Me as a reader

I love to read, unfortunately at the moment reading for school takes up most of my time and leads me to neglect reading for fun. There is nothing better then settling into a new book, often I find myself getting so engrossed in the story that I don't realize its two o'clock in the morning. I tend to read fiction novels, most recently "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. Murder mysteries, historical fiction, and crime novels normally catch my eye, and then the many books my Mom and Sister pass on. Some of my favorite books that come to mind are "The Plague Tales," "Pillars of the Earth" and "Memoirs of a Geisha," supplemented by the many novels by Patricia Cornwell and Jodi Picoult.

My only problem is finding time to do it and making it a priority. It seems I go through stages where a won't read for pleasure, followed by a time where I finish one book and then go on to devour the next. Vacations often offer a good time for me to relax with a book, I can guarantee if I am on a beach or a plane, I will be reading.

My parents are both avid readers, there are always a few books on both their nightstands. My Mom is more into emotional tales of love, loss and hope where as my father reads many non-fiction biographies, historic novels and military books. As a child we were always encouraged to read. Sunday mornings while my parents read the paper we normally were expected to read something until cartoons. We went to the library weekly and by the end of elementary school we had two bookshelves full of books. I remember wanting to read "big novels" like my Mom and first tried reading "Don't Stop the Carnival," I never got through it and I am sure that it still has my bookmark in it, sitting on the bookshelf. The only thing I did not like was reading for school with the exception of my last two years in high school. I found the novels to be boring, and I could never get into them because we would read only a bit and then have to wait till the next week- by that time I had really forgotten whatever I was reading. (I still forget books now, I will pick them up a year later, not sure if I read it and then get a chapter in before the story comes flooding back.)

Without a doubt I would classify myself as a reader, everything I pick up I read. I miss reading at the moment but over the break I hope to get into some great stories and just find some time to read late into the night.

Classroom Community

Throughout Ralph Fletcher's Walking Tree I am stuck by how much the teachers and principals determine the atmosphere of the school and its various classrooms. Although most of the inner city schools he deals with are cold and dingy it is the people who make up for these inequities.

There is no doubt in my mind that the physical classroom environment influences how students feel. Bright colors, new furniture, full library, and walls covered with posters and work set the mood for an involved "happy" environment that portrays care, however many schools do not have these resources available to them. Further, these resources are only part of the environment and alone cannot foster a good classroom community.

In both cases, teachers play the largest role in building a community. I believe that this community centers on the idea that all children feel important and equal within a classroom. During Ralph Fletcher's visits he encounters some very sad and traumatic stories, as I balk at the account I am amazed to hear how he reacts to the story and is able to relate and show that he cares. When a student talks about her battles with physical and sexual abuse he does not respond with a superficial, "how sad," instead he asks how her living situation is now. He shows us how to connect with and respect our students through writing. When I get into the classroom I want to practice providing the same respect to my students. I hope to make them feel part of our community and comfortable with sharing thoughts, feelings and opinions they may have. I will model this by sharing my own personal stories and letting them know that I too am human. I also will try to allow the students to interact with myself and one another throughout lessons, which reinforces the idea that all of us are important. Children pick up on our emotions and the underlying feelings throughout the school. In one of the classrooms the children are "mad" because there teacher left to teach another class and they had to move to a smaller, darker classroom. The children feel abandoned and not as valued as other students. It is just one example that should remind us that children pick up in everything so we must actually care, listen, and be aware of our actions and the reactions they cause in order to foster a good classroom community.

What we can learn from Children

I have often laugh at some of the things children say. From my past experiences with children they have been known to share some of the most embarrassing details of their parents personal lives, yet other than that they also can offer some great insight into life. Kids see things so clearly, it is not clouded by the many issues, past experience and concernes that as adults seem to get in the way. We need to realize that we can learn from children.

By listening to children we can learn about them as well as their many ideas. A child's innocents, enthusiasm and lack of bias can offer us adults a fountain of knowledge. When I am around children I am reminded that tomorrow is another day and nothing is out of reach. It boggles my mind when the kids I babysit have a huge fight and then five minutes later they are playing together, I wish I could forgive and forget that quickly. I have also learned to take on a problem or solve something differently. I can not tell you how many times I have seen children do something in a way that never even crossed my mind. Even something as simple as putting on a dress up outfit backward because the 'back' has more diamonds on it is something I would never do, the tag goes in the back, yet somehow it looks better backwards. As an adult I have a pre-conceived notion of how to do things, on the other hand children don't, they create a way. It reminds me to perhaps travel outside the box, look at things from another angle. The lessons go on and on.

In Raph Fletcher's book, The Walking Trees, Ralph sees a girl drawing raindbows and discusses how she is going to write a story about these raindbows she loves. Through the disucssion we learn that the rainbows she is reffering to are made with oil and water. At first, after reading the passage I did not understand that she meant the ones made on the road when cars leak oil. Because of my preconcived notion that rainbows are in the sky I couldn't even comprehend the idea. This is the perfect example of how a child appreciates and looks at things differently. What I immediatly concider bad because it indicates a leaking car, she percives as beautiful. So as I go out into the world of teaching I hope that not only can I teach children, but also that I may learn from them each step of the way.