Well,
this is a year of BIG DEALS!!! First, I became a grandmother last week. My grandson was born last Thursday, and I’m
so in love with him it is impossible to explain.
Next, I’m turning……………
50
next
month!!!!!! I’m completely done with
talking about THAT!!!!
So I spent this summer
thinking about the fact that I’m going to be older than everything on earth
except dirt, I was going to become a granny to a precious little boy, and I was
going to start another year…………..
teaching/motivating/inspiring/tolerating
EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS!!!!!!!
I
absolutely love, love, love, love teaching.
I love teaching middle school students - what a great age (yes, I’m serious!!)
But
in the past few years I’ve noticed not only changes, good and bad, in education
but changes in me and my way of teaching.
I’ve strayed from my original plan, but I’m turning that around this
year!!!!!! It’s another BIG DEAL!!!!!!
If
you are a teacher, you will remember the good old college days when you wrote a
gazillion essays on topics such as……What makes you want to be a teacher? Every paper I wrote about my reasons for being a
teacher always included my thoughts about reading. When I was selected as Teacher of the Year
for my school and my district, I was required to write an essay about me as an
educator. Once again, I wrote about my
passion for reading. I always reflect on
the fact that I spent every Sunday afternoon in my Nannie’s hammock beside the
creek behind her house………reading Nancy Drew
books.
After
church every Sunday, the family traveled to Virginia to visit, eat, sit around,
visit, eat again, sit around, etc. You
get the picture---------just like Andy Griffith’s front porch on Sunday. However, my favorite place was not the porch…….it was that comfy hammock
under the trees by the creek. Seriously,
people, this was absolutely a beautiful place.
I would read and read and read for hours -------then go back inside for
another chicken leg!!!!
This
story of my Nannie’s hammock and my weekly trips with my mom to the Kingsport
Public Library made it into every essay I’ve ever written about education. It truly is what made me become a teacher………”To inspire in students the
same love for reading that I had as a teenager.”
So
I stormed into my first job as a teacher ready to conquer the world. I refused to follow the norm - I did things
my way. I REQUIRED students to read
novels in my classroom. I assigned book
reports. I organized literature
circles. Other language arts teachers
joined in, and we began having school-wide competitions in reading. It was a truly beautiful THANG!!!!
Then
things began to change in education, I got flustered, and before I knew it, I
had changed my true passion ------the passion to get students to read. To open a book and actually live the
story. To cry in a story. To laugh in a story. To be so sad because the book is
finished. To desperately NEED to get the
other novels written by that author. To find
their hammock by the creek.
So
I spent the summer WORKING!!!! Yep, I’m
one of those teachers. The district
requires four in-service days. I’ve
already taken six and hope for more!!! I
also worked to develop for this year’s class……………
Our Reading
Journey
Students
are going to be required to read six books every nine weeks of various genres
and complete a book project. I’ve
created 10 book projects for novels, 5 for nonfiction, and 5 for informational
texts complete with grading rubrics.
Each nine weeks has a book list from which to choose novels that include
the lexile levels.
I’m taking them on a
journey!!!!! A reading journey!!!!!!
For more information, please
visit my store at
And
about turning 50…………I asked my precious husband
for a hammock for the backyard for my birthday.
He gave it to me a month early so I could enjoy the weather as much as
possible. Reading…..reading…….reading……reading!!!!!
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