Mrs. Peele
I remember it like it was yesterday. Sitting in Mrs. Peele’s English class was one of the best high school experiences ever. She was my mother’s English teacher, so I just knew this would be a breeze for me. I was always excited sitting class with the students who carried a book with them wherever they walked. This was all until I realized, I really hate reading! Not hate too much, but enough to have never, ever voluntarily read an entire book from cover to cover. But, anything for Mrs. Peele.
She assigned us to read A Child Called It; and ofcourse, plenty of chapter or section questions came along with it. Dreading the day I’d have to read a book, on my own, at home, after basketball practice and before dinner. So, like the good student I am, I grabbed the book and took it home. I remember laying on my bed, just about to skim through a couple of pages to answer the questions, when I read some words that caught my attention.
Here I am laying on the bed, comforter wrapped around me, crying and reading a book about a kid who was tortured everyday by his alcoholic mother. She allowed her son to sleep in the basement, with scraps to eat for dinner and old clothes to wear to school. “It” caught my attention. I was finished with the entire book before 2 days later.
I will never forget the way this book made me feel; and for that reason alone, this was my favorite book. This moment, as sad as it was at times, opened my eyes to reading an actual book, cover to cover. It grasped my attention so quick that I couldn’t let it go.
The reason I was able to finish so quickly is because it was something I was interested in, not because it was a grade. I read it because it caught my attention and kept it. This is what I have to do as a teacher of math, and literacy. In math, I have to relate the skills they need to learn to something that interests them. If I want to excel them in literacy, I have to give them something that will get, and keep their attention.
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