iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

“I’m not a reader.” It’s a common refrain Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public Schools, has heard throughout her 16-year career. She’s seen students tear up books, throw them away or check them out only to immediately return them all because they didn’t have confidence in their ability to read.

As a librarian, Torres feels strongly that libraries should be spaces of liberation, places where students can develop a love of reading at any stage. Reading is a skill that everyone can grow to love, but too many negative experiences during a child’s literacy education can result in trauma that appears as boredom, apathy or even anger. When a student has a poor experience like being shamed for their reading choices, they can begin to associate reading with painful feelings of insecurity, humiliation and/or toxic stress. These negative experiences can start as early as kindergarten and go on to impact a student’s self-image throughout their entire educational career. 

"...I recently had a conversation with a very sweet librarian at a conference who was concerned about the teachers in her school who aren't readers. She shared an exchange that she had with a teacher, in front of children, in which she asked the teacher what she was reading, to which the teacher responded by saying "oh, I don't read. I just don't have time." Needless to say the librarian was mortified. Then she mentioned that she'd shared the post I wrote with Todd Nesloney last month, with tips to help all educators unlock their inner readers, with this teacher and with the rest of her staff. She said, “I just printed out the list and put it in all their mailboxes!” I'll be honest, I was so humbled by this, but it also got me thinking of ways to make our list of tips a little more shareable. With that in mind, I decided to make an Infographic out of our suggestions:"