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Parents Married: Full Family Unit
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Kindergarten: Winnie the Pooh
My mom read this book aloud to me. -
2nd Grade: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Tried to follow along in the book when watching the movie. -
3rd Grade: Charlotte's Web by EB Wite
First full-length chapter book I remember reading as a class. -
4th Grade: Animorphs
My friends and I would pretend to be Animorphs at recess. -
5th Grade: Shel Silverstein Obsession
Checked out these books repeatedly from my elementary librarian: Mrs. Kuba. -
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Parents Get Divorce
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6th Grade: Discover Sci-Fi
Also as part of Dad's Summer Reading program, I read Ender's Game. This was my first space-based text. -
6th Grade: Discover Dystopias
As part of Dad's Summer Reading Program, I read Among the Hidden and realized books can be an escape from reality for the first time. -
6th Grade: Teacher Read Aloud
My 6th grade teacher read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets aloud to the class. This was the first time I realized teachers select texts to teach because they enjoy them. -
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Mom's Ex Fiance and Son Live With Us
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6th Grade: Wrote ABC Book About Freshwater Fish
Wrote my first "book" and read it to kindergartners who had my former teacher. -
7th Grade: Reading for Comfort: "It Could Be Worse..."
Read books like "A Child Called It" where the protagonist had a rougher life than mine. -
9th Grade: Discovered Shakespeare
A long-term sub taught a unit around Romeo & Juliet. This was the first "classic" text I remember reading as a kid and loving. This was the first full-length play that I read. -
10th Grade: Officially Fall in Love with Musicals
My high school put on this musical. After seeing it, I signed up for theatre tech work as an extracurricular activity. This provided me with more opportunities to interact with plays and musicals. -
10th Grade: Deepened Love of Memoirs
Read "Tuesdays with Morrie" as a whole class novel, solidifying my belief that in order for a text to be good, it must be felt in your heart and those emotions must be extreme. -
11th Grade: AP Composition
Took AP Composition. This teacher was critical of my writing to a degree that made me believe I was a bad writer. I was so insecure about my writing for years after this. -
First Year in Community College: College Writing
College Writing was a 5 credit hour class that combined Comp I and Comp II into one class. My professor, Heal, taught this course in a way that made me fall back in love with writing. More importantly, Heal, made me believe in myself as writer. I will never forget Heal's lecture titled "Semicolonoscopy." -
Second Year in Community College: Acting Class
Subtext, subtext, subtext. In taking this acting class, I learned so much about making inferences about a text. This class helped me uncover a literacy skill that is a strength of mine. -
First Year at my Undergrad University: Theatre for Children
This was the first class that made me think about how I can write scripts that are for students in my classes. -
Second Year at my Undergrad University: The Recess Queen
I got permission from the author and the publisher to adapt this picture book into a play that was performed at multiple local elementary schools in an assembly setting. I directed my university's traveling children's theatre troupe that year. -
Second Year at my Undergrad University: Oral Communication of Literature
Taken as an independent study, I had to orally perform written texts in multiple settings across my university. This course helped me realize the importance and meaning behind punctuation in written text. -
Third Year at my Undergrad University: Student Teaching & Read Aloud
In my 4th grade student teaching placement, I read "The Westing Game" aloud. I employed all of my theatre skills and fully committed to voices and the subtext. -
Audiobook Fanatic
Although it wasn't my first audiobook, the audiobook that made me fall in love with the medium was "Wlll Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan. -
Teaching Years: The Outsiders
The first whole class novel I taught was The Outsiders by SE Hinton. -
Teaching Years: The Giver
Shared my love of this genre with students. -
Author Signings
The first YA author I went to listen speak about his writing craft was Markus Zusak. Since then I've heard many other authors speak. This is one of my favorite hobbies. -
Teaching Years: Notice & Note
I started to read at least one professional development book every summer. This was the first of many. -
Teaching Years: Read Aloud with 6th Graders
Memories of reading this book aloud with my cohorts are treasured. The shared experience of this text did so much good for our class community. -
Audiobook: Comedian Memoirs
When moving to MA from IA, I listened to a lot of audiobooks on the drive. It was in this trip that I feel in love with comedian memoirs in audiobook form. -
Author Signing
I "fangirled" so much when meeting Jacqueline Woodson. She has famously stated that she writes because she has questions. If you look at the events in her life paired up with the books she wrote, you can infer the question that inspired her writing. -
Teaching Years: The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963
Teaching this text inspired me to go down many research rabbit holes about the civil rights movement. -
Restorative Justice Reading
This was the first text I read about restorative justice practices. This was also the first text I read on my journey towards becoming an antiracist educator. -
Reading Mindset
I used the close reading framing that this text outlines when creating my Bring Your Own Book (BYOBook) Unit that also followed the book club structure from "A Novel Approach." Many other teachers used my unit as a model and have designed their own BYOBook Units at my school. -
Teaching Years: Graphic Novels
Because I was teaching a unit on graphic novels, I developed a greater appreciation for the text type. -
SSU Children's Literature
Fell in love with this middle grade novel and simply cannot stop recommending it to others. -
Grammar Mindset
This text helped me develop strategies for teaching writing with an inquiry mindset. I also led PD with colleagues about these strategies.
