Groucho Marx once said, “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend; inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” I love this quote. I used to say that I'm not much of a dog person; I'm still not, but I should clarify a bit. My wife and I got a puppy in December of 2007. His name is Jasper. We drove to Kentucky to pick him up from a Lab Rescue Center. He's a Labradoodle, a fairly new, and almost always expensive, breed. We never wanted to get a dog from a breeder, so we were thrilled to find one from a rescue facility. I don't know the full background story, but it seems that his mom was hit and killed by a car. The lady from the rescue facility cared for and nursed the tiny puppies. Before Jasper came into our lives, I would have said that Groucho was clever, but that I'd rather have a good book than a dog any day. I still wouldn't say I'm a "dog person," but I'm definitely a "Jasper person." Reading a good book with Jasper at my feet is about as good as it gets.
I've always loved reading. My first memory of a book is of my grandmother holding me in her lap reading to me. I don’t remember what the title of the book was, but I remember the feeling I had while she was reading to me – comfort. I’ve been a reader for as long as I can recall. Growing up in an environment where reading was valued is not something all children experience; I was a fortunate child. Most of my students have never had anyone to hold them at night while reading a book. Many of these students don’t feel comfortable reading. The majority of them read far below grade level and don’t enjoy the books they can read easily. But nearly all of them were mesmerized when we read The BFG by Roald Dahl. Each student had a copy of the book and followed along while I read aloud. They loved it when I changed my voices for each of the characters. And nearly everyday, when it was time to put our books away and begin our lesson, the students would moan and sigh and beg me to continue. In my five years as an educator, I’ve witnessed some amazing things. I’ve heard children tell stories that would melt your heart. I’ve seen students do well on a test they thought they’d fail. But none of those instances made me feel as happy as when I saw a child enjoy a book.
It wasn't always clear that I would be a teacher, even during my years in college. I decided sometime in high school that I wanted to be an educator, but I waivered at multiple times while studying at the University of Georgia. I very nearly changed my major to History at one point. And during my senior year, I made a big decision - to not student teach. I felt overwhelmed and underprepared during my practicums. Quite a few people tried to talk me out of my decision, but I stuck with it. I took a few History and Political Science classes while my peers were student teaching. We all graduated together, but I didn't have a certificate. I spent that next year working at the Athens public library in the Young Adult Department. That year gave me the distance to realize that something was missing. I enrolled in a certification program at Piedmont College and got a job teaching fourth grade at Fowler Drive Elementary School. I still felt overwhelmed and underprepared during the first few weeks of teaching, but I soon realized that college cannot possibly fully prepare you for a job in the classroom. I learned a great deal that first year. I now have five years of classroom experience and can't imagine leaving the field of education.
I grew up in the Athens area and, with the exception of one short year in Atlanta, have lived here all my life. I went to school at Fowler Drive Elementary School, the school at which I spent my first two years as a teacher. I changed schools frequently. I usually attended school at the county in which my mom taught. I started in Homer, switched to Athens, then to Winder, and finally to Watkinsville. Moving schools had a big impact on me; I think it's a large reason I was so shy in school. My experience as a student gives me a lot of empathy for students who don't love school. I always loved learning, but I don't remember loving school after elementary school. I always felt like the politics of teenage culture far outweighed anything academic at school. While most of my peers in high school were out doing what most high schoolers do, I was at home working on HTML for my webpage or learning how to tweak my computer to make it do exactly what I wanted it to do. Those countless hours of staring at the computer screen have come in handy many times. I can type over 90wpm accurately, I can design a webpage with HTML and CSS, and I can handle a computer with confidence. When I began my career in college I was able to reinvent myself. I didn't run for class president or join a fraternity, but I was able to shed the roll of shyguy and be more of myself. Nearly all my friends are from my years at the University of Georgia, while I keep in touch with only three or four of my friends from high school. I think that without my love of reading, I might have taken a very different path in life. My love of reading led to my love of learning. Without that love of learning, and especially combined with my dislike of the culture at school, might I have dropped out of high school? It's hard to imagine, but I think that my love of reading has shaped my life in tremendous ways.
There are two broad reasons I want to be a media specialist. The first is that I enjoy what a media specialist does; I love books, technology, teaching, and helping people. That's a pretty succinct job description of a media specialist, if I say so myself. The other reason is that I want to get as many young people as I can hooked on reading. If I can help instill a love of reading in children, I know that I will have made an awesome impact on the world.
