Monday, July 29, 2013

Cool Cat Teaches Reading Tips

Looking at the edu bloggers this week made me think about how I can continue my blog once I start teaching.  I found most of the blogs helpful in the sense that I get to read the experience of people who have already "been there".  As I begin my student teaching career I think I will find these sites helpful in forging my path as a beginning teacher.

One site I want to point out is Cool Cat Teacher Blog (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/).  I enjoyed reading this blog because there was a post titled "Reading Tips to Program Your Mind for Success".  This post talked about ways to sharpen your mind through reading and various ways to organize what you have read and what you plan to read.  I found this post refreshing because we have been talking a lot about ways we can develop our students as successful readers.  Similarly, this post focused on developing ourselves, as teachers, as better readers.  It is important to remember that we are in a profession of lifelong learning.  Sharpening our minds through reading will help us grow as better teachers, just as it will help our students grow.

This post also touched on the technology aspect of using a Kindle to read.  I have never been a fan of digital reading because I prefer the feeling of an actual book in my hand, but this post made me think about benefits to using a digital reader.  Cool Cat Teacher references the fact that she has read over 250 books on her Kindle.  First of all, the thought of reading that many books is mind boggling.  But second of all, this made me think about how much more practical it is to read this volume of books on an e-reader.  Being able to download a book from your house is a pretty crazy idea that I'm sure no one would have imagined even 20 years ago.  It's amazing how far we have come with technology in such a short period of time and I am happy to see it being used for academic purposes.

I anticipate this list of edu bloggers will be a helpful resource to all of us beginning teachers in the future!

1 comment:

  1. Rachel,
    I liked reading this post because it reminded me of many simply yet important lessons. I certainly think it is important to continually improve our thinking, reading, and writing skills as people, but certainly as teachers. As you say, "We are in the profession of life-long learning". Further, I can relate to your struggle between balancing treasured habits such as reading and holding a physical book and adapting to online resources. I think this conundrum is profound and I thank you for pointing it out. That's all for now, but I wish you the best in managing this dilemma in years to come.

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