Tooling Through the Toll Booth

A few weeks ago my friends at the very cool literary blog, Through the Tollbooth, asked me to write a blog post about Self Marketing Through the Use of Teacher/Activity Guides.

In it, I told the brilliant Teresa Harris, "You’re familiar with the adage “Write what you know,” right? Well, that’s what I’m doing. I pull from my years and years of teaching and curriculum development experience and pour it all into these cross-curricular book guides. I make guides like the ones I wish I would’ve had when teaching. Science, math, crafts, creative writing, analysis, games – you name it, I put it in. They’re becoming so popular; I’m having a hard time keeping up with the demand. That’s a good problem, right?"

So true, my friend. So very true!

I Heart the Penguin Group

 

 I am super-thrilled to announce that guides for three of the books I've worked on have been included in the following webpage. How wonderful is that?

Click on the link below and behold my guides for Ellen's Broom, Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade and Forgiven.

This honor makes me very, very happy! 

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/youngreaders/teachers-librarians/tl-guides.html

Heading out to Highlights

It's kind of cool to see my mug on the Highlights Foundation website! I'll be assisting with the Whole Novel workshop in November 2012 and cannot wait!

http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/content/deborah-gonzales-teaching-assistant

The Anatomy of a Teacher Guide

Not long ago I was asked to write an essay about the components of a teacher guide.

Ask a simple question, get a complicated answer, right?

So I wrote an essay entitled the Anatomy of a Teacher's Guide in which I sought to cover aspects of cross-curricular, sensory-driven, age-appropriate, and just plain old fun guides. The essay is founded on the gazillion teacher guides I've used over my decades of teaching experience, as well as the guides I craft for individuals today.

The essay was featured in Hunger Mountain: the VCFA Journal of the Arts which is both a print publication and an online destination for readers, writers, artists, and art lovers. Our mission is to cultivate engagement with and conversation about the arts by publishing high-quality, innovative literary and visual art by both established and emerging artists, and by offering opportunities for interactivity and discourse. 

Here's the essay. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.hungermtn.org/the-anatomy-of-a-teacher-guide/

Me on Dear Teen Me

In keeping with the phrase "If I knew then what I know now," I had the great honor of being a contributing author on the very cool website Dear Teen Me. The premise of the site is for an author to write a letter to their teen self to discuss an issue that the they once struggled with as a teen.

Look around the website. It is truly amazing. Many of the posts have to do with some very serious issues...life altering ones.

My post deals with...well...access the link and see for yourself.

http://dearteenme.com/2011/02/18/dear-teen-debbie-from-author-austin-scbwi-ra-debbie-gonzales/