I am really good at complaining about my job. But I have a lot of fun experiences along the way that make me keep wanting to come back for another round. And while right now I keep telling myself that I better be scoring points in heaven for working with freshmen, I generally like coming to work every day. My recent success is with one of my all time favorite books, Ender's Game. This is the
second year I have taught this novel, and while my students enjoyed the book last year, this year it is a runaway hit. I have bought out the local bookstores copies of one of the sequels twice (Ender's Shadow), and lent out my own personal copies of the sequels too. The biggest success in this whole experience is that of all the sequels I have leant out to students, only one has been a girl. The whole reason I chose to teach Ender's Game was to find a good guy book. It has far surpasssed my expectations. I am so excited that, even if they don't read and/or like another book we read this year, they have at least read (and actually read it, not just faked it) one book and like it.
What I love about teaching literature - any book I teach - is the reactions of the students: gasps, laughs, questions asked that show deep thinking (as deep as freshmen can get). Sometimes it's even just the dead silence when we finish a chapter that is particularly profound or intense. I love reading out loud to them so we can enjoy it together. I love when a student comes to me the weekend after I assigned a book and they have read the whole thing because they couldn't put it down. I love being part of a student experiencing a good book. Some English teachers feel grounded while teaching writing. I feel grounded when teaching a book. I love literature, and the key to finding EVERY person's passion for reading is just finding the right book for the person. What's yours?
4 comments:
I'm so happy that you have had such a great experience, and I'm CERTAIN that freshman teachers get lots of blessings in heaven (not that you need a whole lot of help from what I can tell though)
I only just read this book about a year ago and loved it also. I really wish I had read it in high school. What a great idea to introduce it to your students.
I love that you read out loud with your students. I LOVED it when my teachers did this. I was just thinking about that the other day, actually. I remember my teachers reading to me and it is one of the best memories of school.
I am going to put the sequel on my next to read list.
Maybe now that I will be closer we can talk more about the cool things that you do at work.
And yes, you should get a statue or a river named after you or something, for teaching freshman. Good job.
I love hearing about your job because of stuff like this!!
We read this at Ricks, right? That's where I remember it from, and that huge test that was all quotes! Ugh. I teach this book to my freshmen, too, and they love it. This will be my 3rd year teaching it, and just like you, it's always a huge success. It's a GREAT intro to science fiction, and the girls like it, too. Anything is better than teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--gag.
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