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Birth - 5
The first book I ever remember seeing is the book of Bible Stories I received from the church at my baby dedication. Every night before bed, my parents would read me a story out of the book. As I got older, and began to memorize the stories, I would then “read” to my parents. Although I wasn’t actually reading, I was just repeating what I had heard them read every day for several years, I think this is an important step in learning to read. -
4 - 6
I’m not sure who exactly began buying Dr. Suess books for me, but I had a shelf full of them by the time I started school. I always loved reading his books because of the tongue twisters. It was a challenge, but I wanted to read them fluently and in crazy voices like my dad did. -
Elementary School
The Accelerated Reading Program is a very controversial topic these days. I have always been very competitive, so it was a great program for me. I tried my hardest on the tests at the beginning of the year, because I wanted the highest reading level in my class. Every chance I got, I picked up my AR book. I loved having the most AR points so that I could go to Sea World at the end of the year. As soon as I exited elementary school and the prizes were gone, my “love” to read quickly faded. -
5th Grade
My teacher picked five students that showed leadership skills, read well and had good behavior, to read to select kindergartners. Even though I was only ten-years-old, it did not take me long to realize the reason these kids were behind in their reading skills was because their home life was not ideal. That's when I began to appreciated my parents reading to me as a young child. Looking back now, this is one of the key moments that made me want to become a teacher. -
Summer before Middle School
The summer before I entered middle school, I attended many camps. Most of these camps were church camps. Although I did not think of it as reading at the time, I spent a lot of my summer reading and analyzing Bible Stories. This was a significant moment on my literacy timeline, because it was the first time I was asked to analyze text. -
Middle School
Once I reached middle school, I stopped reading. I was intelligent enough to listen in class and pick up enough information from the lesson that I did not need to read the chapters. I wish I would have had a reading teacher in middle school that helped me realize that reading is fun and important, because looking back now, those few years hurt my development of vocabulary, reading fluency, and most importantly my ability to study. -
Freshman in High School
My English teacher made us write in a journal for ten minutes every day. This helped me more than I ever imagined it could. I became more confident in my writing skills. I learned to just relax and write. My grammar improved significantly over the year and I began to actually enjoy writing. -
Junior in High School
I was given the opportunity to take dual-credit classes. One of the classes offered was College English. The final assignment in this course was to pick a book that had been made into a movie and compare and analyze the similarities and differences of the two. My first thought was, “well crap I actually have to read a book.” I began my search for a book I found interesting. Pride and Prejudice is the book I chose and I fell in love with the story. It is still one of my favorite books and movies. -
Summer before College
Finally, no one was telling me to read anything. I worked at a daycare for the summer, and it was against the rules for me to be on my phone (or asleep) while the the children napped. So I picked up a book and started reading. I read more books that summer than I read in middle school and high school combined. I finally enjoyed reading! -
Teaching Career
Working in a small school, I wear many hats. One of those hats is Life Skills Teacher. Teaching this class made me realize how important literacy is and how reading and writing doesn’t come easy for all. I love helping these kids work towards their goals of letter recognition and learning site words. A student of mine requested we ask the principal for a skunk, so we wrote a her letter. This will always be a special memory for me, because this student rarely writes anything other than his name.
