~and it was upon the subject of reading~

In 40 years of being a teacher, I've only disagreed with an administrator one time.  That's a pretty good record considering the many administrators and school districts in 4 different states now that I've worked in as a teacher.  It doesn't really matter who it was, or where it was, or even why it was that I disagreed with someone's point of view. The person in question has long ago left the field of education.  All that matters to me as a teacher is the fact that I felt deep in my heart that the right answer to something was not the one being shown to me.

And it was on the subject of reading.

We were sitting at an early inservice, the kind that teachers go to in the days prior to the start of school each year.  The subject came up about using every moment of the school day to its fullest and not wasting precious time doing things that wouldn't reflect in scores on the "end of the year" state assessments.  Somehow or another the subject of "read to self" time came up and one teacher talked about how important it was once in a while for kids to see their teachers read a good book alongside the kids.  You know how it would go.  The teacher would bring one of their favorite books from home and while the kids were having their silent reading time, the teacher would sit amongst them reading their own personal favorite.  It was a once in a while thing, not every day and surely not every week, but enough times scattered throughout the school year that the kids could see that the adult who was teaching them to read and enjoy great literature was actually enjoying their own good books as well.  It made perfect sense to me.

I'll never forget what that particular administrator said to us all.

"Those kids already know that the adult in the room knows how to read.  That's a waste of time."

And so the practice stopped.

I thought of that notion in the years to come and sadly even though I had practiced that reading ritual myself with the kids every once in a while, I felt like perhaps I should give it up.  I had really enjoyed sitting down with my students and cracking open my favorite book for my own personal "read to self" time.  Now, maybe I didn't know best after all.  

And so it went.

Today was National Read a Book Day and in my classroom at Grandfield, we did just that.  The 9 second graders each chose a special book to read and for 20 minutes they read to their hearts content.  And oh yeah.... so did I.  Before I left home for school this morning, I went into the spare bedroom and picked up a book that I'd been meaning to read for months now but just never found a spare minute to do so.  

It was National Read a Book Day and I wasn't going to pass up the chance.

Not this time.

Not today.

My book choice was one about the famous Kansas aviatrix, Amelia Earhart and one of the many theories of what happened to her and her navigator Fred Noonan.  In the early morning time at school, I told the kids that when I was their age, I first learned of Amelia Earhart from my own second grade teacher.  Miss Irene Thompson really planted a seed of interest and curiosity that morning back in 1962 when she read our class Amelia's story.  I was intrigued by what had happened, even at that young age.  Over the years I'd read many accounts of her life and disappearance.  Now 55 years later and at the age of 62, I still find an interest in her life and what happened to her on that infamous last flight.  Today I was going to read about it when the kids were reading their books silently.

And so I did.

It was about 20 minutes out of our school day.  What once someone told me was wasted time, in my opinion was the best thing I could have been doing for the blossoming readers that I have in my care each and every school day.  Sure they know that I can read.  That's a given.  But when they watched me today stop doing everything else that I could have been doing while they were in their own "read to self" time, they saw a grown up who was practicing what she preaches to them always.

And the word that is daily being preached is this.

Reading is sure fun!

Even when you are not a kid any more.

Amen~

And it is sights like this that make my teacher's heart feel full of joy and delight.  Somewhere long ago, a teacher who loved reading and wasn't afraid to show it by reading their own books in front of children, taught a little boy named Mike to love the printed word.  Now he is a grown up who reads.