Murder Is No Accident : Understanding and Preventing Youth Violence in America Book

"Alphabet Meditations for Teachers" by Nancy Oelklaus is a book that has a poem/meditation for each letter of the alphabet. The author wanted to created something that a teacher could go back to to remind him/her why he/she became a teacher: "because they care about kids and want to make a meaningful contribution to their lives."

The author, Nancy Oelklaus, began as a high school English teacher and then went on to become an assistant superintendent for instructional services and then an executive director for the Texas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She has spent a large portion of her life in the educational system and knows first-hand some of the frustrations that teachers go through. This book of meditations is a book that she wished she would have had as a teacher to remind her why she became a teacher.

This book is written for teachers, but anyone that works with children would benefit from it.

One of my favorite meditations in the book is "B is for Bells" which starts out with:

Bells are driving me nuts.

They control my
Every move - decisions.
I hear them in my dreams -
Or nightmares.

But then the author will show her enthusiasm in such meditations such as "I is for Imagination"

That's it! There's a
Stream called Imagination.
My job is to find a
Launch for my canoe.
…..

Help me find the right
Launch. Help me not
Dam the stream.
Help me find the power of their imagination.

This book would be an ideal gift for any teacher. A new teacher will feel that he/she is not alone in some of the frustrations he/she may run into while teachers who have been teaching for a while may need a reminder of why he/she chose their profession. "Alphabet Meditations" is meant to be nearby in the classroom for those moments when the teacher needs to catch a breath and focus on his/her ability to guide his/her students in the best way possible.