Reflecting on myself as a reader

I really enjoy reading. I find it very relaxing and feel it is an escape from the everyday stresses of life. When I am in school, I feel like I can not find the time to read. I am too busy reading required texts to try to fit any reading in for pleasure. After I graduated college, I had two years off before I went back to pursue my master's degree. During that time, I was able to do alot of reading. I like to read romance novels that just take you into another world. They are a great escape for me. I also like to read Nicholas Sparks novels.

When I was younger, I had many positive experiences with reading. I loved reading as a child. My mother always read to me. I do not actually remember how I learned to read. It's funny because I just always remember myself reading but not the actual learning process. My mother immersed me in all types of books. When I was in 2nd grade, she enrolled me in a Minnie Mouse book club. I would recieve a few different books at a time along with a letter from Minnie. She was clearly my favorite. Then, my mother would help me write back to her. It was kind of like a pen pal and book club combined. I really enjoyed it. A negative experience I had with reading is that I really disliked the round robin activity in school. I was always a fast reader so I did not like to listen to kids in my class that read slow. I do not think it was a positive experience for them as well because they were aware of the fact that they were slow readers. I think in the end, this probably discouraged them.

When I was younger, I had trouble with reading comprehension. On state tests, my lowest scores were always in comprehension. Even when I really took my time to read the passages, I felt like I was unable to answer the questions correctly. Reading comprehension just always gave me anxiety. Sometimes I think I tried too hard to understand the passages and would really not get anything out of it. To this day, I feel like reading comprehension troubles me.

Overall, I have always enjoyed reading. I definitely feel that my mother was my motivator as a child. She always encouraged me to read and always read along with me. I believe it is so important to instill a passion for reading in kids at a young age. I think it helps the overall development of a child.

Creating a Community in Our Classrooms

I believe it is very important to try to create a community within the classroom. I believe that teachers need to work to try to bring their students together as a class. Every child is different and will have something different to bring into a classroom. Students should be motivated to open up to each other and be open minded. I believe if students open up to one another it will bring them closer as a class. Students can be united as a community through their writing. If students write about their personal experiences and share it with one another, it will give other students a glimpse into their lives. Perhaps one child's story will help another along the way. Writing is a very vital aspect in a classroom so I think writing is a great way to try to unite students.
The stories in Walking Trees has definitely affected my ideas. One story that really stands out in my mind is Tanya's Half-Autobiography. In her story, she reveals that her father sexually abused her. I think this story is proof that children can have hard lives. They do not necessarily have perfect lives because they are innocent children. I think this story helped me realize that writing about a good experience or bad experience, can in the end help students. I know that many people may feel that students should not discuss their hardships to members of their class. I believe this sharing of writing can be beneficial for the individual and the other students in the classroom. In the end, sharing of experiences can help unite the classroom and bring them together.