Affective Dimensions of Reading

I love to read. I have always loved to read. Nobody ever encouraged me to read, I was just born with an inborn fondness for books. When I was little I wanted to read so badly I would try to read to my little brother, even with the book upside down. In elementary school, I was the nerd who stayed in from recess to read in the library. I didn't care what people thought of me. I loved to read, I didn't care what people thought of it. My mom would get sick of me hiding in my room to read, so she would take my book and hide it. I would just go find it and then read in the living room with the family (I can multitask like that).

I also had an eighth grade teacher ask me to not read ahead in the book because she wanted me to follow along with the rest of class. She knew that once I got my hands on a book, I'd read it in two days. I didn't listen to her of course and read ahead anyway. I can't help myself!

I may have always loved to read, but I hated English in high school. The only books I was forced to read, and actually ended up liking, was Les Miserables and Hamlet. Everything else was painful for me. I hated being told what to read and then have to write a paper on what I thought about it. My papers always ended up being riddled with sarcasm and they always got a middle grade only because my English teacher took pity on me.

The worst book I ever had to read is a tie between The Great Gatsby (boo me now, I know, but I thought it was super dumb) and Great Expectations. Whenever I think back on the worst class periods in high school, I instantly think of freshman English and reading Great Expectations. It was so bad... I still shudder thinking about it.

Here's a list of all my favorite books and/or series:

• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (Series)
• Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (Series)
• Hollow Kingdom by Clare Dunkle (Series)
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Witch Song by Amber Argyle
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 
• Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W.B. Yeats
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare

 I'm sure with the genre I mostly like to read, people would expect me love The Lord of the Rings series, but I don't. The books are too slow. I like the Lord of Rings movies, but mostly because it's hilarious to watch with my husband watch them. He is a complete Lord of the Rings nerd.

I would consider myself a good reader, I can read fast and comprehend what I'm reading. My husband won't read an article with me, unless I read it out loud, because he can't keep up.

In my classroom, I really hope that I can get kids to like reading about agriculture. You wouldn't think that there would be a lot of reading to do in an agriculture class. But, we do research papers and speeches. I really have to get my students excited to read and want to research things they're interested in. I think positive reinforcement will help get them excited, but I'm open to any suggestions!

Connecting School and Home Experiences

I chose this subject because it is one of the main reasons I want to be an ag. teacher. My discipline is everywhere and does everything. I can think of countless experiences I've had with agriculture.
 Take today for example: this morning I had breakfast, I dried apples and then put them in a plastic baggie. I put on my makeup and I dressed for class. I came home and did homework using my books and (hopefully soon) I'll go to bed on my cotton sheets. There's not one thing in that list that didn't have to do with agriculture. Even the plastic baggie (plastic has animal by-products in it).

Reflection

1) These experiences have shaped my thoughts on my discipline in many ways. The most powerful way was deciding to become a teacher. I want to teach kids where all their everyday things come from. There are a lot of children who think their milk comes from the store, not a cow. I also want kids to know that agriculture is more than just plows, cows, and sows. It's more than just being a farmer. There's research, extension, food science, dietetics, veterinary science, medicine, I could go on forever. I want to gets excited about agriculture and not necessarily become a part of it, but understand it.

2) Drawing from student's backgrounds with be quite do-able (most of the time). For example. I could ask the students to come up with a list of things they think aren't agriculture. Then, as a class, we'll do a check list to show that the majority of the things they listed are in fact related to agriculture.

I love it when other teachers bring agriculture into their classrooms (I like to bring other subjects into my teaching too). Ag in the Classroom is an amazing program that helps teachers to be successful at bringing in agriculture. For instance, they have cotton bolls they sell (for dirt cheap) to eighth grade social studies teachers to use when they're teaching about the importance of the invention of the cotton gin. For more information click here.