I have been a classroom teacher for 19 years and loved teaching reading and writing to emergent readers and writers , especially ones learning English as a second language. Recently I have decided to pursue my favorite subjects of reading and writing and became a Reading specialist. Now I can work with a more varied age range and abilities , which enables me to work with students, parents and teachers in creating partnerships that promote best practices in literacy acquisition. I truly love what I do and as much as students and parents think I am helping them , value the knowledge I am getting from their children. For example, I have worked with many 3rd-5th graders on written responses. I have learned it is challenging for so many writers to unpack the questions then organize their thoughts to be able to reply back about the text. I love teaching this process. I also love working with beginning readers that are struggling with phonemic awareness or lack foundational skills to help them in their reading . My training in Reading and Recovery and Orton Gillingham have proven to be so successful in helping students. I love building on students’ prior knowledge to make them successful. All students know things , many times it takes scaffolds and one on support to show this . I truly love teaching reading and writing , and observing how students learn best.