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Soon after Maria Montessori's first school opened in Rome, Italy, the Montessori approach gained popularity in the U.S. The first Montessori school opened in 1911 in Scarborough, New York. Many famous figures, showed support to this approach and many more Montessori schools continued to open around the US.

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Dr. Seuss published his first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937. Following his first published children's book, he released many best selling books that would catch the minds and hearts of generations with his unique rhymes, characters, and illustrations. He would go on to become perhaps the most legendary children's author of all time.

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1856: First Free Public Kindergarten in US

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1856: First Free Public Kindergarten in US

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Margarethe Schurz opened the first kindergarten in the U.S. in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody started the first English-language (American) kindergarten in Boston. The main goal of kindergarten at this point in education was to  focus on the "whole-child" by developing cognitive and social-emotional skills.

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The very first Scholastic Aptitude Test was administered to approximately 8,000 students in 1926. Students had a given amount of time to answer over 300 questions on nine subtests, including Definitions, Arithmetic, Logic, Artificial Language, and Paragraph Reading. This test would determine if kids from public and private schools were college-ready.

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1975: Education for All Handicapped Children Act

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1975: Education for All Handicapped Children Act

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This act would support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the results for all children and youth with disabilities and their families. This act would later be amended and named Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997.

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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a historical Supreme Court case in which it was ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. This case was a landmark of the civil rights movement, which named “separate-but-equal” education as being unfair and unjust.

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By 2003, almost 100% of American schools had internet access. As technology advances occurred, schools continued to receive new resources and equipment such as laptops, interactive white boards, etc. to support instruction and student-centered learning.

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NCLB was aimed to close student achievement gaps in elementary and secondary education through the testing of state standards in reading and math. Schools were to be held accountable by meeting AYP.

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Mississippi became the final state to pass laws mandating that public school should be not only universally available, but compulsory through elementary grades.

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On May 18, 1896, this case gave constitutional consent to laws aimed at achieving racial segregation by means of separate, but equal public services and facilities for African Americans and Caucasians. This was not overturned until 1954 (Brown V. Board of Education).

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1857: Teacher's Union Began (National Teachers Association)

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1857: Teacher's Union Began (National Teachers Association)

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43 educators joined in Philadelphia to answer a national need to unite as one to benefit public education. Since the birth of this union, NEA has greatly improved the conditions under which teachers work and children learn.

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My love for education came back as I learned about something that motivated me. After transferring from HACC, I continued my education at Penn State Harrisburg where I had a wonderful experience and was excited to start my future as a teacher.

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As I continue to read for enjoyment, I find myself gravitating toward informational texts. I have recently read books like, "This is Your Brain on Music" and "Life-Changing Foods". I enjoy reading about how to help myself or others and learning about real things that I can apply to my life. Fictional novels do not excite me, however I do enjoy reading many children's stories to my kindergarten classes!

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I struggled to comprehend what I was reading in my college-prep English classes. The time it was taking me to read each page was lengthy. I'd find myself reading a page only to get to the bottom and not have a clue what I just read, having to read it all over again. I started to "skim" because of how long it was taking me to read and focus. However, I will say that the books were not very engaging for me.

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One of my few memories from high school is researching and writing a paper about John F. Kennedy's assassination in history class. We were allowed to choose our topic, awaiting approval. I have always been interested in conspiracy theories, so this topic was very engaging. I read a lot about the different theories online and wrote a long research paper.

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In sixth grade, my teacher gave us an assignment to work on selling an item by creating and videotaping a commercial skit. We had to create a sign and develop a slogan and lines to role-play. I can't remember what we "sold" but this was the only literacy memory from sixth grade.

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I won a grade-level writing contest in fifth grade. We had to write about a special person in our lives...I wrote about my grandmother. I remember them announcing the winners over the speakers when we were in the computer lab. My best friend came in 2nd place and we received awards from a local newscaster at the Hershey Lodge with our grandmothers and principal. Our principal took all of us out to Fudruckers afterwards.

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My teacher in fourth grade had a designated read aloud time each day. She read a few pages of the novel "Holes" by Louis Sachar each day before lunch. This was perhaps my favorite memory of my year. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next in the story and it was nice to take a mental "break" from working and just listen to the teacher read.

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In first grade, I have my first memory of going through literacy centers. The listening center is the one I recall the most. I put my headphones on, played the tape and followed along with the pictures and words in the big book.

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In kindergarten I remember writing short words in the classroom sandbox. They must have been sight words we were learning and my teacher created engaging ways for us to learn to read and write our sight words.

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This book is my earliest childhood literacy memory. I do not know the name, and my mother has now gotten rid of it.  It was a large, textbook-sized peach book full of letters, numbers, pictures, and words. I would sit with my mother and we would read pages and pages of this book, which I believe helped me to become a strong reader and writer at a very early age. (Below is an image of a similar book I found online, but the real book is a mystery!)