What truly excites me...

It's that time of year when the book fair rolls through again to supply students with those fun reads for the summer and I have to say that it is probably one of my favorite weeks of school. I truly enjoy browsing the carts and tables on a daily basis just in case I missed something the day before. I love looking at all the books I would own if I didn't have to pay rent. I love looking at books that I know my class loves, but I would never buy for my classroom (come on--Naruto? Hannah Montana? What educational purpose does she serve? She only distracts my kids from doing their math work.) I also enjoy looking for books for my soon-to-be baby nephew, younger cousins, and even my parents. Books are great for all ages and while I hated reading as a child, I have come to love it more than eating ice cream. I still enjoy my ice cream every once in a while, but reading is now something I get to do on a daily basis...and this time, I get to pick the books.

When I was a kid, we used a reading program called Accelerated Reader. It basically determined your reading grade based on how many books you read, how many points the book was worth, but overall, how many points you earned on the test for that book. I didn't enjoy reading the books my teachers wanted me to. I loved R.L. Stein's Fear Street series and according to my teachers, "These are no where close to your reading level. You need to find something more appropriate." I don't want to! I can read these faster than those other books because I truly enjoy what I'm reading. I don't think I won that disagreement with my elementary school teachers, but I do remember reading those books until 8th grade (keep in mind my teachers claimed they were a 4th grade reading level). I just looked on Amazon in order to get a picture for this blog and saw some of the book titles. There is no way they are at a 4th grade level...they include cheating, college weekends, all night parties, secret admirers, etc. I guess when I look back, these books were no more ridiculous than Hannah Montana or High School Musical, but these definitely had more of a story line with a problem and solution. Too bad they aren't selling these at our book fair!

The joy of being a teacher and having a book fair come to your school is that the kids in your class are supposed to buy you books that you have requested. Unfortunately because I work at a school where there are more working class parents, teachers don't usually get many of the books they request. I however, still requested lots of books that I would love to have in my classroom in the hopes that I get get at least one of them bought for me. Even one book would make my day. If I don't get the books by the end of the week, I am willing to go buy many of them as long as I don't use my A/C for the rest of the month, I'll be able to afford them and possibly more. Oh, the joys of teaching...needing so many materials and not having the money to buy all of them...too bad this will be an ongoing problem for the next 30 years!