Location: San Antonio, Texas
Years of Teaching: 24
If you had to describe yourself as an educator, what six words would you use and why?
Responsive, creative, engaging, inspiring, challenging, and welcoming.
After my first year teaching, I quickly discovered that most adults and students enter my life and classroom, with libraries full of negative schema when it comes to English; the vast majority “hate English.” This is the line in the sand for me. I strive to be the most non-English, English teacher you can imagine. Wearing costumes on normal days of the week to make a student smile; asking probing questions in purple pen rather than slaying a student’s composition in red and grading their confusion instead of a revision; throwing a birthday party for an 11th grader who has never had one; integrating themes related to humanity. We are all human. Humans thrive on challenge.
What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?
Reading Apprenticeship called to me because it bridged the ever widening gap between pedagogy and content delivery with practical examples spanning from elementary school to college with relevant examples highlighting student and teacher voices. The Reading Apprenticeship framework is the answer– at the heart of it all is the student engaging in the metacognitive conversations. This is what is missing today! The teacher is doing the talking, not the student. It is through the teacher shifting the student to the center of the classroom. In the Reading Apprenticeship classroom, students engage in frequent extensive readings where the dimensions of the framework come alive.
What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?
The most powerful, under utilized Reading Apprenticeship routine is the Personal Reading History.
Can you share a story about a time when you or a student had an “aha!” moment with Reading Apprenticeship?
Sitting in the hallway conferring with a student, I realized the power of the Personal Reading History. It was in that moment that this routine transformed from a beginning of the year activity to a pivotal assessment for me to set goals, get to know my students, and use throughout the year. Also, it helped me personalize the learning experiences and differentiate learning for my scholars for the rest of the year.
If you could describe Reading Apprenticeship in a sentence, what would you say?
Reading Apprenticeship is not another thing that teachers do, it is the thing that you use to do everything else.
What are you reading right now?
Currently, I am reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.
