GREED

Greed: To have a strong desire for...

We have read two really great texts, Tough Boris (author?) and How I Became A Pirate by David Shannon. I thought it was only appropriate because I always tell my students my favorite phoneme sound is -ar. Like the pirate, they never forget. Anyway, we read these books and we made a text to text connection. We discussed words like stowaway, rowing, we also discussed the illiteracy with pirates. Then we happened upon the phrase, "pirates are greedy." We figured it out using the context clues and the illustrations. We made text-self connections regarding greed. And then, in a moment one of my students said, "Mrs. Amick you want us to be greedy." I was caught off guard. I asked my students, because now several of them were shaking their heads, what are you talking about?
One of my girls said, "you want us to be greedy about learning!" They know this about me. This is my deepest darkest secret for them. I can never say enough words that could get through to them that knowledge is power. Mostly when I try to express this with words it just feels like lecturing so I have given that up. My example has led them to this conclusion. They have used their schema to infer this information from my text. Gosh, I am so proud of them. We have really worked hard on building a community of trust. Today was one of those "Yahoooooo" moments when your heart swells with pride.
I am so fascinated by kids. There is nothing so enthralling as children can be.
Be greedy with your learning.