Cassie Heinz #5- Routman Ch. 12 "You Only Have So Much Time"

I chose this chapter of Routman's book because balancing time is something I always feel like I struggle with. I teach full time and work part time at Barnes and Noble. With all of that time spent at work, I feel like I don't always set aside enough time for myself. I enjoy going to the gym, reading, spending time with family and friends, watching tv shows, talking on the phone to people far away, and most importantly- sleeping. Sometimes I feel as though it is challenging to balance my time effectively and efficiently especially during the holiday season or when it is busy at school. I even feel guilty at times for taking time for myself to socialize or do what I want to do even though I have school work that needs to be done. I enjoyed reading Routman's insight into this matter when she said "we are not only role models for learning; we are role models for living." I want my students to know that yes it is important to work hard, but it means nothing if you aren't able to enjoy yourself. I share stories with them about my friends and my family and events that happen to me outside of school and the students love listening to these stories because it relates to them. In turn, I always give them time to share events that happen in their lives.

In this new year, I am committing myself to spending more time at the gym and reading for pleasure more often. I was able to read 2 books over Christmas break and remembered exactly how much I love reading. I also almost couldn't wait until we were back at school to share the events of Serafina and the Black Cloak  and The Nightingale  with my students. My class and I also set reading goals and came up with a list of books we would like to read this year. I chose to do it with them because even as an adult, I have reading goals too- like reading more nonfiction and reading daily. They enjoyed hearing about my goals and the books I want to read and I enjoyed hearing about theirs.

Routman emphasizes the importance of integration of reading with science and social studies. I feel as though this is one of my strong points as a social studies/ science teacher- I read aloud to them often in my lessons and I provide a text set for students for each unit, which I encourage them to read when they are able. My students particularly enjoy reading Letters from Rifka  each year. This year we moved our novel studies from our reading block to after school in order to give them more independent reading time during the day. The students would ask daily if I was teaching after school so they could read the book. This set up created a lot of anticipation and excitement toward the novel.

Lastly, it was refreshing to see Routman say "our students' literary needs and interests must be our priorities- not prescribed programs and test scores." I wholeheartedly agree with this statement and I wish the people higher up in the educational system would agree. I spend tons of money every year on books for my students. I pick out a variety of texts based on the reading interest inventories we do at the beginning of the year and the conferences throughout the year. I just bought a Minecraft set of books- something I never would have thought I would do, but my kids are crazy about them! They are learning new vocabulary and are so eager to read. This is my favorite part of my teaching (and B&N job)- putting books in people's hands they are excited about and will encourage them to love reading.