Graduation
It’s that time of year again….graduation. High schools and colleges all over are holding these special ceremonies. In addition, middle schools, elementary schools, and preschools are holding Moving Up ceremonies as well. All of these events signify the end of one time in a person’s life and the beginning of another. These pivotal moments in our lives mean change. Sometimes that change is small and other times major decisions have to be made.
I’ll never forget watching the movie St. Elmo’s Fire when I was in high school. It was the first time I realized that there would come a time when I would have to make a huge decision about what to do with my life. Up until that point, my life had gone along as predicted, moving up each year to the next grade. I planned to go to college after high school, so I had already chosen that path and assumed it would happen. It wasn’t until I watched that movie about college friends graduating and trying to find their way in the world that I realized there was an end to the expected path. After college, there are no more school expectations. Just as the characters in the movie weren’t sure what to do, at 15 years old I had no clue what I wanted my life to look like after college. With so many choices, it can be overwhelming.
Throughout my life, I have realized there is no one right path for everyone. I have repeated that to probably everyone I know, especially my children. There are some expected paths, but we have to choose the path that is right for us. The best part is, if we don’t like the path we choose, we can just choose another one! Allowing myself the freedom to change my mind meant I was usually pretty content with my decisions because I never felt trapped by them.
Yesterday, as I sat at a beautiful graduation ceremony, many thoughts went through my head as I remembered all of the graduations and moving-up ceremonies I have been to over the years, both for myself and others. The thought that kept coming back to me was that we all choose our paths. Graduation is a celebration of all of the hard work made along that particular chosen path. However, when one path ends, a new one begins, over and over and over.
After 30 years of teaching, I can say the most valuable thing I think I have ever taught students is to set goals and achieve them. Sounds simple, but I assure you it is not. Working towards a goal requires not just hard work, but reflection. It is the time for reflection that ensures we course correct when we falter. Teaching students to set goals also requires guiding them to plan specific ways they can reach those goals. These are some of the most important conversations teachers will ever have with their students. Thank you to all of the teachers who have had these conversations!
To remind you that there is no one right path, I will leave you with the powerful words of Robert Frost, one of my all-time favorite poets.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Teachers, Mothers, and Freebies Oh My!
Today is Mother’s Day and the last day of Teachers Appreciation Week. Sometimes it’s tough for me to receive accolades for just being me. Being a mom and a teacher is so rewarding in itself, I don’t feel the need for any thanks or appreciation. Of course, it feels wonderful to be recognized for doing what I do naturally. I hope all of you feel appreciated, not just this week but in different ways throughout the year!
This year’s Teachers Appreciation Week was more uplifting for me than ever before. I believe that mainly came from becoming a part of an online community of teachers with my Cheryl Literacy account. Teachers are good people, and I don’t mean just to children because that’s a given. Teachers are so good to fellow teachers. We understand each other in a way other people don’t. It’s not just that we know what it feels like to have to wait to go to the bathroom, to spend countless hours outside of work preparing for our students, or to lose sleep over that one child we know needs more than we can ever give. The amount of heart required in the teaching profession is immeasurable. That’s why I’m not surprised that this week I found so many amazing free teaching resources online.
Most of the things I find on TPT are free. Yes, free. Where else can you go shopping online and get so many free things? Nowhere. Teachers want to help others so much they spend time to list their resources with no expectation in return. That’s the definition of selflessness. It is the teachers who have built such an amazing wealth of online resources for each other. I appreciate my fellow teachers, both in their creativity and their willingness to share.
Interacting with teachers on social media sparks my own creativity and even reminds me of resources I’ve made over the years but just never found the time to list. I will be adding many more resources to my TPT store and sharing them on social media. I firmly believe resources that are quick and easy to make should be shared for free. That’s the pay-it-forward concept that teachers have.
I am so pleased I got to contribute to Teacher Appreciation Week this year by sharing many of my already free TPT items while updating and adding more. Everything I list online I have used in my classroom so I know it works. I welcome teachers contacting me to ask how I use my resources or ask for other ideas. Something else teachers are very good at is problem-solving. Not surprising since we do it all day, every day.
I hope you all have a Happy Mother’s Day celebrating someone and being celebrated!
Here are all the free items from this week in case you missed them. Share this with the teachers you know in your life; they will appreciate it!
Comparing Book and Movie
Written Retell
Visit Cheryl Literacy for more!
Reading About Reading
Reading about reading!
It might sound weird, but I do a lot of reading about reading! Of course, I love to read, but I also love to learn, so I am always on the lookout for sources of information to help me add to what I know. Here is a short list of suggested reading to learn more about how children learn to read. I listed them in the order I read them, just to be fair. ;)
I read Dyslexic Advantage when it first came out in 2012 and it completely changed my view of dyslexia. Recently a new updated version was published. Can dyslexia be an advantage? Yes, it can! You are probably misinformed about dyslexia, as I will admit I was until I read this book. Dyslexia is not a visual impairment, it is not low intelligence, and it is not all about reversing letters. Dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. It is most commonly due to a difficulty in phonological processing (the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language), which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, spell, and, often, learn a second language. I now think of dyslexia as a different way the brain works. Part of a brain with dyslexia is truly amazing and special, which is why so many highly successful people have dyslexia. The other part of the brain with dyslexia has trouble working with language. This article explains how the brain works in much more depth. As you can see, I am very interested in the topic and would welcome a discussion at any time!
The authors of the book Dyslexic Advantage also founded the Dyslexic Advantage Newsletter. I can not say enough good things about this FREE monthly publication. You can sign up here. Each month the issues have so much good information for EVERYONE who has a child learning to read in their life, especially those who want to learn more about dyslexia. If you are thinking you don’t know someone who has dyslexia, guess again! Dyslexia affects 20 percent of the population and represents 80–90 percent of all those with learning disabilities. There is also a Premium Magazine chock full of even more information.
I read Shifting the Balance K-2 in 2022 and when Shifting the Balance 3-5 was published I immediately bought that too! I highly recommend both books to all teachers in grades K-5, not just reading specialists. Both books contain an abundant source of information on how to blend current best practices with the new practices that the research from the Science of Reading shows. The authors do an excellent job helping teachers understand not only what shifts to make in their instructional practices but also the why and how. You can learn more about the books on their website.
Over the summer of 2023, I read 7 Mighty Moves which is a much more concise book for all K-3 teachers. I would also suggest it for reading specialists in grades 4-6 as well. The book gives specific strategies, anecdotes, and QR codes with videos. After reading just one chapter you will be adding these new ideas into your instructional practice right away! The author is also currently teaching in a primary classroom, so she is down in the trenches so to speak. I know from my own experience, this is key to understanding what works right now. Not what worked years ago, or what works in theory. Working with students day after day allows teachers to see what works to make progress. Watching a student start to put all of their reading skills together is one of the best parts of my job!
Share this with people you know who are teachers, parents, grandparents, caregivers, or anyone who has a child in their lives!
Why Did I Start Cheryl Literacy?
I hope you enjoy following me here at Cheryl Literacy.
I have been thinking about how to share my teaching experience for quite a few years now. I sure do have a lot of it since I started teaching in 1992. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long, and I am not done yet; not by a long shot!
I loved teaching, even before I graduated college. It was the first time in my life I was praised by so many people for my ideas, creativity, and organization, which all came effortlessly to me. I knew I had found my calling. Of course, it helped that I have always enjoyed being around kids. I became a mother’s helper at age 9 and officially started babysitting at 12. Kids still gravitate towards me, warming up quickly.
After graduating from college with an elementary education degree, I was lucky enough to get a job teaching fourth grade in a private school. I couldn’t get a public school job because I didn’t have my master's degree, so I knew I had to go back to school to advance my career.
When faced with the decision of choosing a major, I immediately knew I wanted to focus on reading. I had seen students come to me as fourth graders still struggling to read, and I wanted to know how to help them. Once I earned my Reading Masters degree in 1997, I wondered why at least some of what I had learned in my master's program about how students learn to read hadn’t been taught to me during my undergraduate work. Shouldn’t every elementary teacher be taught how to teach reading? You’d be surprised how many teachers are still not taught this! I was taught to read with phonics, so why weren’t all kids still being taught that way? I started to question the idea that if we surround children with books, learning to read will just come naturally. Maybe that worked for some kids, but certainly not all kids.
I took my newfound knowledge of how kids learned to read and landed a reading specialist position in a public elementary school. During that time, I had started a family and decided when baby number three arrived I wanted to take a longer maternity leave to give everything I had learned about teaching reading to my own children. Having experience as both a teacher and a parent was eye-opening. This unique perspective has given me the ability to understand and explain the bigger picture of a child’s reading journey.
When my maternity leave was over, I was hired as a reading specialist in my home district. It was a middle school position, which I had never taught, but felt fairly confident I could. It turned out, everything I had learned from teaching reading in elementary school was applicable. For ten years, I loved teaching reading to fifth through eighth graders.
When an elementary reading position opened up in my district, I jumped at the chance to go back to the beginning grades, with the hope that fewer students would still be struggling by the time they were in middle school. I have been back at the elementary level for nine years.
Two years ago, I started hearing a buzz about the Science of Reading. When I realized the Science of Reading is essentially everything I learned in my master's program, I knew I had been right all along; kids learn to read systematically, not just by exposure. Of course, I also have proof of that firsthand since there are more books in my house than one human should own, yet reading did not just magically happen for my own children. Luckily, they had some excellent teachers and a pretty cool mom. ;)
I am now very firm in my belief that reading should be taught explicitly. It’s not just about reading the words on the page; it’s about a deeper understanding of how words work. This is something everyone needs so they can be successful in reading, spelling, and writing.
Whether you are a teacher, parent, grandparent, or caregiver, all adults in a child’s life can contribute to their reading and learning success. I hope you enjoy following me here at Cheryl Literacy. Feel free to message me with questions, comments, or suggestions. Thanks and Happy Reading!!