Wow! Happy New Year! I have decided that I’m going to do my best to make 2011 my best year yet, personally and professionally. I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions, but in the spirit of this New Year, I have decided to make some literacy resolutions. I will share these resolutions with you over the course of the next month.
Resolution #1 Read Every Day!
Recently, I read The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child
Donalyn several years ago when I found her blog, “The Book Whisperer.” I had been out of the classroom for a while, but I related to what she had to say as an educator. Almost two years ago, I began to tweet and have since found an amazing Personal Learning Network (PLN). See, you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the classroom out of the teacher, at least for me. I am an educator at heart. My PLN has revitalized my love for education and specifically for literacy. Donalyn (@donalynbooks) is part of my PLN and it just so happened that she published a book around the same time that I joined Twitter. So, of course I had to read it!
So, you might be wondering, what does all of this have to do with my resolution? Well, in her book Donalyn emphasized the importance of being a reading role model for our students, but really for all of the children in our lives. She says that her credibility with students “stems from the fact that I read every day of my life and that I talk about reading constantly.” I don’t currently have a classroom of students that I am a role model for, but I do have my own children. I did a quick mental inventory and realized that sometimes I talk the talk, but do I always walk the walk? In other words, I read to my children every day, I emphasize the importance of reading, but do I make a conscious effort to read for me every day? Not really. It made me realize that while my children may enjoy my reading to them, they also need to see me reading for me.
So, my first literacy resolution of the year is to make a conscious effort to take time to read for me every day. It may only be in fifteen minute increments, but that is ok, as long as I make the effort to read. Because I want to. Because it’s important for my children to see. Because I enjoy it!
Will you join me? What are some literacy resolutions you have made for this new year?
©2011 by Dawn Little for Literacy Toolbox. All Rights Reserved. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.
Literacy Toolbox 