Hello everyone!
My name is Amanda McGreevy and I’m 25 years old. I grew up in Southern California and have lived here my entire life. I’ve been an avid reader since I was very young. My parents used to get mad at me because I would stay up all night reading. I was the kid who read under the covers with a flashlight. I cannot start a book without finishing it. Even if the book is lame, I just have to finish! (I am dork and finished the 7th Harry Potter book in 2 days because I just had to know what happened!)
My love of reading has transported me here to the fabulous English Subject Matter program. I’m excited to start working on my teaching credential. I would love to have to the opportunity to reach out to people who do not share my love of reading. I think it would be beneficial to encourage more reading in the classroom. I was exposed to a lot of reading in my childhood and never got tired of it. I think it’s difficult to enjoy reading when you aren’t doing it for pleasure. My philosophy is: the more you practice, the better you get. This also applies to reading and students. I think students benefit from daily reading.
When I start teaching English, I would love to have my students read for ten minutes every day in class. I think it would help create a habit. (And hopefully it would help them discover a love for reading.) Did any of you use Electronic Bookshelf in high school? Are you familiar with that program? If so, what did you think of it?
I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you!
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Amanda, it's nice to meet you! Reading with the flashlight sounds very familiar :) Thanks for your nice comment on my blog!
ReplyDeleteOooh, a baby blog. I love it! Thanks so much for visiting mine! Before I had kids, I was a fourth grade teacher. We would have "Reader's workshop" every day where I would do a mini-lesson on some aspect of reading (how to figure out what hard words mean from context, where to find info about the publisher, etc) and then the kids would get to read a book of their choice for 30 minutes or get to work on some sort of presentation of their book when they were finished. Most of the kids, not all unfortunately, LOVED to read by the end of the year. I had one girl write me a poem about a little girl whose teacher bought lots of books and who learned to love reading. It took me about 4 days to read Harry Potter. I just finished Twilight. I kept looking at people like they were crazy when they would recommend it to me saying, "But it's a story about vampires written for teenage girls? No thanks" Eventually, I was worn down, checked it out from the library and read it in three days. It's great! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your new baby blog!
ReplyDeleteWow, totally agree with poetry as useful method of therapy. To me it instills the image or ability of a snake to shed off unnecessary skin of a former shell of yourself that once was.
ReplyDeleteIt allows you to speak and release energy stored in thought or unexamined beliefs and behavior that somehow maneuvered their way into your mind and became a part or way of your life you had no intention of saving a place for in the first place. I couldn’t agree more with you on the nature of its value.
Yeah, I would also agree we should definitely teach them poetry and you’re right maybe pick out a poem they can write about before. I would have to add that maybe more importantly that the poem can be adolescent, or high school friendly or whatever level of education you plan on teaching so that it is relatable, interesting or valuable.