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I can honestly say I dont remember when I learned to read. I didn't go to preschool or Kindergarten. I lived in Alabama during that time and it wasnt required so my mom didn't send me. My parents were not strong readers so they never read to me. Never the less I am a very good reader and enjoy reading when I'm interested in what it is im reading. Im looking forward to what we are going to learn in this class and hope that it helps me pass my Foundations of Reading MTEL next month! 

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Hello everyone, my name is Lauren and I am a mother to a beautiful almost one year old girl and am expecting a new addition this coming December! Through the Van Loan School at Endicott College, I am currently pursuing a Masters in Special Education for Severe Disabilities and ABA. I graduated with my undergrad from UMass Boston back in 2014, and have been working in the field of education and applied behavioral analysis since. Throughout my experiences I have worked with pre-toddlers through elementary aged children of a multitude of needs and abilities. I have always found myself drawn to helping the children that may, 'need a little extra,' and eager to help them find a way to be successful in their everyday lives. As a child spelling was always a strength of mine, however I needed added instruction for reading and reading comprehension. I received this specialized instruction through middle school and never fully understood its significance until now. As we progress though the semester I look forward to understanding the fundamentals of reading and ways to approach it for students like myself to help this area to become less intimidating for them in the future.

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Hello everyone! My name is Kacey Maxner and I graduated from Worcester State University in 2019 with an undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education and Psychology. I am licensed to teach grades PreK-2. I currently am teaching kindergarten and this past end to the year I have been teaching remotely. I am currently enrolled in the Moderate Disabilities graduate program at Endicott College to expand my knowledge and pursue a career in Special Education. While I was going to school, I struggles leaning how to read. I do not have a learning disability but learning to read was frustrating to me and required some extra help. I try and remember this when I am teaching my students how to read. That although they do not have a learning disability, there are still some things that are going to be more difficult for some. My favorite memory about reading was the aide in the classroom that would pull me aside and help me understand what I was reading and how to read. She made reading fun and engaging and after I learned how to read, I wanted to read all of the time. This is one thing that I hope to provide for the students in my classroom.

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Hello everyone! My name is John Popeo. I graduated from Salem State University in 2013 with an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a minor in Education. After working as a Campus Safety Officer at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for two years I decided I wanted to be an educator. For the last three years I've been working as a one on one for a student that has muscular atrophy and blindness at Marblehead High School. If I'm being honest, I have not always loved to read. Growing up, my vision issues weren't addressed (even after taking the required eye tests that elementary schools administer). I felt so strange being the only kid in class who had to look 3 inches from the book in order to make out the words, but I made it work. When I got older, my vision impairment was finally addressed (as you can see by my glasses in my picture) and now I love to read! Having struggled in my youth has made me understand the struggles that some early readers go through, and I hope to bring to them what I didn't have. Since I don't have that many great memories early on regarding my experience with learning to read, I will say that my best earliest memory is the year I finally got glasses. In 7th grade, I was finally able to see the page (pretty important). After addressing my vision, I was able to finally enjoy books. Instead of a chore, I found out that reading was more fun and relaxing than I thought it could ever be! I'm so excited for this class!

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Hello everyone! My name is Nicole Conway and I recently graduated Endicott College. I graduacted with an undergraduate degree in English and a concentration in Secondary Education. I am very excited to continue my educational career path through the Fellowship program, I will be completing my Master's Degree in Moderate Disabilities while also teaching at Masconomet Middle School in Boxford, MA.
I have always been very passionate about reading, it sparked my desire to learn the history of English Literature. My earliest memory of reading was in preschool. My teacher would have "story time" every day and read a childrens book to the class. Sometimes, we'd have a "special guest" come in a read to us instead of our teacher. These special guests would usually be a parent, aunt/uncle, or an older sibiling/cousin of a student. I would always look forward to "story time", from the second I arrived to preschool to the moment I'd leave. I'd let my imagination wonder on what book we'd read next, what it would be about, and what the names of the characters might be. I'd even come home from school everyday to tell my mom and brother what the book we read today was about.
I've continued to share that passion for reading with my younger cousins. Every night that I would babysit them, I'd read them a childrens book before bed. I then encouraged my aunt and uncle to continue that system, to read a book to them each and every night before they fell asleep. Hopefully, they will gain the same excitement for reading that I had.
Similarly, I also take my desire for reading and encourage it within my classroom. With whatever book we are reading, I'd have my students become a part of it. I'd talk about the storyline with passion and excitedment, I'd encourage book discussions or brief comments/questions they might have, and I'd introduce "what if" questions to have them develope their own possible ideas. I love to see students expand off each other or questions ideas that may rise within the plot.
I am strongly looking forward to this class and learning about the content that I can take forth with me in my future teaching career.

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Hello everyone, my name is Kim. I finished my undergrad last December at Endicott and am pursuing my Masters in Special Education and ABA. Iam married with 3 kids and work at an inclusive preschool in my hometown. I have been working here for 5 years since my youngest went there, then onto elementary school.
I can honestly say I dont remember when I learned to read. I didn't go to preschool or Kindergarten. I lived in Alabama during that time and it wasnt required so my mom didn't send me. My parents were not strong readers so they never read to me. Never the less I am a very good reader and enjoy reading when I'm interested in what it is im reading. Im looking forward to what we are going to learn in this class and hope that it helps me pass my Foundations of Reading MTEL next month!

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Hello everyone! My name is Victoria Walder and I recently graduated from Endicott College. I graduated with a degree in History and a concentration in secondary education. I am more than thrilled to be continuing my journey at Endicott through the Fellows program, where I will be pursuing my Master’s Degree in Moderate Disabilities while teaching at Manchester Essex Middle School. I am so excited to learn more about and immerse myself in the field of special education. As far as reading goes, I myself have had a love of reading for as long as I can remember. I grew up reading a lot with my family; in fact reading is one of my fondest memories with my family. I always enjoyed following storylines, connecting with character, and illustrating the story in my head. The Harry Potter series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Chronicles of Narnia were some of my favorites. Reading in school was usually fun for me too, especially when I was able to interact with my classmates through reading. I don’t have a lot of experience teaching reading or learning about the strategies for teaching reading. As a History major, much of my focus was on content and more general teaching strategies. However, I am passionate about teaching reading properly for a few reasons. Firstly, my own love of reading inspires me to instill that passion in my students. Secondly, social studies is a field that does require a good amount of reading, especially at the secondary level. This type of reading is often non-fiction text, which can be difficult for students. I want to be able to help my students engage successfully with the reading that I give them in class and make it enjoyable for them as well. Lastly, my upcoming fellowship at Manchester Essex deals specifically with students with language and reading disorders, therefore educating myself about reading and writing instruction is extremely important. I am very much looking forward to this course and all that I learn from it to use in the future to support my students in their reading and writing endeavors. 

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Hello everyone! My name is Maddie Frisella and I currently live in Peabody, MA. I just graduated this May from Southern New Hampshire University with my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education with a Certification in General Special Education. At Endicott, I am enrolled in the Moderate Disabilities PreK-8 program in hopes to expand my knowledge of this area of special education. I am doing my fellowship at Doyon School in Ipswich. I had wonderful experiences being in the classroom throughout my undergraduate career, especially during my student teaching placement at an elementary school in Manchester, NH. I student taught in a general education Kindergarten classroom and served as a 4th grade special education service provider. Specifically in my special education placement, I led a lot of reading instruction and enjoyed helping my student to work on their skills, teaching them to find books that interest them. In terms of my relationship with reading, I absolutely love it. I can't even remember a time when I didn't liked to read. I always looked forward to getting in bed at night when I was younger because that meant my dad would read the next chapter of whatever book we were working on at that time. However, a time came when just reading at night wasn't enough for me. The Harry Potter series sparked my interest so much and kind of became the turning point where I switched to completely independent reading and ran with it. Since then, I have whipped through books so quickly. While college was a great experience for me, the one thing I didn't like was not being able to read for myself very much anymore. I would go to the library when school was out, but summer jobs quickly took up all my time. However, one of the good things about staying home more for the past few months is that I have been able to get back to reading for myself - it feels like it's been forever!

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Hello everyone! My name is Emily Dunleavy and I have my undergrad degree in Wildlife and Conservation Biology from UNH. I currently live in Lynn MA but am from New Jersey.  During my junior year I fell in love with the education/public outreach aspect of teaching ecology. When I did a semester of student teaching my senior year in a HS biology class I quickly realized how much the "academic" and "lower level" classes struggled. All of the students felt science was only for smart people, but they were smart people! I hope to get my M.ed in moderate disabilities to make science available to all learners in my classroom. I used to love reading as a child and can admit I let the hobby fall to the wayside recently. Teaching high schoolers science I have very little experience with reading instruction. The only experience I have is from studying like crazy for the foundations of reading MTEL. After researching a lot I have found students with mod dis often struggle with scientific literacy and this is why they feel it is only for "smart people". I know see there are still connections to reading instruction in science and at the HS level. I hope to gain more skills in better preparing my students to comprehend scientific text. Here is a picture of me with a baby black bear, the research I conducted before turning to teaching.

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Hello everyone!  My name is Tara Clark and I have my undergrad in Elementary Ed and Psychology.  I graduated many years ago and put off getting my masters to get married and have children.  Welp, here we are, years and children later and I'm finally getting my masters in Severe Special Needs.  I am excited to be doing this for myself and showing my children that you can persevere and get things done at any age.  I have a passion for reading.  I devour books (before this one year accelerated masters program!) and get lost in them. Kindle unlimited is a wonderful thing!
Even as a child I wanted to read because that is how I relaxed.  I was no longer just Tara, I was part of the story and those characters.  As a classroom teacher, I always encourage my students to read anything they are interested in- recipes, magazines, board books, chapter books- just read.  Most students realize when they are in control of what they are reading, they enjoy it much more.  While working in the substantially separate classroom, we utilized audio books a lot more for our students, which they loved! I am excited to do this class with all of you!

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Hello everyone, I hold my undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Political Science from UMASS Lowell. I am currently in the Master's program for severe SPED with ABA at Endicott. I struggled to learn to read. I started school at age 5 without any preschool or daycare and we did not read books at home. Because of this I was placed into Title 1, which meant I was pulled out of regular classes for a period of time and grouped with other kids that were struggling to read as well as complete other subjects. I remained in Title 1 until 7th grade. I did not start to read books or magazines for pleasure until
I got to high school. I am excited to take this course now especially for my son. He is in my picture below, he just turned 3 and he knows all his letters and spells out words everywhere he sees them. I want to assist him in his early literacy skills so he will enjoy reading. I also work at an early intervention center for kids with ASD; and want to use what I learn from this course in direct application with these clients (ages 2-10) so they will have a strong foundation when they return to school.

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Hi everyone. My name is Jenny Lacroix. I just completed my undergrad at Endicott, licensed in Elementary Education grades 1-6. I am beyond excited to be doing Endicott's fellowship, getting my masters in Moderate Disabilities. I will be teaching at the Winthrop Elementary School in this upcoming school year. I currently live in Wrentham, MA and have been teaching in a local school for the summer, all remote. It has been a really interesting experience and I am learning a lot, but I definitely miss being in the classroom. My favorite memory about reading is how reading connects people. Growing up, I loved reading with my family. In school, I loved to read the same books as my friends. Reading never came easy to me, but I was lucky enough to have some great teachers to teach me to love to read. I look forward to teaching my own students to not only read but to love reading.  I think it is so important to help students develop a passion for books and learning through reading, and I am eager for this course to expand my knowledge of reading instruction, specifically for students with exceptionalities.

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Hi everyone! My name is Alison Bonetti. I graduated from UMass Amherst in May 2019 and used this last year as a gap year to get more experience within the field and figure out exactly what I wanted moving forward with my career in teaching. I majored in Early Childhood Education as well as Psychology and currently have my initial teaching license in Early Childhood Ed. I am so excited to be furthering my education with Endicott! I am from Burlington, MA and currently am nannying a four year old and a one year old during the weekdays. I am very excited to be working with the teachers and students at the Village School in Marblehead this August! I love reading and am very excited to be continuing to learn more about the basics of teaching reading. I have a horrible memory so I do not remember much about learning to read but I do remember being so excited to buy new books at the scholastic book fairs. My current favorite series that I have been binge reading recently are the Shadowhunter novels by Cassaundra Clare (highly recommend). I wish it did not take me until high school to really love reading and I cannot wait to be able to (hopefully) make my students love reading as well.

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Hi everyone! My name is Alison Bonetti. I graduated from UMass Amherst in May 2019 and used this last year as a gap year to get more experience within the field and figure out exactly what I wanted moving forward with my career in teaching. I majored in Early Childhood Education as well as Psychology and currently have my initial teaching license in Early Childhood Ed. I am so excited to be furthering my education with Endicott! I am from Burlington, MA and currently am nannying a four year old and a one year old during the weekdays. I am very excited to be working with the teachers and students at the Village School in Marblehead this August! I love reading and am very excited to be continuing to learn more about the basics of teaching reading. I have a horrible memory so I do not remember much about learning to read but I do remember being so excited to buy new books at the scholastic book fairs. My current favorite series that I have been binge reading recently are the Shadowhunter novels by Cassaundra Clare (highly recommend). I wish it did not take me until high school to really love reading and I cannot wait to be able to (hopefully) make my students love reading as well.

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Hi everyone! My name is Ashley DeLucia and I just graduated from Assumption College. I majored in Human Services with a minor in Education. I am continuing my education in the fellowship program at Endicott to earn my master's in moderate disabilities. I am so excited to be able to work alongside teacher and students a John E. Mccarthey School in Peabody. I am currently a camp counselor at Camp Star in Beverly, MA. Learning to read was never my favorite as a child. I loved reading independently but was always embarrassed to read in class. My favorite books to read were Curious George, Judy B, and Goosebumps (all very different). I still remember the stories I read in Goosebumps. My friends and I at school would always talk about it. I love reading and can get caught in the moment often!

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I graduated this May from Endicott College with my degree being elementary education. In the fall I will be teaching math for grades 3-5 at South Memorial Elementary School in Peabody. I have been a nanny the past 6 years during my summers at home in Maine. For as long as I can remember I have always struggled with reading. I never wanted to read in class or at home because it was so challenging for me to sound out difficult words and use context clues to understand what they meant. I almost always had my textbooks in middle and high school on audio book that would say the words for me as I followed along and allowed me to click on a word and it would give a definition if I needed it. My favorite picture book growing up was Where do Balloons go and my favorite chapter book was Judy Moody. Just this past year I have found a passion for reading that I never had and now I read most nights. I wish when I was younger I had a desire to want to read like I do now.

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Hi everyone! My name is Ingrid Hjerpe and I am a recent graduate of Endicott College. I graduated this last May with my undergraduate degree in elementary education. It has been my dream to continue on at Endicott in the fellowship program to earn my masters degree in special education, moderate disabilities. This upcoming fall, I will be working at the Captain Samuel Brown Elementary School in Peabody. I am really excited to start my journey there, and be one step closer to having my own classroom!
I am originally from Sudbury, Massachusetts, which is where I have been quarantining with my family during the virus. I am really excited to have Professor Davison as a Professor again this upcoming semester and delve deeper into reading and writing instruction specifically for students with disabilities. I have always struggled with reading myself, and at a young age I struggled to learn to read and find the passion to read. A teacher of mine then introduced me to the Geronimo Stilton books, and it really hit off my love for reading! Since then, I have been an avid reader, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read 25+ books since being in quarantine!

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I graduated from Boston College in May 2019. Since my undergraduate graduation, I have spent time working in a first grade classroom on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and I am currently working at a Summer Literacy Program in Beverly for the fourth time! I aspire to be a general classroom teacher and while I know how important each subject is, my passion definitely lies with teaching reading and writing. I have had a passion for both since I was in elementary school myself. I remember that as a child, I loved reading, though I initially experienced frustration while learning to read. My favorite early memory was reading with my mother each night before bed. I was recently cleaning out my childhood bedroom when I stumbled upon a number of books we read most often and it brought back wonderful memories. I was blessed to have adults who instilled a love of books and reading in me from an early age, and as an educator, I hope to someday do the same with my own students!

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Hi! I am Julie Champigny. I am also a recent 2020 grad from Endicott's Elementary Education program. I am now in the fellowship program and cannot wait to start at Doyon Memorial Elementary School in Ipswich in their special education department come August! I am from Acton Ma, and am currently working at a farm this summer! While at Endicott, I played on the field hockey team. It has definitely felt weird not having that to train for during the summer! As an elementary school student, I fell in love with reading and writing early. I was definitely that child that would find a specific series and get obsessed with it. I would say reading was not considered a challenge for me, but it was also not my easiest subject. I think I remember being placed in a reading group perhaps in second grade because I was behind. To this day, I read best when it is a topic or book that I enjoy and that was something that was hard for me in high school because I did not enjoy the books that we were assigned. I hope that this Padlet post finds everyone staying safe during the pandemic and trying to make the most of their summer! I know I have been :)

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I just recently graduated from Endicott with my degree in Education. In the fall I will be working in Newburyport as a special education fellow in Kindergarten and First grade. I have always had a passion for working with children with behavioral challenges as well as learning disabilities. I have been working at a summer program the past four years and have been busy doing that this summer and adapting to all the new changes. Thinking back to my reading experience and exposure brings back many memories for me. Some memories that make me smile and some I am not fond of. I know since the day I was born my parents read to my brother and I  before bed every night. I enjoyed this and also enjoyed choosing my own books to read. With that being said I remember struggling with reading comprehension as early on as first grade. I knew I was a struggling student because I was often times pulled out of the classroom. Due to this I would not want to participate in reading. As the years went on I gained more confidence and found books I enjoyed to read with the help of a few special teachers. I now love reading and would consider it when of my hobbies. This is also my favorite subject to teach due to the fact that I struggled so much with it.

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I am a recent graduate from Endicott College with a degree in Elementary Education. I will be working in Peabody at the John E. Burke school for my Moderate Disabilities fellowship this upcoming school year. I have been a dancer since I was 3 years old, I love indoor cycling, and spending my summers on Cape Cod scooping ice cream!  From a young age I have always loved reading. By the time I was 6 or 7, I can remember constantly asking my parents to buy more books to read in my free time. Growing up, some of my favorites included the Junie B. Jones books, any Dr. Seuss book, and the Rainbow Fish. I have two younger brothers, and I enjoyed reading books to them before they learned how to read. I have also been lucky to work at a preschool summer camp for the last six years, and through that experience I was able to read books to young children which fostered some of their love for reading as well!

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I have just recently graduated from Bridgewater State in May after transferring from UMass Boston my sophomore year. I currently teach in a K-2 special needs classroom. I remember constantly begging my mom to go to the library and pick out as many books as possible. I would then go home and read one book in about two days. It was my favorite thing to do! I loved to get the complete series of books just so I could have them on display after I was done reading them. I struggle to find as much time to read now, but I love to enjoy a good book. Watching the students pick out books and tell me what they enjoyed the most brings me so much excitement, as it reminds me of my younger self. I also love to spend time outdoors and with my friends and family.

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I have just recently graduated from Bridgewater State in May after transferring from UMass Boston my sophomore year. I currently teach in a K-2 special needs classroom. I remember constantly begging my mom to go to the library and pick out as many books as possible. I would then go home and read one book in about two days. It was my favorite thing to do! I loved to get the complete series of books just so I could have them on display after I was done reading them. I struggle to find as much time to read now, but I love to enjoy a good book. Watching the students pick out books and tell me what they enjoyed the most brings me so much excitement, as it reminds me of my younger self. I also love to spend time outdoors and with my friends and family.

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I'm Kristen! I graduated from Endicott in May with a degree in educational studies and a minor in mathematics.  I am doing my fellowship as a math interventionist in Center School in Peabody, MA and will complete my student teaching in a 5th grade classroom in the spring! I also love sports and will be coaching a JV field hockey team in the fall. Something in particular I remember about learning to read was reading groups in third grade. I loved being able to read with a group and discuss what was happening in the story. Pretty much since then, I have loved to read. I also remember reading to teachers in the early grades, and at the time I definitely had no idea they were assessing me! My favorite books in elementary school were Anastasia books by Lois Lowry.

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I'm Caitlin. I graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2019 and I'm starting my second year teaching 6th grade social studies this fall. I've always had a huge love for reading! I don't remember much about learning to read, but I do remember being on vacation when I was about 8 years old and my parents saying "Caitlin, put the book down and go play outside for once!!" They've never let me live that one down. In 5th grade, when we went around saying what fun things we did over summer vacation, I told my whole class that I read the Harry Potter series for the first time. Other than reading, I like to spend my time running, baking, and recently re-watching Hamilton over and over. I'm always looking for a new book to read, so recommendations welcome! :)

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I just graduated from Endicott in May this year with my degree in Educational Studies and I'll be teaching Kindergarten this upcoming school year for my fellowship. I love music and I play the flute, percussion, and ukulele. I remember loving reading ever since I was very young. Growing up, my brother and I were both big readers in my house and we would read all the time. My favorite early memory of reading would be playing "school" and pretending to be the teacher, reading books to my family, probably when I was around 5 or 6 years old. Another favorite memory is collecting all of the books in the Magic Tree House series in second grade. Other books I remember enjoying as a kid included the Junie B. Jones series, and Roald Dahl books.