Chapter 1 and 2:


As I was reading through the first two chapters, I found myself entertained. It was a very easy and simple reading about reading. In the first chapter, the second story about the students not reading the textbook was very familiar. As a student I have never been great on keeping up with the reading for my classes. Some nights it would take me over an hour to read one page because I cannot stay forced. The second chapter helped me to understand why it always seemed hard to read the textbooks. The problem is the reading of the textbook is a comfort zone and familiar to almost everyone. Which means even with the knowledge of what they went through as a student; many teachers still assign reading after reading from the textbook.

Another aspect of the reading that stuck out to me was the tools for reading that I unconsciously do while reading. Different techniques to understand what is in front of me. In the case of the Columbus reading it was not as difficult as the cricket because even without the background something clicked in my head. The cricket passage that we read first was almost impossible to understand the first time. These chapters reminded me that as a teacher I must not forget what it is like to be a student.

Literacy Profile

Literacy Profile

 

            There are many thing in this world that I would consider myself literate in and to just pick one is extremely hard. Over my twenty-five years of life I have learned and practiced many things. The one thing that I have always been good at is school and that would be really easy to write about. However, there is one thing that I have become more and more literate with over the past few years. When I was younger baking was my escape, it was a way to get out the stress that I was feeling. Recently, I have been baking for different reasons and in a very different way. In the past, I would take a box of cake mix, add water and eggs then place it in the oven. Now I bake from scratch, with recipes that I have changed to fit the taste of the people who consume the junk food.

            The change from box to scratch and from stress relief to fun, occurred because of my older sister. My sister and I have always been close growing up and she is my best friend. We both came across a hard time when she was fired from her job for no real reason at all and I walked out of that same job. There is one thing in my life people cannot mess with and that is my family. I stood behind my sister the day I walked out of work and never looked back. It only took a few weeks for us to realize that without work we were going crazy. That is when we came up with the idea to start baking more and from scratch in order to work toward opening a bakery.

            The first step was to find recipes that tasted great so we had a bake off contest. That was the day that we knew we made a great team and would continue to bake together no matter what. After finding the right recipes we opened a booth at the local flea market to see if we could sell what we baked. It was a great experience and we did do very well but life took over. My sister got a new job and her time was cut in half for the baking. Then I got a job a month later and plans for a bakery have come to a halt. However, we have not stopped baking and I do not think we ever will.

            All this happened with in the last two years and we are still baking almost every weekend. The best part of the experience is learning a new recipe and our taste testers really enjoying it. I am now literate in how to bake cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and many other sweets. Over the last year I have even learned techniques on how to decorate cakes. The best part is that my sister has taught me a lot of what I know now. We make an amazing team and it is that time with her that I enjoy the most. No matter where life takes me, I will continue to bake with my sister. Even the days that everything goes wrong in the kitchen we make it through because we bring out the best in each other.

            As the years goes by, I will continue to bake and learn more with her by my side. Baking will help me to be a better teacher because when I started I knew very little and now I feel very confident with my skills. This experience makes it easier to keep in mind that my students may not know everything but they do know how to learn if I know how to teach them. Another aspect of working with my sister is that I have always done better at school than she did. I was in the same math class in eight grade that she was taking as a junior in high school. This experience has taught me that I do not know everything and can learn something from anyone. I may have been smarter than my sister when it came to school but she will always have something new to teach me when it comes to baking. That translates into I am not going to know everything that my students know and I must be open to learning from them as they are learning from me.