“Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters – the saints and the sinners, real or imagined – reading shows you how to be a better human being.”
~Donalyn Miller |
Childhood Reading
I grew up on a farm in rural Illinois with limited access to books. We had no public library in my community and the grade school library was only open once a week in the summer. There is no bookstore closer than half an hour's drive and even when we did go, I only had whatever money I could save up on my own to buy books with. I’d buy them and they were devoured within a day. My parents always thought of school as important, but they prioritized my housework over “doing nothing,” i.e. reading. I think these factors helped contribute to why I fight so ferociously for students to have access to books and information.
Champion of Book Access
I now live and teach in the same community I grew up in. Until recently, the access to books had not changed much. Students have the internet and can buy books online, but often lack the money to do so. As a high school English teacher, I continuously applied for grants to grow our classroom library. When I started teaching 18 years ago, there were about 100 books in my classroom library and no one really read them because the curriculum was purely required books. Before I moved to library, we had over 2,000 books and the curriculum was almost entirely self-selected reading. My students grew right along with that library. They grew as readers and thinkers. They learned to see from others’ points of view and to listen to each other. This is my goal as a teacher and a librarian-- the growth of my students as people through literacy.
Through grants, I was able to start Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in my school district. That means that through my grant writing and my Future Educators Club's fundraising, we will provide a book each month to every child in our district under the age of 5. This service is free of charge to every child in our district. Through my work with United Way of Logan County, we have now expanded this program to all of Logan County. Teaching
This is my sixth year serving as the k-12 district librarian at Hartsburg-Emden CUSD #21. I create and implement curriculum and extension activities for kids ECE-12.
I worked as a high school English teacher at Hartsburg-Emden High School for 13 years. I have used the workshop model for over a decade. I love to talk to students about books and reading. My students know that my classroom and library are safe places to be and that I care about them, their lives, and their futures. I am currently the Chair of Readers' Choice Awards for the state of IL and have presented at state and national conventions. For more information, please see the resume tab. |