Hello! My name is Renee and I teach first grade. I am currently finishing my masters on Urban Education. This degree will help me to educate the Urban community that I currently teach in to the best of my abilities. What I expect to learn from this course is to grasp a better understanding of early literacy education and best practices that I can incorporate within my classroom.

Growing up I came from a very large family. Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. But as time went on my family has come down to me and my mom. She is one of my best friends. She has helped me to become the woman I am today by expressing how proud she is of me and the choices I have made in life. However, I am excited to hopefully one day expand my family by having one of my own.

A few hobbies of mine include cooking, working out, shopping, having dinner with friends, reading and sleeping. Yes, sleeping is my favorite past time.

When I think about how I learned to read no specific moment pops into my mind. I don't actually remember learning to read. All of a sudden I was just reading. I do remember a specific moment when I was in first grade. Every week one student would bring in their favorite book and would read it aloud to the class. When it was my turn I brought in the Berenstein Bears book. But, when I went to read it aloud to the class I had to keep asking the teacher for help. I remember that didn't make me feel good that I had to keep asking for help.

However, ever since I can remember I always loved books. Even to this day I love to read. I try to instill a love of books to my students by reading them some of my favorite child books. Hoping that my excitement and enthusiasm will transfer onto them. However, these days its more about reading for purpose rather than pleasure. I am sure the reading for this class will be a combination of them both.