Throughout reading week I thought about my own struggle in my life with reading. Many don't know my story and it's taking me a few weeks debating if I even want to write it to all of you. But I thought I would share it because it is a huge reason why I became a teacher. So here it is...
As children we learn our letters and sounds in kindergarten. The alphabet is the first step to learning. These symbols put together make sounds and then words. My brain saw these symbols and memorized them to pass the "test" to get into the ABC club, meaning I got my picture on the wall with all the other students that knew their letters and sounds. They were put in my brain for a short time and forgotten very quickly, which shouldn't happen. Learning the alphabet didn't really stick and moving onto the next grade was very difficult because we were now using the alphabet to sound out words and reading. If I didn't know my sounds, how could I possibly start sounding out words? This was a challenge for me.
In second grade my teacher noticed that I wasn’t processing the concepts taught, but memorizing the facts to get me through the tests. Instead of passing me on to the next grade, my teacher took the time to figure out what was occurring. She, along with my parents, were committed to correct the problem before it was too late. With many tests and assessments we concluded that I had a disability called Audio Processing Disorder (APD). APD is where students can't process the information they hear in the same way as others because their ears and brain don't fully coordinate the information. It took me more time to process all the information we were learning. For example, lets think of running. Someone super fast can run a mile in five minutes. And then there are the normal running people that will run a mile in ten minutes. The fast runner will run two miles in the time the normal person will run one mile. The fast runner gets more miles done in the same time. This is like me and learning. My wonderful brain takes twice as long to fully understand and process what I am learning.
Many people know I hate reading aloud. This is because if I get to a word I don't know it takes my brain twice as long to look at each letter and then think, "ok what sound is this?" And then have to continue this for each letter. By the time I do that someone has already told me the word, with others chuckling around me. I know now people probably don't chuckle, but I guess I'm scarred from middle and high school. Teenagers can be mean!
This disability will live with me for the rest of my life, but it doesn’t define who I am. I just have to work twice as hard to finish that mile. I can't say this weakness is a strength just yet. I'm still running that mile. But I guess that is a good thing because that means I am still learning nice things everyday. With this whole process I have realized I want to help those children that need extra help. I want to be that teacher that makes a difference in my students’ lives, like my teachers did for me. During reading week, I think I heard at least three times a day, "Ms. Dill, I love school!" Every child should want to learn and should love school. I want every student that enters my classroom to feel safe and comfortable with learning. Kindergarten is a time for exploration and finding new things.
Pondering on my story was eye opening on how important reading is for children. Reading is in everything. You start learning letters that turn into words that then make sentences. This is all reading. Someone that has struggle their whole life with reading, I know how important it is to learn at a young age your letters and sounds. Not knowing this basic concepts you can not move to the level. It's like building blocks. You first learn the basics and build upon them, line upon line, percept upon percept.
As a teacher I see some students that don't get the extra help they need at home. A lot of people think that teachers can teach children all they need to know. Realize we are only given a small amount of the day to be with your child and on top of it we have 20 more students that are all on different learning levels. There just isn't enough time to teach your child everything. There is 1 of us and 20 of them. As future parents or parents now realize how important you can be to your child. Simply reading to your child at a young age will allow that child to start recognizing the alphabet. A standard in kindergarten is for a child to know that print is read from left to right. This standard may seem super simple and it is! By reading to your child and pointing to each word from left to right can teach this standard to your child. Reading to your child can start as young as the child is born. I have seen my little niece, only 20 months old, become familiar with books. Being a teacher, this makes me so happy. A child that isn't even two yet can open a book and know human do something with this book. Learning doesn't have to start in kindergarten. Start with you children as soon as possible. Letters are all around us. Next time drive to the store, look around and see how many letters you see. They are everywhere! Practicing letters with your child will only help their future educational journey.
We had a special guest come for Dr. Seuss's birthday, Cat In The Hat.
I dressed up as Pinkalicious for favorite book character day.
No comments:
Post a Comment