Get to Know Me

Hello!

    I wanted to share a writing piece I wrote about myself when I was working towards my Masters degree in Reading at East Stroudsburg University.  The assignment asked for all teachers in the program to describe the first ever literacy occurrence we could remember.  It was a cathartic experience for me when digging into my memory trying to recall the first time I fell in love with reading and writing. Still, whenever I review this writing piece, a smile spreads across my face and I feel grateful that my parents encouraged this relationship I will forever have with literacy.  I realize that this is the reason I became a teacher; to impart the excitement and joy of education that my parents bestowed upon me when I was young to the children I teach everyday.  
     
     While reading this, I hope that you think back to your own initial literacy experience (positive or negative) and reflect on how that relates to your teaching.  Enjoy reading about my history and getting to know more about me.

     "Throughout my life, I have been a reader and a writer.  I can remember my parents reading books to me before I was able to make out the individual letters.  I remember scribbling on my paper pretending to write grocery lists or notes to friends.  All I wanted was to be a literate member of society like my parents and their friends.  Reading and writing have always been a strong part of my life.
     My very first literacy experience seems so vivid in my mind.  I was about four or five, still years away from being able to read independently.  It was late at night and my dad had just come home from work carrying many heavy boxes.  After opening each one and examining the contents, I noticed that they all held books; different colors, shapes and sizes, various titles and authors, picture books and chapter books.  Already at this age, I loved books.  On this night, I felt like an explorer opening a treasure chest.  My dad explained that one of his co-worker's daughters had finished these books and did not need them any longer.  They were now all mine.
     At this time, my family and I had just moved into a new house where I not only had my own room but a walk-in closet.  Since I was so little, my clothes did not come anywhere near filling the closet (which would certainly be a different case now).  Instead, the books that my dad brought home were kept on shelves in the closet.  The closet also stored the house supply of beanbag chairs and blankets, so it was a comfortable place for me to relax and read.  I remember sitting on the mountain of beanbags and blankets, looking through various Dr. Seuss books and 'reading' the story based on the pictures and what I could remember from my parents' previous readings.  I would close the door and pretend to be in my own little 'reading world'.
     My favorite movie at the time was 'Beauty and the Beast' and I loved when Belle found the Beast's library, filled with floor to ceiling books.  Using this as my inspiration, I would turn my closet into a library.  My only patron would be my little sister, who was forced to check out books so that I could write on the little cards which I had cut out for each.  It was always fun to help my sister 'choose' books based on her interests, even though she could hardly talk, nevertheless read.
     The closet was not only filled with books but with memories.  It was the first place where my mom patiently taught me to read a Dr. Seuss book, as I struggled through each letter and word.  All I wanted was to read as fluently as my parents but it seemed to be almost impossible.  Luckily my motivation trumped my frustration.
     After a few years, my parents decided to move.  While I was upset to leave the friends I had grown up with and the house with so many memories, the worst part was leaving my reading closet.  I remember packing up all of my books in boxes, making sure that they got on the moving truck, not really caring what happened to the rest of my belongings.  My parents assured me that in our new house I had two closets, which of course are better than one.  When I got to the new house, the first thing I did was check out the closet space.  I did have two closets in my room but they were standard size.  I took my box of books, sat inside the closet and closed the door.  It was very small.  Not anything like my old closet.  I knew that as soon as my bookshelf was in, there would be no room for me.  Eight years old was the last age that I had a reading closet.
     I continued to read for the rest of my life and am still a big reader today.  I can sit for hours, reading book after book, never getting enough.  Recently in the past few months, I moved into my first apartment.  Of course, the first things I did was check out the closet space, even though it was not for a reading closet any longer.  As I decorate, I try to make my whole apartment feel the way my reading closet did; comfortable, relaxing and surrounded by books.
     Reading has always been, and always will be, a part of my life.  Even now every time I go into Borders, I still get the same feeling I did when my dad brought home those boxes of books.  The older I get the more I realize that my literacy journey is not over but just beginning and that the endless adventures, people and possibilities that books bring to me are still with me every day."

Erica :)