to get to the meat of what we really need to do. It's not just an overview. I would say that you know, we're, we're ready to do a little bit more deep dive for you to find out best practices.

Shannon Betts: Yeah, 

Mary Saghafi: [00:36:00] and we're going 

Shannon Betts: to one goal we've set for ourselves, not demonstrating this episode because this episode is just like us rambling and talking, but I do want the rest of the episodes of the regular season to be shorter and more efficient. We don't want to ramble with our guests. We just really want to get like.

to the point of like the most import important information that they can share with with us and with you guys. And so that's something you're welcome to hold us accountable and email us if you think the episodes are getting too long as usual. But I want to definitely like keep them to 45 minutes or shorter.

Mary Saghafi: I agree and I think that that kind of like stays true with You know, making sure that we're, we're using like our support time our really big support time with our Patrion feed and a little more DIY because you savvy listeners are probably going to take a lot and run with whatever we're sharing on our podcast.

So. 

Shannon Betts: And then our bonus episodes are going to be [00:37:00] much shorter, 30 minutes or shorter. Just us, you know, catching up really quickly about our personal lives and then letting you know, like I said, what resources we're using with our, with our tutoring students and what books are reading and things like that.

So, I'm excited for Season 7. I'm excited for all the things that we're doing on Patreon, and I'm just, let's just see what this year brings. A lot of uncertainty, but a lot of excitement. 

Mary Saghafi: Have our teacups and our coffee mugs, too. A new school year, right? New season. 

Shannon Betts: Thanks for joining us in the Rean Teachers Lounge.

We're glad you're here. 

Mary Saghafi: See you next time.