Teacher Chat: Penny Kittle on Everyday Advocacy

Welcome to our first Teacher Chat, an extension of our Teacher Stories series featuring a brief video snippet from a teacher's larger narrative of everyday advocacy. We are so excited to share this interview with Penny Kittle—teacher, advocate, and author of such books as Write Beside Them, Book Love, 180 Days and 4 Essential Studies (with Kelly Gallagher), and Micro Mentor Texts. Penny has touched the lives of so many of us, through her writing, podcasts, presentations, and workshops—and especially through her work with the Book Love Foundation, an organization she established to provide teachers and students around the country with independent reading libraries.

Penny sat down with Cathy Fleischer to talk about her early forays into advocacy and her suggestions for small steps teachers can take to weave advocacy into their day-to-day lives as teachers. (Here and here are links to two videos she mentions in the interview as examples of her advocacy)

“Sometimes that’s the advocacy — to go to someone in power that you might feel is a blocker and invite them into your work.”

If you or someone you know may be interested in sharing a Teacher Story or joining us for a Teacher Chat about the day-to-day work of everyday advocacy, please contact us.