Annabelle Taylor: Hi, Nice to Meet You :)
- Hello, everyone! My name is Annabelle Taylor and I am a junior this year. I am from Paradise, CA, so I am local to Northern California and have been my whole life. Eventually I hope to see myself moving to Southern California and teaching primary school there. Careers in education run in my family. My grandmother was an elementary school teacher, then my mom after her. My dad was a high school teacher before he moved to being a principal, and now he is the Director of Human Resources for the Paradise Unified School District. My brother is currently a high school math teacher, as well, and my older sister is in schooling to become an agriculture teacher. Clearly, I am not the only one in my family with a love for making a difference in young people’s lives. Something to know about me is that my family is the most important thing in my life for me. We are all very close and I am beyond grateful for that. I have an older brother, an older sister, and a younger sister, not to mention a really adorable puppy named Koda. I also love reading, but don’t get the chance to do it often, so I am really looking forward to having a class where it is the primary task.
- When I hear that someone is a “reader”, I think of them as being someone who makes reading a priority. They are the types of people to get lost in a book and enjoy making trips to the bookstore. I understand that all people can be readers and most all people read regularly, but that doesn’t mean they enjoy it necessarily or are willing to set time aside in the day for it. I used to read for joy a lot more than I do now. Mostly I read Instagram posts and Snapchat articles. I also spend a lot of time reading street signs or classroom boards, but I don’t always recognize that as reading. It is such a common daily routine that it can be easy to forget that we are always constantly reading. When I get the chance to, I still love being able to get lost in a good book. I don’t read the same outside of school as I do inside of school. When I read for pleasure, I don’t like to over-analyze a book. It makes me lose the joy of reading because it begins to feel more like a chore than something fun to do. That is why when I read outside of class I tend to pick books that don’t require a lot of analyzing to be able to appreciate and understand them. Inside class it’s a different story. Most the books I read for school are big textbooks with lots of fancy words that require a lot of extra time and re-reading, so they are very different from what I would normally choose. Whichever instance I am reading in, I am still reading. This is a big point Williams tried to make. We are all readers, we just might be different kinds. Another big take-away for me was how Williams mentioned that we should not base how good readers are on how fast they can read. Someone may be able to read incredibly fast, but not comprehend a thing of what they just read. Meanwhile, another student may take their time reading because they are analyzing and attempting to understand what they are reading. Both people would be considered readers, just different types, which should be recognized.
2 Replies to “Annabelle Taylor: Hi, Nice to Meet You :)”
I found your insights into reading really generative to think about. I’m struck particularly by your distinctions between reading that we don’t even name as reading and reading with intention. This distinction made me think about the times when I am reading or writing, but would call it something else…like, I’m planning the semester or I’m keeping in touch with my family. When do these tasks become a part of other goals? How can we as educators use reading and writing in ways that simply disappear or weave in other tasks? When a child says “I’m not a reader” can we point to all the ways that they are a reader to boost their reader identity. Is this like sneaking vegetables into cookies? Look forward to working with you this semester! And love that you have a whole family of educators to talk with!
Hi Annabelle! I come from a family of teachers as well! My dad is an eighth grade science teacher and my aunt is a third grade teacher. I am so excited to be a teacher. I really look forward to talking about teaching with my dad, with stories of my own classroom. I think teaching is one of the most noble professions, something to truly be really proud of. I was always so proud to say my dad was a teacher. I loved your idea of pointing out all the ways your student is a “reader” to them, to make them even more confident.