My Elementary School

Opportuinty When you look at the same place twice, once in the past and once in the future, you don’t have the exact same view towards it. You’ve grown up and your thoughts have changed. It could be good, bad, or maybe even both. Ben Milam Elementary was my place. When I visited it again after six years, I realized it is the place where I lost an experience but it is also the place where I have gained an opportunity. The purpose of this place is way different to me now than when I was an actual elementary student. I currently attend Ben Milam as a dual enrollment student for a class called Introduction to Teaching Reading. This class is a stepping stone to my future career, which is becoming a teacher. I am no longer a little girl being told what to do by the teacher. No more listening to the teacher during reading time or during hour. This time I am the one doing the guiding. I am the one they look up to rather than face to face. Now I am the adult in the room. Earning “AR points” for reading a book was a big deal for me back in elementary. Why? Well, because we received awards for it. I never really liked reading but I just felt like I had to. I wanted to be that person holding a trophy during the award assemblies. I wanted to be that person with a picture of their selves on the cafeteria wall. But now, I have realized something much more different. Reading isn’t about receiving awards and attention. It’s about actually wanting to read those long chapter books because you’ll receive enjoyment from it. Not because you will earn ten points, but because you’ll find it interesting and delightful. Our children need to fall in love with reading and out of love with prizes, because reading truly makes a difference in ones academic life. Recess was every elementary student’s favorite time of the day. It was the time where I went with my friends and gossiped about the guys who we thought had “cooties,” but we were really secretly in love with them. It was the