MEET LISA

Hi there! My name is Lisa, and I am the creator of Positively Literacy. I’d like to welcome you to my little corner of the world. One of the biggest challenges facing teachers today is carving out time to read aloud to their students every day. We all know that reading to our students is important, but we are overwhelmed and have so many other things to fit into our daily schedule. However, I doubt you will ever reflect back on a day of teaching and say, “I spent too much time reading with my kids today.”

Spreading the joy of reading is my passion, so I created this blog to be a community of teachers, all working to develop readers and writers in their classroom each and every day. I want to make it easy for you to share your love of literacy with your students. I know you are full of knowledge, passionate, creative, and know first-hand the joy of reading....so it doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need is kids, books, paper, and pens to create readers and writers. I’d love for you to grab your favorite beverage and explore some new-to-you picture books while you are here.

As a child, I loved sitting in my Granny’s lap in her favorite recliner, listening to her read books to me.She loved reading, and I am so grateful that she shared that love with me! She would always say, “you’ll never be too old to crawl in my lap and read.” She inspired me to want to be a teacher and share the love of picture books with classrooms full of kids.

I have spent the last twenty years sharing books with kids and anyone else who would listen...I’m a bit obsessed! I spent fifteen years teaching kindergarten through fourth grade. After fifteen years, I fulfilled a promise I made to myself as a teenager and finished my master’s degree and certification as a reading specialist. I truly miss having my own group of kids to share my love of reading with (and a classroom to store all my picture books....haha!).However, I have found my happy place in helping teachers create engaging lessons and develop lifelong readers working as a reading specialist and instructional coach fora K-5 elementary school.

When I was in the classroom, my favorite part of the day was reading aloud to my kids after lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY! Education was undoubtedly different two decades ago! Of course, we had “tests” but nothing like the often-disabling stress of testing in public education today. As the pendulum started to swing towards high-stakes testing, the first thing that many teachers on my campus cut from their schedule was read aloud.

Despite being told by more than one principal that reading picture books to kids was a waste of time, I never skipped read aloud because I firmly believed in the value of reading aloud in any classroom. Children, both young and old, should not be denied the opportunity to experience the magic and joy found between the covers of a book.

Besides picture books, student engagement, writers workshop, student-centered classrooms, guided reading, positive relationships, student accountability, classroom community, high expectations, reading intervention, collaboration, social and emotional learning, and an emphasis on the process over the product make my teacher heart happy!

Outside of school, I have been a police officer’s wife for 25 years. Being married to a police officer is tough at times, but I believe that everyone has a calling in life, and he has dedicated his life to fulfilling his calling. I am also the mother of two amazing “kids.” Our daughter works as a nurse and recently married her high school sweetheart. Our son is a junior in college with dreams of becoming a pilot. I loveGod, traveling, dark chocolate, family time, creating, quiet nights at home, chips and salsa, date nights with my husband, and collecting Christmas ornaments.

Now that you know a little about me and my passions, I invite you to look around and find a new book or two that you can share with your students this week