I teach fourth grade, and I have a terrific group of kids. They LOVE to read!
We have a computerized reading program that enables us to count the number of words our students read. I challenged my class to read one million words by Halloween. It was such a group effort--many kids read one or two books each weekend to help reach the class goal, and others helped struggling students contribute to the effort. It was amazing, and they reached their goal of one million words on October 30. But that's not what gives me hope.
School got busy, and I forgot to give them a new class goal. Nevertheless, my students rallied to read as many books as possible. Around the first week in December, one of my students asked me, "By the way, how many words has the class read now?" I had completely forgotten about the class word count. I looked it up in our reading program's statistics, and the number was well over two million. "Hey everybody," my student shouted to the class, "we made two million words!" The whole class cheered. And I was blown away. They didn't need a reminder. They didn't need an incentive. They just love reading, and they love achieving goals--goals they set for themselves.
I have hope and confidence for the future of education because of my kids. They care about learning, they care about each other, and they care about the world. We are in good hands.
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