Our End of the Year Reading Celebration!

Ohio was very luck to have Debbie Miller here for a workshop that The Literacy Connection has organized it a couple of months ago. In her latest book Teaching with Intention, Debbie reminds all of us to make sure that our educational practices in the room reflects our teaching beliefs. This book is so powerful and it should be not only read by every educator but also should be LIVED by. What I mean is the following...if an educator has a strong foundation in his or her philosophies and beliefs of teaching and learning, then the classroom should reflect that. Every practice we do, every instructional decision we make, every thing we ask our students to do has to come from a belief, a foundation. Otherwise, our teaching is totally disconnected and we're just asking our students to do random things that we don't understand WHY.

One of my personal beliefs in teaching and learning is that I believe the influence the family has in their child's education. Therefore, I see them as partners in education. We both want and are working toward the same common goal: a child's learning. We want them to be strong readers and writers so they can lead in the future. Regardless of whether the families can speak or read in English (since I work with ELLs), their role and influence is priceless. I CAN'T raise their child as readers by myself. They spend about 8 hours of the day at school, but they also spend the rest of their hours at home. Therefore, our duties should be combined and strengthened by working together.
I'm blessed beyond words. The ESL families are so dedicated into Education. Our attendance to parent-teacher conferences is 100%. They listened to their children read, they take them to the library, they are ACTIVE in their education and language has never been a barrier because we both BELIEVE in the same practices.
This slideshow was from our last event of the year A Family Reading Celebration where I invited our families to just come over and listen to their child read a story to THEM. The roles were reversed and now the children were providing the story time. It was an amazing afternoon. There was support, commitment, enjoy, and a common bond for reading. Each child took ownership of the evening by being in charge of reading their favorite books and poems. They thought carefully which books to share with their families for that night, and they were working intentionally on their fluency. This was a chance for them to show their families how far they've come. And they surely did. A strong of readers and writers were born this year at Beechwood Elementary. I hope you enjoy the slideshow. Enjoy the journey!

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