Eileen - elementary age

I currently teach first grade. I'm sitting here trying to rack my brain to remember what reading was like when I was a first grader.  I went to Catholic school and was taught by a nun.  I honestly only remember that I didn't really like her because she was mean (or at least I thought she was).  Over the next few years, I had teachers who I liked and at least one more nun who I didn't like (she was scary).  Reading time was never an activity that I loved to do during school time because it involving a great deal of popcorn reading and small groups. We never read anything great.  It was all canned texts. To be honest, I found it all quite boring. I still loved books and reading.  Just not in school.  My favorite memories as a child was picking out books in the library and reading them with my parents and siblings.  Either my mom or dad would read with us almost every night.  They were good sports about reading the same book over and over again.  I probably would have never known the enjoyment of books and reading if not for my parents.  So I guess now with my "teacher glasses" on, I can relate my own experiences to the importance of self-selection and finding books that are of high interest to students.