I have a secret one I'm dying to share with the world. For a teachers it is as valuable as anything we could ever hope to have. It is the secret to success and the elixir of life. For our students it is a window, one that reveals itself at the end of a long dark hallway. The problem is that it cannot be manufactured, bought or sold. It can however, be contagious. Do you want to know what it is? I know you do.

It is passion, you have to bring it with you everyday and drop it on your kids like a ton of bricks. Where can you find this passion, you ask? That is the other secret. Only you know what you're passionate about. I find my passion for history in stories. In the words written by authors who help me relive a time, place, a life. What was it like to be an African American child living in the Mississippi during the Great Depression? No one can tell us better than Mildred Taylor's Cassie in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. How about a soldier during the Civil War? The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara could not be a better source. Imagine if our textbooks were written like novels. Can you truly appreciate the fear of living through the Holocaust without hiding in the attic with Anne Frank?

The goal and hope I have in creating this blog is to share my experiences as I continue to relive history in the books I read. I want this to be a place where anyone who shares my passion can explore and find literature that speaks to them. I will share lesson ideas useful teaching and learning sites and student work as I collect it and it is my hope that other will do the same.