Reading=Victory! Actors and Athletes Aren’t the Only Stars

I wish our culture celebrated reading and book-makers in the same way that it does sports and movies. So, I decided to celebrate us myself! At NCTE, I took some pictures of folks mimicking the poses of sports stars and award-winning actors. Some were enthusiastic–thank you, Leslie Bulion for being my first guinea pig and for making silly poses in the lobby of the Gaylord Convention Center as people walked by! And thank you, all of you, the camera-shy and the camera hogs:>) for diving into this, even when you had no idea what I was talking about! Here are the STARS I took pictures of. Some are teacher educators, others are authors, classroom teachers, and librarians. Three of them were my roommates (what a blast!). All of them are awesome. All of them are stars.

And I have started a Pinterest Board for these, so if you want to share pics of yourself, your students, or any other stars doing their best victory poses, send me a link and I’ll add you to the board:>) I’d love to add loads of pics of people celebrating books and reading in their best action-packed, gritty-grimacy, or joyous poses. The most fun pics are of the people who totally go for it! Once I’m back in town, I’ll share some kind of template if you want to create a pic with some kind of border/background that goes with the Reading=Victory project. But just any kind of image is fine, too, no special background or border required.

Leslie Bulion

Heidi Mordhorst

Heidi Stemple

Jim Stiles

Joan Bransfield Graham

Kate Messner

Laura Purdie Salas

 

Melissa Stewart

 

Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Ruth Lowery

Tricia Stohr-Hunt

52 Responses

  1. These are fantastic, Laura! What a great idea to celebrate the REAL stars of the world (not to mention give a little dig to the ridiculous celebrity culture). I hope you continue your REAL STARS project. This needs to be shared all over!

    1. Thanks, Renee (and for sharing it). I’m hoping people decide to join in! Going to make some kind of template to share next week. Do your best victory pose and send me the link, ok? You’re an actor, so I’m expecting wonderful things:>)

  2. These are fantastic, Laura! What a great idea to celebrate the REAL stars of the world (not to mention give a little dig to the ridiculous celebrity culture). I hope you continue your REAL STARS project. This needs to be shared all over!

    1. Thanks, Renee (and for sharing it). I’m hoping people decide to join in! Going to make some kind of template to share next week. Do your best victory pose and send me the link, ok? You’re an actor, so I’m expecting wonderful things:>)

  3. I LOVE these! What a great idea! I can see my kids wanting to imitate their favorite athletes/actors, etc. but as Star Readers and Writers!
    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks, Debbie–I’m glad you like it. And–exactly! I want to get pictures of kids celebrating themselves as readers or writers, too! There weren’t any kids at NCTE:>) And there’s the whole permissions thing I need to figure out. But I hope kids will hold up books they love or are proud of themselves for reading and do their best celebration pose/dance.

  4. I LOVE these! What a great idea! I can see my kids wanting to imitate their favorite athletes/actors, etc. but as Star Readers and Writers!
    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks, Debbie–I’m glad you like it. And–exactly! I want to get pictures of kids celebrating themselves as readers or writers, too! There weren’t any kids at NCTE:>) And there’s the whole permissions thing I need to figure out. But I hope kids will hold up books they love or are proud of themselves for reading and do their best celebration pose/dance.

  5. Oh man, Laura, these look good! Totally worth all those shots we took that didn’t cut it, and I can’t wait to see more!

  6. Oh man, Laura, these look good! Totally worth all those shots we took that didn’t cut it, and I can’t wait to see more!

    1. It was fun–a bit more time-consuming than I thought, and I wish my phone took better pics inside. But I feel like that was the warm-up, and now, with examples to show people, I bet we could really have some fun with this!

    1. It was fun–a bit more time-consuming than I thought, and I wish my phone took better pics inside. But I feel like that was the warm-up, and now, with examples to show people, I bet we could really have some fun with this!

  7. These are fantastic, Laura! You have such wonderful ideas! I’m all for anything that promotes reading! By the way, I’m having a reading camp-in for my students next week. It’s the first one I’ve had in a few years. I hope my students enjoy it!

  8. These are fantastic, Laura! You have such wonderful ideas! I’m all for anything that promotes reading! By the way, I’m having a reading camp-in for my students next week. It’s the first one I’ve had in a few years. I hope my students enjoy it!

  9. These are so much fun, Laura! I love the idea of having kids pose as reading/writing stars. One of my colleagues is also a photographer, and I know she’ll love this, too!

  10. These are so much fun, Laura! I love the idea of having kids pose as reading/writing stars. One of my colleagues is also a photographer, and I know she’ll love this, too!

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