Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

My name is Melissa Riley, and I currently teach fourth grade Language Arts and Social Studies at Lincoln Charter School in Lincolnton, NC. However, I will most likely be teaching all subject areas in the upcoming school year due to only one fourth grade class scheduled at my school's campus. It is a small community school with very supportive families, and I've enjoyed not only teaching there but being one of the parents of its students. Both of my daughters, Elizabeth and Emily, attend and will be entering the third and second grades in August.

I've been married for nine years this July to my loving husband Jimmy, and we live in Catawba County, where we both blossomed into the adults we are today! Living in a quiet family neighborhood (except for the occasional dirt bikes buzzing from the teenage boys in the back half of our development!), we try to enjoy life with our daughters and "baby" Cinnamon (our one-and-a-half year old Pomeranian!)

As a child, I always enjoyed reading and writing. I never struggled as a reader. When I entered kindergarten, I knew my alphabet and was able to recognize and distinguish letters – both upper and lowercase. By the beginning of first grade, I was reading on grade level and have never stopped since. I have always enjoyed reading, and I can remember reading in the car while swinging around the curves of a mountainside on Saturday morning trips to view mountain scenery with my grandparents. (Doing THAT now is a different story with a feeling of “woozy” somewhere in the middle!)

In regards to writing, I used to think that quantity defined you as a good writer, but as I’ve matured, I now prefer quality over redundancy that is often found in quantity. I can remember writing my “first independent book” the summer before my third grade year when one of my younger brothers was born. Back then, it was a means of proving to my parents that I could be a responsible older sister by not letting jealousy ruin my efforts at also being a good daughter. Now, I realize that I was a child coping with change and writing was the best method and attempt at reflecting on this pivotal moment. Since then, I’ve also enjoyed writing though not nearly as much as reading since I’ve associated writing more with research papers and other assignments casted about by our educational system. I have to admit that I’d rather indulge myself in a captivating book instead of creating a reality of escape for someone else to enjoy. Perhaps I’m a bit selfish! Whatever it means, I can honestly say that I see how reading and writing are linked, especially since I’m approaching the end of ASU’s Reading Education Program (Hallelujah!!! There’s only this and two other courses standing between me and graduation! :0) )

Overall, I’ve enjoyed learning the process of learning to read and write. As an educator, it makes me more aware of the struggles and frustrations that some of my students face. Instead of aspiring to be a good teacher, I want to be a GREAT one! Therefore, I challenged myself to obtain my master’s in an area that affects my students the most…an area of personal understanding and knowledge that I felt a need to explore and polish. This is why I chose to pursue Reading Education. To me reading and writing affect so many things inside and outside of school. If a student feels confident and success in these two areas, it will spill over into the other content areas and aspects of a student’s life. I’m here to try to understand the differences between my students and how these differences affect their ability to read.

Melissa Riley

My name is Carrie Brown and I am currently a K-2 Instructional Coach for Cook Elementary in Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools. I moved here from Chicago 3 years ago where I had taught 2nd grade for 7 years. I miss being in the classroom and have been re-inspired by all that I have learned in this graduate program. As I don't have a classroom of my own, I spend time in a lot of different classrooms showing teachers how to implement all the new strategies and techniques that I have learned.
I am looking forward to taking this class because I have been teaching in an inner city environment for 9 of my 10 years in education. I am a strong advocate for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and am passionate about the fair and equal treatment of all students. I also believe that although my varied experiences have taught me how to work with a diverse population, I am always looking forward to learning more about how to best understand and support my students and their families.
Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. For as long as I can remember, my mom and I would curl up on the couch together with a book. We still do in the rare occasions I get to see her! Although now that I am much bigger, we share the couch but our heads are at opposite ends, reading silently our own choices, yet in fact, reading together. When I was young, I always had my nose in a book. I recall one time my brother saved up to buy me a Sweet Valley High book for my birthday. I stayed in bed and polished it off in 2 ½ hours and he was furious that it didn’t last longer!
My love of reading just scored me a Kindle for Mother’s Day, which I am truly enjoying but I still don’t think I’ll ever totally give up the love of turning the pages of a good book. I tend to like mysteries, yet my book club has been picking some interesting novels lately that I have enjoyed. I have to admit, I’ll give a book 50 pages and if I’m not into it, I put it down. That’s why I am adamant about giving students choices on what they would like to read. I want them to LIKE what they are reading, otherwise the likelihood that they will learn something goes downhill.
My daughter who is only 11 months old, already chooses books over any other toys. I was floored when I walked into her room the other day and saw her sitting on the floor turning the pages of her favorite book (don’t worry…I got it on video)! As I am already doing with my daughter, I am determined to motivate and promote a love of reading with the students in my school both first hand, and through instructing their teachers. Once a child is literate, their chances of success increase greatly. The students that I work with tend to have more obstacles to learning before they even enter the classroom. Understanding where they are coming from and what their needs are is my job as an educator. Reading is the greatest gift that I could give to an individual and it is a goal of mine to give it to as many students as possible, regardless of where they come from.
Writing is not something that comes as naturally. In fact, I have never enjoyed writing at all. Therefore, I hated teaching it. That is, until my charter school in Chicago made writing our priority for professional development for the entire school year. We implemented the Writer’s Workshop program and I realized how writing could be fun. That year, writing became my students’ favorite subject. I would have to set a timer for us to stop, otherwise, we would forget to go to lunch! Now, I find myself modeling how to teach writing to a number of my teachers because it IS a very hard subject to teach. Everyone is at a different place, and has different needs. Yet, I learned a very important lesson: when students see you love something, they love it. Therefore, when I model writing, I model how much I enjoy it as well as modeling the skill. I have found that that enthusiasm can be contagious.

I look forward to learning from you all…
Carrie Brown

Hi everyone! My name is Andrea Schlobohm. I started the Reading Education program this past January, and so far I love it. I taught second grade for 3 ½ years in Charlotte, but I moved to Boone in January for my husband’s job and am now going to school full-time to get my master’s degree. Although I really miss being in the classroom, I’m enjoying this opportunity to focus on increasing my knowledge of how children learn and how to best teach them.

As far back as I can remember I have loved reading. I often got in trouble in school for sneaking a book under my desk while I was supposed to be working on math or science! I read anything I could get my hands on… magazines, picture books, chapter books, even cereal boxes. For me, reading was a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Thankfully, this love of reading has continued into my adult life. As for writing, I did have a fondness for writing my own fantasy stories when I was in elementary school, but that fondness faded as I entered middle and high school. I’m sorry to say that I still do not enjoy writing. My theory is that I lost my love of writing because I became aware of all of the rules and expectations associated with it. Reading, however, can just be for pleasure and expects nothing more of me than to enjoy what the author has presented.

I entered the Reading Education program, because I believe that reading is the foundation of learning. Without the ability to read, students will struggle their entire educational career. Although I learned the basics of teaching reading and writing during my undergraduate career, I hope that through this program I will gain additional skills that will enable me to help those students who need it most. I would love to become a reading teacher in an elementary school if the opportunity was available. I started my teaching career at a Title One school with an 85% Hispanic population. After 2 years, I was moved to a middle-class school with a largely white population. These schools presented me with very different challenges in the literacy area, and I sometimes found it difficult to make sure all of my students succeeded to the best of their abilities. I’m hoping that this class that focuses on race and class will help me to gain skills in leveling the literacy field for all students regardless of their background.

Looking forward to getting started,
Andrea Schlobohm

Hello. My name is Leslie Rothenberger and I currently teach fourth grade in Catawba County. I spent the first 15 years of my career teaching kindergarten and the last two in fourth grade. I am married and have one daughter.

My mother taught reading and she instilled in me a love of books from infancy. As a small child I knew that bedtime was synonymous with story time. Mom and I would sit in the old green rocker and she would read me a bible story and nursery rhymes. As I began to fall asleep, she would usually end with “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” by Eugene Field. As I grew older and memorized the stories, I began to read them to mom. After this came Little Golden Books, Dr. Seuss and Archie comic books. How the Grinch Stole Christmas was one of my all-time favorites. Even when I came home from college, Mom and the Grinch were waiting.

When I was in first grade the reading instruction I received was centered around Dick, Jane, and Sally. We also had a reading center with bean bag chairs and that was where I spent most of my free time. I loved to sit there and read! As I became a proficient, independent reader, I discovered my favorite genre – mysteries. My new best friends were Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. They filled my book cases and occasionally a Hardy Boy would join them! This is still my favorite genre today.

As a teacher, I want to instill this same love of books and reading in my students. I love teaching reading and it always breaks my heart to see a child struggling with learning to read. What is it that makes it so easy for some students and seemingly impossible for others? The desire to reach these struggling readers led me to the graduate program at ASU. I believe that I am a better teacher of reading and that the knowledge I have gained in this program will help me reach more and more of those struggling readers. I am better able to diagnose reading difficulties and differentiate my instruction to address specific problems.

Having taught both kindergarten and fourth grade, I feel that it is easier to motivate kindergarten students to read and write. By the time they reach fourth grade, some of them have become so discouraged that it is extremely difficult to motivate and engage them in reading and writing activities. Grades and standardized testing have taken away their self-confidence and have made them afraid and unwilling to read or write.

I hope that I will be able to use the best practices that I have learned in my graduate studies to reverse these negative attitudes and feelings about reading. I believe that reading aloud is one effective strategy that can be used to help me reach this goal. I just finished reading The BFG to my students and even my most reluctant readers were enthralled. They looked forward to that time each day and begged for more.

Now that I am the mom, I hope that I have instilled this same love of reading in my daughter. Bedtime is still synonymous with story time, but Kinsey does all the reading now!

Leslie Rothenberger

My name is Kara Scott, and I am currently a second grade teacher at Wiley Elementary School in Greensboro, NC. I have taught there for 6 year and 4 of the years in second grade. At the end of this school year I am moving to another school in Guilford Country to teach first grade. I am engaged to a wonderful man named Nathan and we are currently planning our beach wedding.

As a child I loved children’s books. Some of my best memories are with my mother as she would read nighttime stories to me before I would drift off to sleep. Over time I would read along with my mother some of our favorite nighttime stories. The love for reading I had as a young child and the love I have today as an adult didn’t foster from the reading experience I had as a child in school. Reading did not come natural to me and was a difficult task. It was hard to sit in the classroom and see the differences between yourself and other students. My parents did all could to provide me with extra support to learn how to read. Over the years I became a successful reader, but it was my early struggles that made reading my passion as a teacher.

Today as a teacher I see myself in many children, sitting in the class as a struggling reader looking at their classmate complete the effortless reading task. I teach in a low performing school centered in middle of a public housing development. The students come with all different experiences and reading abilities, their parents unlike my own often don’t have the resources to support their child in their educational journeys. I am truly looking forward to taking this class to learn new strategies to use with children who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Kara Scott

Reading is thinking...that's what my third graders hear every day when we practice reading skills and enjoy read alouds together. After working for the airlines for several years, I earned my degree and license from Salem College. I am just finishing my sixth year of teaching and consider my teaching career a working progress. I started the ASU Reading program last fall and am taking the slow route to make sure I don't become overwhelmed. I have enjoyed the classes, meeting professionals from other schools and counties, while gaining new ideas for reading and writing that have been shared in our classes.

I have always enjoyed reading, probably because it was very easy for me. I was a shy little girl in a busy family and spent a lot of my time reading favorites like Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume in elementary school. I loved reading to my own kids when they were little and even after they learned to read on their own. It was after I spent time at my own kids' school that I realized I wanted to be in the classroom everyday. I enjoy watching students internalize reading skills and build confidence as they grow.

I think reading is the most important foundation of our students' education and I want every student in my classroom to feel personal success when it comes to reading and writing. I am confident that the ASU reading program will give me the skills to help them achieve that goal.

I look forward to this literacy class although I'm a little nervous as I have never taken an online class.....

Michelle Carlson

Hi, my name is Stacy Durham. I have taught first grade in Davidson County for five years. It is such a joy to teach students who are eager and willing to learn. The students are a large part of my motivation to continue learning. The master’s program is benefiting not only me, but also my students.

I have always had a love of reading. Some of my fondest childhood memories consist of listening to my parents read bedtime stories. I could not wait to hear the stories and I was always aware if they skipped a page. As I grew older, I enjoyed reading all the time and even to my little brother. It was one of the only times that I recall him sitting still! As a child, I also loved to write poetry. I would write a poem and place it inside a family member’s birthday card every year. Looking back at those poems, it is interesting to see that I used familiar language from some of my favorite books. This shows me that reading plays a role in the writing process, whether you are aware of it or not.

My favorite part of reading as a child was finding new vocabulary words. I remember getting so excited when I read a new word and understood it’s meaning through the context. The book, Serendipity was difficult for me to understand. First, I remember getting help with the correct pronunciation. I practiced saying it over and over until I could say it correctly. Whenever I was uncertain of a word’s meaning, I would run with my book straight to my dad and ask. He would turn my simple question into a history lesson every time, full of facts and analogies. I learned a lot from these talks but I remember tuning him out after a while. This was only because I was so eager to get back to my book!

Reading aloud to my students is a cherished time of day. Every time I begin a read aloud, I am aware that for many, this is the only time they will be read to today. This gives me the motivation (even on a rough day) to put all I’ve got into my read aloud. I want students to see the magic in reading, to feel that they can escape to another time and place for a brief period of time. I really try to play up my excitement about reading and want my students to see that it can be a fun and rewarding experience. It makes me so happy for my students to see them reading on their own and sharing pieces of the story with their classmates. Observing a student truly enjoying and understanding a book is a wonderful sight to see!

Stacy Durham

Hi, my name is Kim Strzelecki. I graduated from a school in upstate New York and moved to North Carolina in 2009 and have not yet found a permanent position, so I have been subbing in the Forsyth County Schools for the past two years. I started the Reading Education MA program this spring and so far I am really enjoying it.

I completed one of my student teaching placements in a reading clinic in New York that served children in grades Kindergarten through third grade because I didn’t think I had taken nearly enough classes dealing with how to teach reading. I wanted to know why it came so naturally for some people, like myself, and not for others. It was a challenge but I was definitely glad that I did it because I was able to work with students with learning disabilities, phonological processing deficits, as well as kids who just had a slow start to learning how to read or other exogenous factors that were affecting their academic achievement. I was able to learn and put into practice exactly how to help these kids be successful with reading.

I applied for the special placement in the reading clinic because reading just came naturally to me as a kid. My mom informs me that I was never without a book as a child, and the same is true today; I still carry one around in my purse that I’m currently reading just in case I have to wait around somewhere and I’ll have a chance to read a few pages. Chances are, that book in my purse is going to be by Stephen King. He has been my favorite author since I read The Shining in 6th grade. I’ve slowly been buying every book of his since then, and I now have a book shelf full of 62 of his books!

Throughout college, I was a nanny to two children who are now 5 and 6 years old. I started working for the family a month after the oldest was born and it was while taking care of these kids that I realized I made the right decision to become a teacher. I loved teaching them new things, taking them places and of course, reading to them! I watched them develop a love for books and I hope I played a little part in that. To this day, every year I send them two books for their birthdays :-)

That is what I hope to instill in my future students-a love for reading. This is not only because it will help them be successful in school and later on in life, which is true, but also because as an avid reader, I know how amazing the world of books can be and it is my job to help those students who may be struggling realize this, because everyone deserves that knowledge!

Kim Strzelecki

My name is Karen Massey-Cerda. I am originally from the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom where I taught kindergarten and first grade for five years. I came to North Carolina in 2001 on a two-year teaching exchange. This is my tenth year teaching in Catawba County Schools. I am currently teaching my second year in third grade at Lyle Creek Elementary School.

I have always loved to read and did not have any of the difficulties that I see my students facing daily with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.

My earliest memories are of my parents patiently rereading books that I requested over and over again. Anything that had a rhyming text, such as the Dr. Seuss books, and the Mother Goose Treasury of Rhymes were particular favorites. My brother and I enjoyed performing ‘plays’ about well-loved books and favorite jingles from adverts on television. My Dad would also record us reading aloud nonsense rhymes and limericks that he made up for us and that we had memorized and giggled our way through!

My love of reading continued throughout my teenage years and on to university. At university I was fortunate to have resident children’s authors for my children’s literature professors. They would have us all sit on the carpet and listen to stories, which we thought was brilliant! I fell in love with children’s literature all over again, revisiting childhood favorites and discovering new texts from which I could plan engaging classroom units.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for poetry was dampened by endless dissection of stanzas during my English classes with professors. I put poetry to one side for quite a while until I began my student teaching. It was great to read poetry aloud again simply for enjoyment.

I have always kept a diary up until a few years ago; before assignments and life got in the way! Writing down my thoughts has always given me a sense of calm amongst the chaos and challenges that life brings.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the writing process in kindergarten. Seeing the transformation from scribbles, to letters, to sentences was amazing to see. I felt that I did a fairly good job with writing in kindergarten because amongst other things I had time in the day devoted to writing. In third grade this time has been drastically reduced and students are less inclined to write anyway, for fear of mistakes. Unfortunately, my theory of writing was based very much on a linear approach for the third grade curriculum. The model I have explored in our graduate program is altering my approach. I am trying to model a writing process where editing and revising is taking place throughout and not just at the end. These writing theories have also made me aware of how much more time writers need to allocate to the planning stage of writing. Recently I have been working on a writing project as part of our writer’s workshop. It has been very successful especially for my most reluctant writers. However that has been my focus for over a month. I feel that if I do not take the plunge and do projects like this I just skim the surface and do not do enough of my language arts instruction well.

Teaching reading remains the most rewarding and challenging part of my job. Whilst the focus in third grade is reading to learn, I am still very much the teacher who is helping students learn to read with reading levels ranging from first to sixth grade. Working on an MA in Reading Education is such a valuable experience. It is making a huge difference to how I strive to reach those children that we all want to ensure do not fall through the cracks during their school life.

I am looking forward to getting lost in some great books this summer because by then I will have completed my graduate degree!

Karen Massey-Cerda

My name is Ruth Ann Timmons. I graduated from UNC-Wilmington in December of 2000. This is my tenth year teaching kindergarten in Forsyth County. Since beginning the master’s program this past fall, I have not only learned a great deal but have excitedly put that new knowledge to work in my classroom.

As a child I remember my mom always had a book in her hand. She was my first example of the passion a reader can have for books. I loved being read to and was amazed that she could sit for hours engrossed in the pages that looked like hieroglyphics to me. I remember watching “The Letter People” in kindergarten and round robin reading in groups during first grade. I struggled as a beginning reader and not until around fifth grade when my grandmother gave me “The Baby-sitters Club” series did I find myself looking to books/reading for enjoyment. Writing was also a struggle for me in the classroom but something I enjoyed doing in my free time. I kept a journal throughout high school and used poetry as a way of working through the loss of several family members.

I don’t think I ever really loved reading until I began teaching. It is powerful to see the effect my excitement about a book or for an author can have on my students. Watching them discover the joy of reading is magical and has to be one of my favorite things about teaching kindergarten! It is also rewarding to work closely with parents, helping them understanding the vital steps and essential at-home practice needed to develop into a successful reader/writer.

Although this is my first online class, I am excited about the challenge and opportunity to learn with and from others through this medium.

Ruth Ann Timmons

Hi. My name is Holly Lawson, and I am a fourth grade teacher in Rutherford County. I graduated from UNC-Charlotte in 2000 and have been teaching eleven years. I have a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year old son. Last May, I enrolled in the Reading Education MA program in hopes of becoming better equipped in the teaching of reading. Interestingly, my first true love is math, but I am so glad that I decided to pursue a master’s degree in reading.

My earliest memories of reading involved my mother reading fairy tales and nursery rhymes to me each day at naptime. Of course, like most small children, I had my favorites that I requested over and over- “Rapunzel” and “Hansel and Gretel”. Although my mom fostered a love of reading early on, I did experience a period in which reading became more of a chore than a pleasure. In elementary school, we frequently were required to give oral book reports. While these required reports did increase my exposure to text and improved my reading ability, they did not foster a love of reading. Thankfully, this love of reading returned to me as an adult, and I now read for both pleasure and information.

Throughout my career, I have learned a lot about reading. First of all, I believe it is much more difficult to teach reading than math. Reading instruction truly is an art. There are so many components which work together to create a strong reader. While vocabulary and background knowledge are crucial, fluency plays a major role, too. Because of this program, I learned strategies which I was able to incorporate into my low flex reading group at school this year. I have been able to better assess students’ reading ability and plan small group instruction geared toward their needs. I cannot wait to learn more this semester. There are so many factors to consider in reading instruction, and it is sometimes difficult for us to understand why students are experiencing difficulty in an area which most likely came easy for us.

With regards to writing, I feel that it is just as important as reading. I am thankful that writing assessment for fourth grade now extends beyond the narrative writing test. Since writing across the curriculum is so important, I require my students to write reflectively. Each day they use their journals to write about what they learn in class as well as how they behave throughout the day. For me, reflection journals are not only a means for assessing student learning, but they also give students an opportunity to share other information with me. It is so important that students have a chance to be heard.

Again, I look forward to this class and am excited about the opportunity to learn from and share with everyone.

Holly Lawson

Hi, my name is Carol Holt and I currently work as a Title One Reading teacher for Kindergarten through 5th grade. It’s surprising that I became a reading teacher when I think of my early experiences with reading in school. I do have fond memories of thumbing through Dr. Seuss books at home and occasionally visiting the library downtown. But I don’t remember particularly enjoying reading in elementary school (1st-8th) or high school (9th-12th). As a result, I didn’t do a lot of reading on my own!

In elementary school we always sat in rows of desks and took turns reading aloud. Because I was so nervous about reading aloud in front of the whole class, I would always count the students and the paragraphs and pre-read my paragraph. Then I would continue to take a head count and recount the paragraphs. Needless to say, I would never fully comprehend what we were reading, much less enjoy the story. In high school we sat in rows alphabetically and I just never got into reading.

I did enjoy writing, though. I remember writing lots of stories just for fun and creating little books. I would take the stories when we visited my grandmother and read them to her. She always smiled and told me what a good writer I was. We were able to get a pen pal through school and my pen pal was from Japan. I enjoyed writing to him and sending him little gifts from the United States. It was always exciting to receive his letters and gifts.

It was not until I started a family of my own that I realized I had a passion for children’s literature. I have spent a small fortune on children’s books. I used to sit on the floor in the middle of the aisles at the bookstore and flip through picture book after picture book. I have a BA in Art, so the illustrations would grab my attention just as much as the story. My children and I would read books together any time of day, but we especially enjoyed reading at bedtime after piling into bed and snuggling up with a good book or two.

After graduating from UNC-Wilmington with a degree in Art, I worked in UNC-W’s Printing Services Department as a lithographer. One benefit for employees included being able to take a class a semester for free, so I began taking courses in education. It was a long range goal, but eventually I was certified to teach Elementary Education K-6. Literature for Children was my favorite class! While I was a stay-at-home mom I worked as a reading tutor. Once both of my children entered elementary school, that tutoring position became a full time Title One Reading position. I received my Reading K-12 license from ASU.

I love my job! I get to work with small groups of children who struggle in reading, and I try my best to make it the most enjoyable part of their day. The ASU graduate program has been instrumental in helping me help these students. I have learned so much about reading assessment and how to meet the needs of my students. I understand the importance of creating a friendly, safe environment, and the value of choice in reading. How do I feel about reading now? I think reading is wonderful! I believe reading is the cornerstone of all learning. I thoroughly enjoy children’s literature, and maybe after grad school I’ll check out some good literature for adults. By the way, this is my last class! : )

Carol Holt

I am Candace Kee but prefer to be called Candy. I am originally from Randolph County and received my bachelor's degree in K-6 through Appalachian State University. After my first year of teaching grade 2 in Randleman NC, I had an offer to work for Burlington Industries in management. After 13 years with them and a transfer to the Shelby area, I met my husband and renewed my teaching certification. I was offered a job in a Title 1 school and although I have always loved reading I fell in love with this program and the students that I served. The fact that they struggled so in reading broke my heart and I realized that I needed to know more in order to help them learn and succeed. I started UNC-Charlotte in the Reading Master's program and completed everything but the capstone. A health issue took me away but I did receive a K-12 reading certification. After 13 years in Title 1, I received my certification in Exceptional children. At that time I transfered to the highschool in this program and again had an opportunity to work with the same children that were in my Title 1 program years before. I stayed there 3 years. My students still struggled. I realized then that I needed more training. Appalachian State University's master program has offeered the much needed training for me to be able to continue my journey to improve literacy in the lives of our students. Currently I am the coordinator of Cleveland County School's recently opened Parent Literacy Center where we serve parents and Cleveland County School students. Candy Kee

My name is Karen Gold and I have not always loved to read. I don’t really remember learning to read as a student nor do I remember reading specific books in school. The first books I remember reading were The Left Behind Series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. This is quite an ironic situation considering I am a Title I Reading Teacher. Once I became employed as an educator (in elementary school), my love for books began. Now I can’t wait to get the next great children’s book to read myself and then encourage my students to read them too. My three children, despite my lack of modeling reading at home are avid readers. While I did not read my own books as they read theirs, I did read a lot of bedtime stories over and over and over. I did not realize the tremendous importance of reading with children early and often until much later after my children had grown. Now I have the opportunity to help educate parents and students about the importance of reading but that the experiences gained from reading are limitless.
Karen S. Gold