I was invited to speak at Alger Middle School for March Reading Month.  Principal Brown, whom I worked with at Ottawa for many years, planned an open house where parents, students, and teachers could come in to reflect on reading.  I will have to admit, when I was first asked to present on this topic – I wasn’t sure how exactly to go about it.  So I sat and thought about the importance of reading in my life and how it helped me be successful.  I decided to present on reading at various stages of my life – from as a small child to how I use it now in my professional and personal life.  As I told about my story, I added in statistics at the various levels.  I tried to find powerful stats that would make all people attending think about how important reading is during all stages of life.

Thursday, March 14th I went to Alger in the early evening to present.  I was so warmly welcomed by the staff who knew me from my presentation there at the beginning of the year. It was also wonderful to see Mr. Brown as well.  I had a great introduction, but at that point I did feel a little worried if I “did my presentation right” (its that type A thing!).  It was a different type of presentation topic that I normally give.  When I was done, however, I was shown such a wonderful response!  I had many hugs, great comments, and a couple adults who said that my message touched them and even made them tear up.  I was speechless.  I jut let my passion for learning, education, and reading in my life show and it made me realize that a person can talk on any topic if they truly “feel” it.  My favorite part was when I finished talking about reading in my life, I saw 7 out of the 8 students who were sitting at a table all evening with books (never touching them), pick up a book immediately!  That put the biggest smile on my face.

I did get to talk to a couple ladies who use the Kindle to help their special education students learn to read better and they had  data that showed remarkable improvement.  I am so excited to implement something like this in my classroom for my struggling readers and ESL  students.  I would love to find 8-10 Kindles at a great price or donated so my students can have text uploaded and then have material read to them as they follow along.  I think this would be really great for reading tests to kids as well.

I was invited back to give the presentation again to a larger group with more schools invited –  I would love to.  What a wonderful evening!

READING TRULY HAS AND CONTINUES TO BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF MY LIFE – IS IT YOURS?