Destined to Teach Reading

I had to think back a long, long way to identify what drove me to be a teacher.  My parents always told me that I should be a teacher, that it was a perfect career fit for me.  Unfortunately at the time that these decisions are actually made, I was at the height of my teenage angst. There was no way I was going to follow the career path that my parents had been suggesting to me for so many years.  My mother was a teacher, and at that point in my life I could only see myself as the polar opposite of my mother.  On the other hand, my grandmother whom I dearly loved was a teacher before she became a business woman.  I began my quest for a career or a husband, whichever came first, in the mid-seventies, when it was still a little bit strange for women to be taking a career path. 
     I knew that I loved English and I was drawn to kids, so I decided to become a child psychologist. Three years later I had a BA in Psychology, but they changed the requirements for a license to "hang a shingle on your office" to practice as a psychologist. So, I married my college sweetheart and followed his career and began a family.
     Years later my kids were grown and I yearned for a career.  I entered the publishing business and became a book buyer manager executive.  When books became numbers or widgits to some, and the meaningful discussion of literature succumbed to the pressure of the bottom line, I had to look myself in the eye and ask what I really loved about my career.
     My passion is for reading and sharing my love of reading with others.  On further reflection I remembered teaching my little brother to talk, and read, and write and I had an AHA moment as I realized that I wanted to spend he rest of my life sharing that love for the written word with children and young adults.  I have been teaching for three years now and I love every minute of it!

English Immersion

I was fortunate enough to be hired for a long term position teaching 9th and 10th grade English.  Of course I was a liitle worried when I found out that we would be beginning with Midsummer Nights' Dream in 10th grade and The Odyssey in 9th grade.

Second semester at the University of Dayton was keeping me busy as well as I studied for reading licensure.  It helped though because I knew how important background knowledge was going to be to the students before reading these texts.

In order to prepare the 10th grade we read about Shakepeare's background, the Globe Theater, Sonnets 18 and 130 (so we could compare and contrast them), Iambic Pentameter, we wrote our own sonnets, and had a Shakespeare festival so that we could understand the entertainment of the period.

The prep for 9th grade involved background on epic poems, gods and goddesses, mythology background, creating a poster about one god or goddess, and having dicussions about our favorite gods/goddesses/

After working on vocabulary for both readings our next step would be reading the texts!

I am looking forward to that but, the students are not!

Deb

Winter Break from Teaching

This is new territory for me so please bear with me while I try to navigate this forum. 

     With all of the stress that 15 years of independent bookselling brought I found myself in a conundrum.  I never had time to read and I never had time to write.  I would make recommendations for books to fellow readers after reading the blurb on the back, and that just was not right.  I was not in the best interest of the author, reader, or myself.
     I decided to leave the book business and find a way to engage readers thoroughly in books and book discussion.  So, after some deliberation I returned to teaching.  Now teaching English affords me the possibilities I was looking for in shared reading experiences, and a way to receive a much needed paycheck.
     As a teacher I am able to point students toward independent bookstores so its a win win as far as I can see. 
     Leaving behind excel spreadsheets that were a necessary tool for moving books from one location to another is a real bonus!  Now I read the book, I review the book, and if I think it's fitting I can teach the book.
     My hope for this blog is that I can share some of the great books I am reading with you so that you can enjoy them also.
    Most recently I have found Douglas Kennedy, Atria, The Pursuit of Happiness and a special relationship to be wonderful page turning reads.  I have to say I didn't expect this.  But, I found that his prose were paced well and dealt with very dramatic social issues.  My review is on the Simon and Schuster blog under authors.

     I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you are reading.
Deb