Maggie Shearrow Learning Record Part 2- January 29 My own reflections on my development of reading and writing related to my thoughts and feelings of nature.

While I was a child I learned to write pretty fast.  I loved watching the reading rainbow where the hose would have kids present their book of choice to the audience and explain to us what it was about.  It was a great show I would say because it made me want to read that same book.  I remember asking my mother for every book that was on that show.  I did get two actually!  One was a book called A Million Cats, and the other was Stone Soup.  I loved those books because they were one, easy to read, and two the pictures are still in my mind today.

I loved those types of books that always stay in your memory.  The pictures always helped me understand the book.  My favorite teacher in elementary was Mrs. Montoya.  She would let us go outside for lessons of the day and allow us to relax while learning.  The classroom always gave me a sense of strictness and confinement.  Of course there was art and picture on the wall but the gray concrete walls would be the first things I would see.  Therefore, getting to go outside was a change.  We would be allowed to descriptive write outside.  We would have to write down exactly what we saw.  At that age I would only appreciate the fact that we were outside and not in the classroom not appreciate the fact that we were given time to see nature and love it.

I felt that my writing about nature was real shallow in elementary.  I mean, where is the tree and there s the grass.  Obvious things were the only things I would write about.  Never would I write about what that tree would make me feel.  I loved those times in my life.  The times that I started reading the many series of books my favorite place to read them was in my tree swing in my backyard.

Being comfortable outside while reading my books was real important to me.  The weather had to be perfect, the wind not too strong and the sun not too harsh on my skin. During my elementary school days I was given a lot of choices of what to write.  I would sometimes be able to write whatever I wanted which were the times I loved the best.  I think those were the times that gave me a better understanding of my own talents and abilities of writing.  My teacher would take up our writings afterwards and help us on grammar rather than the context of the piece.  After middle school, which truthfully I don't have many memories of because I moved from one place to another and I had to adapt to a new school and finding new friends, which is hard for a 14yr old girl! I love high school.  My writing and reading techniques were at full peak, or so I thought.  I had my first journal then and being able to write in it during a hard time in my life was a get away for me.  The time I had to spend by myself in nature just sitting under a shade tree writing my feelings down on a piece of paper really kept me from going crazy! I am not a very open person with my feelings, and when I do try to explain them my words get very tangled.  I find that writing them down really allows me to rearrange the words to make better sense to myself and to others.  I loved those times with nature.  My writing ability right now has room for much improvement.  It has been 2 years since I graduated high school and therefore there has been much time not reading or writing.  I need to get back into that state of mind and being able to would allow me a better understanding of myself and how I interact with nature.

My next Learning Record

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