Hello all, my name is Tracy Icenhour. I have been married to my best friend for 23 years now and we have three sons, Justin (21), Jake (18), and Joshua (14). I have been teaching for 3 years now. I was a stay at home mom until all my sons were in school, then I felt it was finally my turn to follow my own dreams. I had always wanted to teach so began the journey and here I am! I have been at Whitnel Elementary since I graduated from Lenoir Rhyne College in 2007. I taught 5th grade for two years and have been in the 3rd grade this year. WOW! That has been an adjustment!
It has been a real struggle for me this year to break through to my students and help them see how important reading is to them and how it will continue to be all throughout their lives. I want reading to be so much more than what they have to do. I want them to love it, like I do.
All my life books have been a way of escape for me. As a child I found that I could go places just by picking up my book and be anyone I wanted to! This is what I long for when I think of my students and their literacy.
I was not read to as a child; I cannot honestly remember one occasion of being read to other than by teachers in school. I, on the other hand began reading to my sons immediately and they now enjoy reading themselves.
My goal is to learn about literacy as a whole and to be better equipped to teach my students to be life long readers and learners.
Comments (2)
Tracy…I too, have the same struggle getting across to my students the importance of reading and literacy, but when the light bulb goes off in their heads it is truly an extraordinary feeling. I commend you for finding the importance of books and reading to your children. It is such a pleasure to be read to, even at my age. Listening to students read to me, brings to me just as much pleasure and excitement as when I was read to as a child. Hopefully you have instilled in your children the reason to read and they too will read to their children when they are older. Good Luck!
Posted by Meredith Bromley | June 2, 2010 8:57 AM
Posted on June 2, 2010 08:57
Tracy,
I completely understand what it is like to move grades. I taught kindergarten for one year and then moved to 3rd grade only to return to first grade. I currently teach second and have asked to move to kindergarten next year since we will have two positions.
When I taught at Sweetwater the students were similar to the children that you have at your school. I also struggled to get my students to understand the importance of reading. They loved when someone would read to them but asking them to read was taking away from their "play" time. Now that I teach at Snow Creek, I feel like I am in a different world. I don't have to beg my students to read anymore...I have to ask them to put their books away so that I can teach other areas of content. What a change!
Posted by Erin Whisnant | June 4, 2010 6:15 PM
Posted on June 4, 2010 18:15