I love reading,
but that hasn’t always been the case.  I was a struggling reader. 
You could say I was in the “Black Bird” group.  I’m sure my reading group
wasn’t called that, but we knew.  We knew we couldn’t read like all the
other bird groups.  When they read it sounded like a song, we sounded like
chalk squeaking on the chalkboard.  (Yes, I’m that old! We had really
chalkboards, not just the cute kind we decorate with now.  The real dirty
ones that would make you sneeze.  We even had to clean the
erasers.) 

     


     
 Back to my reading topic, I hated reading and would never pick up a book
for enjoyment.  I thought you were either born a reader or not!  This
made learning hard, but I struggled through school and depended on my love for
math and science to survive.  It wasn’t until a friend suggested that I
read the Twilight series that I ever remember finishing a book.  I
know you either liked the series or you didn’t, but at that point in my life I
devoured it.  I finished the first book in about two weeks. The next
couple books in days.  After that series, I felt lost. But I was so
proud that I had finished a book, especially one that thick!  I had
discovered that you can connect to characters and be transported to a different
world through a book.  Another teacher friend was reading the Karen
Kingsbury Series.  At the time I didn’t know it was a 15 book series, but
I got hooked and read the entire series.  The characters became like
family members and their challenges my challenges.  Wow, reading took on a
whole new adventure in my life.  Reading even became a huge form of
enjoyment in my life!  Something that had given me so much embarrassment
as a child became a great passion of mine!  

   

     I had the reading bug! I loved
finding a good book to read. This became my “Teacher Game Changer”, I knew what
it was like to struggle as a reader and then I knew the power of a good book
and how it could change a nonreader into a passionate one! 

      So my goal as a teacher is to read as many children’s books a
possible so I can recommend “THE PERFECT BOOK” for my students.  I create
a classroom that promotes the love of reading.  Then once one student
catches the reading bug, they can help give it to the other students.  My students
start recommending books to their friends who have the same interests and in my
classroom reading becomes contagious.  This year during school I read
share my Google List with my students.  They can see what I’m reading and
what I rated the book.  Students love to read the ones I rate lower, so
they can disagree with my ratings.  Click here to see this year’s book list.
 

     During the summer months, I
will continue to edit this list of great reads.  Please share this blog
with parents who are struggling finding books their children books they will
like.