Hello 81,
Great sentiment about
reading --- I feel pretty blessed, because I get to read aloud every day to all the kids in my class at school --- 25 ten-year-olds --- yep, they're all mine each school day --- and reading aloud to them each day is always a highlight of the day for them and for me ... nothing better than diving into a great chapter book and reading it aloud to a class full of kids ... and leaving them hanging in suspense for the next chapter the next day ...
I've been teaching school for over 25 years now --- I've got quite a few "second generation" kids, having taught their parents years ago when I first started teaching, so I'm very connected with all my school kids and their families. I'm into my third year of continuing to teach school since being diagnosed with cancer.
There are youngsters in my school who have also been diagnosed with cancer, so I strive every day to be a role model for them and to keep "battling through" and being at school each day, even when undergoing treatments ... I visit them in their classrooms and sometimes they find a gift from me in their locker or mailbox at home ... I never dreamed when I became a teacher that someday I would be struck with an illness that, in the end, became an unexpected way to inspire students who were facing a critical illness in their lives ... and believe me when I say that these kids are actually MY inspiration ...
If you visited my classroom, it's filled with thousands of books for my school kids --- every place I travel, I stop at a bookstore and buy a few more ... well, more than a few, I guess you could say --- I keep assembling more bookcases, too --- when it comes to books in my classroom, you can't call it hoarding ... it's called COLLECTING. There's a difference, right ?!! The kids love it ... they ask for a book ... I go and buy it ... kids from all over the school borrow books from me ... no limits !
Better than that ... for the last few years, my school kids and I have worked together on a project that has raised over $30,000 for new books for our school library --- my kids canvass the town and collect those little "Box Tops For Education" that you see on grocery store food items --- most years, my school kids collect about
50,000 of those and because of those little box tops, we have been able to purchase $5,000 worth of additional new books for our school library EVERY year --- these kids amaze me --- it's their accomplishment --- I just get to be the proud teacher and I get to see 500 school kids with new books in their hands every time they visit the school library down the hall !
Thanks for sharing the great quote about
READING ! I've always said to my school kids, "A great BOOK can change your life!"
Sent with my best,
Cyclone
Post Edited (ISU-CycloneFan) : 10/21/2015 5:26:16 PM (GMT-6)