My earliest memories of reading are of my parents reading a bedtime story to me every night. Sometimes they would read a Seasame Street story, sometimes a Bible story, and some nights I would get lucky and have both read to me. I can also remember my grandma trying to teach me how to write before I went to school; these lessons did not go as well as she would have liked.

Another memory I have about reading is the first time that I rode a school bus; I remember there being index cards above the seats, but I could not understand what was on them. I later learned from my cousins that the bus driver had written the names of the students who were suppose to sit in those seats.

I had several collections of books when I was growing up, one of which was the Seasame Street books (which I am saving for my own children). I also remember having several Golden Books that family members gave me for birthdays and holidays. These books also hold a special place in my heart because most of these family member have passed away, but I still have the books that they gave me as a child.

As I grew older, I found myself turning to series such as Harry Potter, The Boxcar Children, and The Babysitters Club. Although I loved reading these books, I realized after a couple of years that some of them were too easy for me; this, and a teacher who did not like that all I read was Harry Potter, turned me away from some books for a school year. This teacher would also push me to read books that I was not interested in because they were on my reading level, which is one of the reasons why I do not push students to only read books that are on their reading levels.

With writing, I can remember drawing pictures and coming up with stories to go with them. One part of writing that I have always struggled with is spelling, and sometimes that would affect my writing. I also can remember my hand hurting the more that I wrote in school; this is mainly because of the way that I hold a pencil, which also causes me to write slower than others. Because of this, I slowly grew to hate writing in school and I can even remember telling one of my teachers that I wanted a career with as little writing as possible.

Part of the reason for that statement was because in 7th Grade I had to take the writing test. As practice in school we would write a 5 paragraph essay every day for several weeks, and I would always have to take it home in order to finish it because of my slow writing skill. These experiences also discouraged me from wanting to write for any reason.

I remember in elementary school trying (and failing) to keep a diary every couple of years. I would fail because I would forget to write for several days in a row and become discouraged about it. I also remember having to create poetry books in middle and high school using different types of poems. These were some of my favorite assignments because I was able to be creative with my writing and I could use a computer to type up the poems.

With the poetry assignments, I found ways to be creative with my writing and ways to showcase my thoughts about different subjects. I remember that I would be given a list of different poems that I would have to write and I would come up with different topics for each one. Another thing that I enjoyed about writing the poems was that since some types were a shorter length I felt like I could accomplish more of the assignment in a shorter amount of time.

As I said earlier, one of the people who discouraged me from reading was one of my teachers. She was my 5th Grade ELA teacher, and I remember her explicitly telling me that I could no longer read Harry Potter in her classroom. This teacher also made me pick out books that were my AR level that I had no interest in reading. I can remember becoming discouraged about reading while in her classroom that year.

The main feelings that I have towards reading and writing are very different from each other. I love to read books, and I still have a few favorite authors that I follow and I will buy their books. With writing, I still do not like to write with pencil and paper, but I do like to use a computer for writing. I think if I was able to use technology more in school for writing assignments that I would have a more positive feeling about writing like I do with reading.