NERRRRRRD!
I am a nerd. Truly.
I’m not a nerd about everything. But I can definitely highlight some of my nerdy tendencies. I love fantasy and science fiction books. “That’s not that nerdy!” you say to yourself. Oh, but I have the action figures to go with some of them. The troll from the bathroom at Hogwarts with his club? Yep, I have that one. Fluffy, the three-headed dog? Yes sirree! Norbert the dragon? Yep, I have that one too. I have clearly earned my nerd badge.
So being part nerd, this teacher blog on waving your nerd flag caught my attention. And she makes a fabulous point. Teachers spend tons of time reading for instructional purposes. But students never see their teachers reading for fun, particularly if you teach younger children. When I was a student teacher for a fifth grade classroom, we would do silent sustained reading at the same time every afternoon and my lead teacher would whip out whatever novel she happened to be engrossed in. At the time, I didn’t think about the importance of that move. But now, I think she was brilliant.
It’s important that, a few times throughout the year, we hold up a book and say, “This is what I’m reading right now.” Then share the title and maybe a brief thought about how enjoyable the book is.
What a good example we’ll be setting to help create a crop of future readers.
What are you reading right now?
I am waiting on Robin Cook’s latest release, “Host,” to come out on Oct. 20. I am so excited!!!! I can’t get enough of his writing!
But, while I’m waiting, I’ve been reading the “My Weird School” series just for fun. I teach prekinder, but my nephew got the Dan Gutman collection, so I’m reading the books too. 🙂