"WE ARE TK!" My students often chant at assemblies or walking through the hallways. I look at them with my head tilted sideways, since I did not even teach them that saying. They love being in TK, or Transitional Kindergarten, and love each other. I often joke that my class is very "kumbaya" since they all adore and respect each other so much. It's hard to tell sometimes what surrounds our school.
I teach at a Title I school in Sacramento where 100 percent of our students receive free breakfast and lunch.
Many of my students come from homes with very little to give, besides love. Despite these challenges, my students are eager to learn and do their best. Their huge smiling faces, as they chant, do not indicate what struggles they have at home. They love being together, and the community we have created in our room.
My Project
I love to read. Reading is one of the best gifts a teacher once gave me so many years ago. I was lucky as a student to always have access to engaging, thoughtful, colorful and creative books as a child. These books pulled me in and I was eager to learn the words on the page so I could read the stories to myself.
Dr Seuss once said "The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
This quote is what drives me as a teacher to help all my students have access to reading. In TK I want to push my students to buy into the power of reading. The one major tool I need for this is engaging books.
When a student loves a book they will go and find the book in the library and re-read that story over and over again. (Well their version of reading....) They will share the story with you, friends, parents, really anyone who will listen! They will draw pictures from the story, make references in other lessons and remember the story even after many months have passed.
I love watching this happen over the course of the year and I need more of these engaging stories. I plan on using a literacy curriculum which uses all of the books I am requesting. This will allow students to not only enjoy listening to the books but also learn crucial knowledge while using the books.
I can't wait to watch my students blossom into readers and see them fall in love with these books.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Di Ruocco and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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