From a very young age, I knew that reading was something special. When my older sister began reading, I began right along with her. I knew how to read well before I entered kindergarten, and I am lucky enough that my teacher enriched my education by allowing me to read aloud to my classmates. I have vivid memories of sitting on the wooden rocking chair during story time with feelings of pride while I shared a story with my peers. That experience stayed with me throughout my childhood. Many kids ask for toys when they go to the store with their parents; I always asked for a book, usually one from the Sweet Valley Twins or The Babysitters Club series. And I remember getting one every time. I guess my parents couldn’t really justify saying no to buying me a book. Even then, I wasn’t satisfied just checking out books from the library. I wanted to own them and read them again and again. To this day, I dream of having a collection of books so vast that it fills a bookshelf the size of an entire wall, maybe two.
Once I reached middle school, I read for pleasure far less frequently, but I rediscovered my passion when I started college. Now, I read just about anything. I love reading young adult novels because I like to know what my students are reading and talking about. Additionally, I love contemporary literature, historical fiction, and even the occasional “chick lit” beach read. It always amazes me when I really think about all I have learned about other cultures, people and the world around me just by reading novels, and my biggest hope as a teacher of English and reading is to share that feeling with my students and to make them love reading as much as I do.
Some of my favorite novels include The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I also read a great deal of insightful, thought-provoking young adult novels that I absolutely love, many of which I have made posts about on this blog.
Reading and writing go hand-in-hand, and both have always come pretty easily to me. I am far more comfortable expressing myself in writing than verbally, and I think this is because I am such an avid reader. Even as a child, I used to write little stories, and I remember my mom telling me how creative I was. She always thought I would grow up to become a writer; but as opportunities for creative writing in school became fewer, my interest in writing for pleasure waned. The type of writing that I did in middle in high school was much more academic, and while I believe that I am good at writing critical analyses and research papers, I don't think of myself as an exceptional writer. I think being an author would be an amazing job to have, but the thought of sitting down and writing a novel is very intimidating to me.
One of my favorite parts about being an English teacher is being able to talk about books with my students, whether it involves a whole-class discussion of piece of literature or talking one-on-one with a student about a book we've both happened to read. I love hearing their teen-aged perspectives, and I love the fact that I learn something new about a piece of literature every year because of the insightful comments I hear during our discussions. One of the most challenging parts of my job as a high school English teacher is teaching students how to write well. Because writing is a skill that comes easily to me, I sometimes struggle to relate to students who just don't naturally have a way with words. It is something that I continue to work on and I am still looking for great strategies to help my students become better writers. (If you have any suggestions, feel free to pass them along!)
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