After one semester at Findlay, I got out of the physician assistant program and declared my major as Adolescent-Young Adult Language Arts/English and English-Teaching Emphasis. I was put into the classroom right away with the Van Buren LAMP program, and every consecutive year I learned more and more about the field of education.
It felt unreal that I was actually going to be a high school English teacher, following the footsteps of my mother, until I had my junior block experience at Van Buren High School. There was a student named "Damien" in one of my classes who turned himself off when it came to learning. Nothing seemed to interest him, and his motivation and grades reflected that. Before I even started teaching my classes, I began to talk with him and encourage him to do his work in ways that would interest him. I found out that he really enjoyed military events and history, so I suggested books for him to read and gave him ideas to write about for a short story project the class was working on. I also encouraged him to read leisurely whenever he had his work completed. This turned out to have a larger effect than I imagined.
That year Van Buren was having a book tournament in which books would be matched up against each other; students would read the books, pick the best one, and move on to the next match. By the end of the year, the favorite book of the students would be picked out. Students were asked to volunteer to be in this program and provide money to purchase copies of the books. When the day came to sign up for the program, it came to my surprise that "Damien" was the first student to sign up to be in the reading program. When I started my experience, he wasn’t interested in anything related to English, but through my encouragement he began to enjoy the wonderful world of reading.
I have been able to share my passion for reading inside and outside of the classroom, and this brings me joy because this passion has been growing for quite a long time. My Grandpa and Grandma Midtgard were the first two people to really encourage me to pick up a book. My parents both had busy schedules during my youth, so my grandparents would watch my sister and me during the daytime. Each day they came, they’d have a brand new book for each of us. When we were really young, they would read to us, and as the days went by, we finally grew into reading to them. Little did I know that this would be the foundation for my reading addiction today, where I have a two thousand book private library.
When I look back through the years, there was hardly ever a time when I didn’t have a book in my hands. To this day, I still use dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other books of information to look information up. There is something about actually holding a book, smelling a book, and connecting with a book that makes the whole reading experience worthwhile. My grandparents’ teaching me how to read, has led to my passion to teach others how powerful and intoxicating of an experience reading can be for them.
When I look back through the years, there was hardly ever a time when I didn’t have a book in my hands. To this day, I still use dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other books of information to look information up. There is something about actually holding a book, smelling a book, and connecting with a book that makes the whole reading experience worthwhile. My grandparents’ teaching me how to read, has led to my passion to teach others how powerful and intoxicating of an experience reading can be for them.
My love for reading sprung up again this past semester with my analytical writing class. We were asked to complete in-depth research projects centered on our future careers. At this point in time I knew that I loved reading and teaching, but I hadn’t put the two ideas together yet. The day I thought that I might be able to include reading in this project, I decided that this paper would be the decider on whether or not I would want to concentrate on literacy and reading as an aspect of my future career. My paper was titled “’One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish’ to ‘Lord of the Rings’: The Importance of Parental Involvement in Regards to Reading with Their Adolescent Children.” Research had shown that children’s love for reading tended to dim around grades four or five, and this happened to be the time in which most parents stopped reading with their children. Therefore, I suggested that parents’ continuous support in their children’s reading lives would encourage the students to stay motivated and passionate about reading.
After typing up this report, I knew that this was definitely the field for me. I worked on this research project throughout the whole semester bringing in my knowledge of the DIBELS, MASI, and various other assessments that I’ve conducted in the past. I interviewed literacy scholars in the field, and I developed a plan to put my theories into practice. After presenting my findings to a field of colleagues, my professor said that my ideas were very credible and that I had encouraged her to work more with her teenage son when it comes to reading. This comment, along with all my interesting findings, encouraged me to go back to my roots and bring my passion for reading into my future career.
After typing up this report, I knew that this was definitely the field for me. I worked on this research project throughout the whole semester bringing in my knowledge of the DIBELS, MASI, and various other assessments that I’ve conducted in the past. I interviewed literacy scholars in the field, and I developed a plan to put my theories into practice. After presenting my findings to a field of colleagues, my professor said that my ideas were very credible and that I had encouraged her to work more with her teenage son when it comes to reading. This comment, along with all my interesting findings, encouraged me to go back to my roots and bring my passion for reading into my future career.
I would like to get a master of arts in education with a concentration on reading. With this degree, I would have even more knowledge on how to connect with my students and encourage them to read. After teaching high school English for many years, I would like to become a reading specialist, and, finally, a college professor. My life has been ever-growing and changing, but when I have stopped to reflect, two things have stayed constant: reading and teaching. Reading and teaching have been involved in every facet of my life, and I would like to see that continue in the future.
I decided to go into teaching so I could share my passion for reading with the youth of this nation. Oddly enough, a classic American literature book, The Catcher in the Rye, encouraged me to do this. In the novel, the main character Holden Caulfield states this, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." I couldn’t have spoken these words better myself. I look at all of the students I’m going to encounter in the future in this way. They’re all playing on the cliff and struggling in their own way near the edge. I want to be there to provide a helping hand along the way. It is my goal to not let any student near the edge of the cliff. If I can share my passion for reading and learning with them, and if I can connect to them in way that is individualized for them, then I know I can be a catcher in the rye, and that is a part of my life, along with reading and teaching, that is never going to change.
I decided to go into teaching so I could share my passion for reading with the youth of this nation. Oddly enough, a classic American literature book, The Catcher in the Rye, encouraged me to do this. In the novel, the main character Holden Caulfield states this, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." I couldn’t have spoken these words better myself. I look at all of the students I’m going to encounter in the future in this way. They’re all playing on the cliff and struggling in their own way near the edge. I want to be there to provide a helping hand along the way. It is my goal to not let any student near the edge of the cliff. If I can share my passion for reading and learning with them, and if I can connect to them in way that is individualized for them, then I know I can be a catcher in the rye, and that is a part of my life, along with reading and teaching, that is never going to change.
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