First Blog Post "Everyday" by David Levithan

Currently, my PLC is reading Everyday by David Levithan. The plot of this book is a little confusing, as it follows the story of a 16-year-old named "A" who wakes up in the bodies of other 16-year-olds in Maryland everyday. At first, I found it really hard to connect this to adolescent lives and the classroom. However, I realized after meeting with my PLC that this book is a blessing, as it shows us a multitude of adolescent perspectives. Although the plot itself is highly unlikely, we realize from seeing through another's eyes how little we know about other people's lives. For example, we, as educators, cannot always know how healthy a child's relationship with their parent(s) is. It could be extremely positive, or it could be having a severely negative impact on the child's life. Another thing we do not think about is how the student feels in their school environment. Through the eyes of one particularly overweight individual, A learns how important other kid's views of you are. Walking down the street, A feels watched and judged. He suddenly becomes painfully aware of how much he sticks out. Reading this made me think about kids who look/feel different from the rest of the population. These two points specifically really make me want to ensure that I build relationships with my students. This will make them feel like they have someone to guide them or talk to. This relationship could be formed using advisories. I think this would target the area of judgement from others also, because relationships could form between students as they begin to know each other beneath the surface.