Join the Club: Book CLUB!!

An idea that has come from this class is the concept of Adolescent Book Clubs.  I was at first apprehensive because of my lack of interest in reading and the many texts I am tasked with reading for classes (work and school).  I reluctantly gave it a shot and it started good.  I actually enjoyed reading it for the first week.  That weekend I only had a few things to do so I enjoyed the reading.  Coming into the second week on the other hand I was over whelmed with school reading and ministry reading.  It was difficult to find the time to read and although I enjoyed reading the book itself I found it taxing and because of the time constraints I was reminded of what I hated the most about reading texts in school.  Although I have continued reading the book allow me to digress for a moment and lament.  I can see my students with the same sentiments if I attempted to introduce an adolescent book club.  They also are overwhelmed with required reading and assignments that allow for little time for the students to read for fun.  I pray I can find a balance in my life soon otherwise I may never start reading for entertainment again. 

Getting Back to Reading!!

I am reading more and its not all that bad.  Yes, I said it I am reading and I am enjoying it.  Not only am I enjoying reading the book i selected for the classroom book club but I am also enjoying reading the book assigned for class - Readicide.  This book s an eye opener.  Gallagher speaks to many of the issues I faced as a maturing reader.
I had the curse (opportunity) of participating in the International Baccalaureate program at Central High School where I currently teach.  A major part of the program was our summer reading assignments.  The books we had to read entering ninth grade were A Tale of Two Cities, Grapes of Wrath and Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas: An American Slave.  These books were challenging and uninviting.  As I think back on it this is when my love for reading waned.  My parents had little knowledge of these works and offered little assistance in reading these assignments.  I became frustrated and rebelled by my tenth grade year and refused to read the summer assignment.  I failed literature that year because of the summer reading assignments.  Surprisingly my average was a solid B+ before my teacher factored in the summer reading.  Because 3 of us refused to do it we failed.  How crushing was that to someone who read every book assigned in the semester but failed to read and complete the Summer assignments.  I can't say this was  the be all to end all when it can to reading but it adversely affected how I looked at reading from then on.
Books can be enjoyable and I am learning to enjoy them again.  Yeah Me!!!!