Perks of being a literacy teacher!

I write this because

"We must always listen to the song in our heart, and share that song with others"
Mattie Stepanek

For a book junkie like me no other job would have better suited than that of a literacy teacher. I am exposed to children literature like never before. My regret of not having read much books as a child is out of the window for now that I get to read and validate every book before my kids lay their hands on them. I have come across authors such as Dr.Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl, E.B.White and attractive books from Pratham book house and Tulika publications.

In my free hours I casually sneak up to the school library with the pretext of selecting books for my kids and get lost in the colorful illustrations of children books. Humble children books are flooded with philosophies that adult books take hundreds of pages to explore. Dr.Seuss shows us that there is no definite structure to imagination and fairy tales act like mirror to the society in upholding the commonly preserved stereotypes. The junior encyclopaedias, magazines and other informative books never miss to amuse you. There are so many bugs, trivia about different countries, information about every god-damn thing on the earth. If you ever think you are too smart to teach a kid you should sometime pay a visit to the child section of the book stores. The playful early reading books put your vocabulary to shame and teach you the lesson that life's got to be colorful for you to enjoy it.

It is an altogether enchanting sight to watch kids read the books all by themselves. My smartest kid snuggles up near my chair and summarizes every story he read from the book in his hand. One other kid is responsible for my heart to swell up with pride just because she can comprehend incredibly everything she reads. There are kids reading on the toy horse and serious introverts hiding their faces in big fancy books. Few others pace up and down the hallway occasionally beaming at some delightful incidence in their book. It is worth every minute of lesson planning to just witness your kids spotting every new concept/word learnt in the book that they are reading. The word 'Atmosphere' makes a boy jump and come running to me with his encyclopaedia while a girl is too excited to sing a song as it has the "rhythm" that she learnt is a feature of each beautiful poem.

Learning about so many different reading and word strategies hasn't just helped my kids but also turned me into a better reader. I have realised all the wrong ways of pronouncing few commonly used words while I can confidently learn more new words without the aid of a dictionary all the time. This teaching has made up for the lost time I had as a student myself. I can inflict my passion for books among my children too. My job is a direct translation of my innermost desire-to read and write better each day, everyday. I constantly get to read fresh piece of creativity everyday. It is an occupational hazard ;)

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
Dr.Seuss