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The PHPS Difference
The PHPS Difference Podcast—an inside glance into how PHPS celebrates students who learn differently. At PHPS, we focus on equipping students with the skills, confidence, and passion to be successful in their futures. Through this podcast we will share resources and expert insights to help families and our community support learners beyond the classroom. We invite families and community members to walk alongside us in supporting extraordinary learners.
The PHPS Difference
Hootie’s Story Nest: Mrs. Ganzer
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🎧 Show Notes
Hootie’s Story Nest – Episode 8
Featuring Mrs. Ganzer, PHPS 4th Grade Teacher
Welcome back to Hootie’s Story Nest, part of the PHPS Difference Podcast Summer Series!
In this episode, Mrs. Ganzer shares an excerpt from The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, published by HarperCollins. This powerful and heartwarming story celebrates friendship, courage, and seeing the world in new ways.
🌟 In This Episode
- An excerpt from The One and Only Ivan
- A story about friendship, empathy, and resilience
- Mrs. Ganzer shares that one of her favorite books growing up was Goofy the Gardener
- A conversation about the value of reading favorite books again and again, and how rereading helps build confidence, comprehension, and a lifelong love of reading
- A celebration of imagination and meaningful storytelling
🎯 Our Goal
To inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and help students connect with stories that build empathy and understanding.
📚 Keep Listening
Join us each week as a new PHPS teacher shares their favorite stories and helps keep our students connected to books all summer long.
💛 Special Thanks
Before we wrap up, we want to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today's episode. These excerpts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie's Story Nest is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long.
Hi everyone, I'm Carmen. I'm a PHPS Owl. Welcome to Hootie's story now. We missed you this summer, so we're sharing some of our favorite books with you. Each week, a teacher will read a fun part of a story and tell you about other books you might like. So get comfy and enjoy today's story. Have a great day.
SPEAKER_02And today we are so excited to have Miss Ganser, who teaches fourth grade at Preston Hollow, talk about books, what she's reading, and then also some of her summer plans. So welcome, Miss Ganser. Thank you. Very excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01We're happy to have you. Yes. What are you thinking about doing this summer? So this summer I will be doing summer lab. So I'll be here. But then we, my family, we're going to Colorado. Oh fine. Get away from the heat. And so it'll be like my whole family and my brother, my nieces. They're very into rockets right now. So we've bought a couple of rocket kits to make in the mountains. And yeah, just enjoy being away for a little bit. That sounds lovely.
SPEAKER_02And I'm sure your fourth, your current fourth graders are wondering what will you do with Bruce this summer?
SPEAKER_01Oh, good question. Bruce is Bruce's her tortoise. Redfoot tortoise.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Um, he is going to be here with me during summer lab. And then my husband, I think, is going to take him to work with him. Oh, but for Bruce. I know.
SPEAKER_02He's just gonna get to see a whole new world. That's right. Well, I see that you have one of my favorite books with you today. Yes. What book are you gonna be sharing?
SPEAKER_01I am going to be sharing The One and Only Ivan by Catherine Applegate. Illustrator is Patricia Castileo, and it's by Scholastic.
SPEAKER_03Lovely.
SPEAKER_01And it's one the first of four in the series.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's one of my favorite students.
SPEAKER_01It's a great one. I know a lot of students love it too. Yes.
SPEAKER_02And I loved it because we read it at home, and it's a perfect read aloud for like a kindergartner to enjoy, but also my fourth grader enjoyed it as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and build a lot of empathy for others. And I think that animal perspective is so interesting. So we can't wait to hear a little bit of the book.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I will jump in and get started. Hello. I am Ivan. I am a gorilla. It's not as easy as it looks. Names. People call me the freeway gorilla. The ape at exit eight. The one and only Ivan, mighty silverback. The names are mine, but they are not me. I am Ivan. Just Ivan, only Ivan. Humans waste words. They toss them like banana pills and leave them to rot. Everyone knows that pills are the best part. I suppose you think gorillas can't understand you. Of course, you also probably think we can't walk upright. Try knuckle walking for an hour. You tell me, which is way more fun. I've learned to understand human words over the years, but understanding human speech is not the same as understanding humans. Humans speak too much. They chatter like chimps, crowding the world with their noise, even when they have nothing to say. It took me some time to recognize all those human sounds, to weave words into things, but I was patient. Patient is a useful way to be when you're an ape. Gorillas are as patient as stones. Humans, not so much. How I look. I used to be a wild gorilla, and I still look the part. I have a gorilla shy gaze, a gorilla sly smile, I wear a snowy saddle of fur, the uniform of a silverback. When the sun warms my back, I cast a gorilla, a gorilla's majestic shadow. In my size, humans see a test of themselves. They hear fighting words on the wind. When all I'm thinking is how the late day sun reminds me of a ripe nectarine. I'm mightier than any human. 400 pounds of pure power. My body looks made for a battle. My arms outstretched span taller than the tallest human. My family tree spreads wide as well. I am a great ape, and you're a great ape, and so are champanzees and orangutanes, bananabos, and all of us distant and distressful cousins. I know this is troubling. I too find it hard to believe there's connection across time and space, linking me to a race of ill-mannered clowns. Chimps. There's no excuse for them. The Exit 88 Big Top Mall In Video Arcade. I live in a human habitat called the Exit 8 Big Top Mall In Video Arcade. We are conveniently located off I-95, which shows at 247, 365 days a year. Max says that when he answers the thrilling telephone. I am the gorilla. At the Big Top Mall, a creep, creaky music carousel spins all day and monkeys and parrots live among the merchants. In the middle of the mall is a ring with benches where humans can sit on their rumps while they eat soft pretzels. The floor is covered with sawdust made of dead trees. My domain is at the end of the ring. I live here because I am too much gorilla and not enough human. Stella's domain is next to mine. Stella is an elephant. She and Bob, who is a dog, are my dearest friends. At present, I do not have any gorilla friends. My domain is made of thick glass and rusty metal and rough cement. Stella's domain is made of metal bars, the son's bear's domain is wood, and the parrot's is wire mesh. Three of my walls are glass. One of them is cracked, and a small piece about the size of my hand is missing from the bottom corner. I made the hole with a baseball bat Matt gave me for my sixth birthday. After that, he took the bat away, but he let me keep the baseball that came with it. A jungle scene is painted on one of my domain walls. It has a waterfall without water, flowers without scent, and trees without roots. I didn't paint it, but I enjoy the way the shapes flow across my walls, even as a even if it isn't much of a jungle. I am lucky in my domain, has three windowed walls. I can see the whole mall and a bit of the world beyond. The frantic pinball machines, the pink billows of cotton candy, the vast treeless parking lot. Belong the law is a freeway where cars stampede without end. A giant sign at his edge beckons them to stop and rest like gazelles at a watering hole. The sign is faded, the colors bleeding, but I know what it says. Mac reads its words aloud one day. Come to the Exit 8, Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, home of the one and only Ivan, mighty Silverback. Sadly, I cannot read, although I wish I could. Reading stories would make a fine way to fill empty hours. Once, however, I was able to enjoy a book left in my domain by one of my keepers. It tasted like a termite. The freeway billboard had a drawing of Mac in his clown clothes and Stella in her hind legs and an angry animal with fierce eyes and unkept hair. That animal is supposed to be me. But the artist made a mistake. I am never angry.
SPEAKER_03So good. It was so good. Thank you. You're welcome. We love that story, and I think that it's just such a great example of friendship. We hope that our students take the time to read it and maybe um dive into the others in the series. It's just, it's just such a heartwarming story for the whole family.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And Miss Ganser, one of the questions we always like to ask all of our podcast guests is what is a book that you enjoyed as a child?
SPEAKER_01So my favorite book that I can remember, and I was little, it was called Goofy the Gardener. It was like a little picture book, but I requested every night to read it. And it was about Goofy trying to find the job that fit him. And he he loved gardening, and so that's where he started. But then someone was like, You can't be a gardener. And so he tried all these other things, um, and none of them were a perfect fit. And then he went back to what he loved, which was gardening. And so I don't know. It just I love that. I know. I just loved it. Something you remember. Sticks with you. Yeah. I just remember every night asking my parents to read it to me.
SPEAKER_03I also think that's a good example for parents, too. Of um, sometimes it's okay to repeat that story. There is something about the language acquisition and listening to something you love and it being familiar and safe that it's hard to always have to read it over and over again. But I think valuing that for your kiddo is really great. Right. That's a good example.
SPEAKER_02Well, before we wrap up wrap up, we'd like to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today's episode. These excerpts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie Story Ness is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long. But thank you so much, Miss Cancer.
SPEAKER_01You're welcome.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for letting me join.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to the PHP S Difference Podcast. See you next time.
