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From the time I was born, my parents always read aloud to me. No matter where we were or what was going on, they were reading books and magazines and newspapers to me.
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Before I started school, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents while my parents worked. My grandparents encouraged my growth in reading, and taught me many words on menu's while we would be out eating.
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When I was two and a half, my younger sister was born. As we both began to grow and learn to read, I was always reading different things to her. Through helping her learn to read, I began to grow into a better reader as well.
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When I started kindergarten, I was a part of the GT program. This means that in kindergarten and first grade, I was in combined classes of kinder and first graders with the same teacher. This gave me more exposure to reading than if I would have been in a typical kindergarten classroom.
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While in elementary school, my family traveled often. We went on many camping trips to many remote parts of the state. Learning to read a map and travel brochures kept me interested in learning about where we were going and what we were doing.
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When I was in 3rd grade, I really got into reading the Harry Potter series. This was really the first series of books that I chose to read on my own. After I had read part of the series, I realized that reading books as part of a series was something that I truly enjoyed.
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After elementary school, I went to a 6th grade center and then to middle school for 7th and 8th grade. During 6th and 7th grade, I had awful teachers who did not encourage reading as a joy, and used it as more of a punishment. This pushed me away from wanting to read on my own, and really reading and writing all together.
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When I went to middle school, my eighth grade English teacher was fabulous. She exposed us to many different kinds of novels, poems, and many more other forms of writing/reading. After a dull/uninterested time with reading in 6th and 7th grade, she helped spark my interest again.
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While I was in high school, I began taking AP classes. This meant that I was having to do a lot more research on my own in order to complete assignments for many different courses. I was now reading scholarly content in history, science, and even statistics.
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Last summer I began my grad school journey. Over the past year, I have grown to love to research different articles and resources that can be applied to my career. During my time as an undergrad I didn't really appreciate reading this type of content. Now that I am a full time teacher I love being able to apply what I read to my classroom.