Greek and Latin roots

Today was Day 1 of the Creating Fluent Readers Institute for Baltimore City teachers. I'm being paid for the professional development (I had to apply for the PD, including writing a few essays), but I was really excited to go. Out of all the things I'm interested in, I'm most interested in turning kids into lifelong readers.

Much of the material I learned about today seems to have been aimed at middle school teachers, but it was still interesting. I got really excited at the end, though, when the Professor started talking about Greek and Latin roots. He had this simple method of word generation that I totally think I could do with my students and teach them hundreds of words next year. I'm concerned with getting kids to learn words, but more concerned with giving them the strategies they need to attack words that they don't know. This would do that and, even though I've tried with varying degrees of enthusiasm to integrate Greek and Latin roots into my classroom instruction, I think next year I can bring it in more. Ever Tuesday, perhaps? We'll see.

Looking forward to another day of it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be an even longer day, as I'll be interviewing a teaching candidate directly after the PD day. We have high hopes.