November 25th Blog Post: Becoming an Effective Teacher of Reading

Teachers are such an important and vital link in every student's learning chain. In the articles we read this week, I found Taylor, Peterson, Pearson, and Rodriguez's article Looking inside classrooms: Reflecting on the "how" as well as the "what" in effective reading instruction and Pinnell's article, Every child a reader: What one teacher can do very interesting and truly enlightening. I am a huge fan of lists and I like how Pinnell went through each topic and explained each.. I thought all of his points were equally important and accurate when it came to creating a true and increasing learning environment. One that I always think about and think is truly the most important, is the "enjoyment of reading and writing with your students." I think that every teacher should see themselves as a role model and cheerleader. They are the rock for every child's learning and illiterate stability. I believe that to be a successful teacher you have to love your job and share a love for your students. All my life I have been blessed to have wonderful teachers that show a love for their students and their students' success. You have to want to teach to create great learners. It's our responsibility to create the future minds of the World. How do you plan on showing your love for teaching and for your students success? As a teacher, you have to not only love to teach, but love to learn. There is always room for improvement, and as a teacher, there is a huge obligation to want to learn the most valuable ways to become a fantastic teacher and person in twenty odd students' lives. I like how Pinnell took every matter and focused on how there are ways to understand and improve. It's so important to use all skills learned and use each of those skills to their maximum capacity to create the best readers we can. Not one skills is less important than the other. It's been so neat to learn each of these skills, and look back on my education and notice how my past teachers used them. It's like my eyes have been exposed to the "behind the scenes" action to teaching. In Taylor, Peterson, Pearson, and Rodriguez's article, I liked how they touched on each skill and topic and gave the "do's" and "don'ts" that can be noticed in day to day classrooms. I liked how they tied everything together in the end. I like how they finally touched on the point that was focused on in the title to represent what the data was about and how the examples could help us, as teachers, to become better ones. I loved the "full backpack" reference in the end. I thought it summed it up perfectly. That all teachers are to means for every child to stand a chance. They are the educators and have a huge impact on every students' life. They are responsible for equipping each student with a "full backpack" of skills, strategies, habits, and dispositions toward literacy." This point and statement, to me, does not only matter in literature, but in life. A teacher is a role model and educator that is responsible for allowing every student that they may come in contact with achieve their greatest ability as a learner and a person. It's amazing to me how much of an impact a teacher truly has in a person's life. It's our job to promote children to love to learn and want to succeed in everything that they do or come across in their lives. We create the doctors, the future educators, the future President's of the United States. So it's up to us to maintain the ability to be those good educators to create great people.