The fun and horrors of ELA

Greetings from a land of possibility, imagination, interaction, and escape.  These words I believe truly lend a lot of meaning to what ELA is all about.  With the aid and use of oral, reading, and writing skills, we are able to dive into a world that otherwise would be locked to us.  One of my earliest memories is the joy I got from learning about heavy construction equipment via my parents talking and reading to me about this as a very young child.  This brought about my love for visiting construction sites and sitting on my parents shoulders for hours watching, but also recalling what the stories I had been told help me comprehend what was going on around or allowing me to drift off to an imaginary place.  I also remember absolutely loving telling people all about construction equipment, even as young as 3, just because I enjoyed the subject and speaking.  From this was born a fascination for reading and learning, and an introduction into the importance of having ELA skills and knowledge. 

Even with this new found love for ELA, the joy if it was constantly challenged through elementary school.  Many teachers did not promote drama, speaking/conversation, and other imaginative ways to incorporate ELA into daily lessons.  Instead we were forced to practice our writing/spelling, or read a book either forced upon us or picked from a very limited library section.  ELA for me in elementary school was almost torturous at times. 

ELA is a very vital and integral part of our education.  It is extremely crucial that children are taught oral, reading, and writing skills in a manner that is enjoyable to them, as these skills are used on a daily basis to help us function within our society.  The big part about ELA to me is that it is fun and open to all.  In a classroom I want books that will cater to the many interests of my students, I want the kids to have visual aids that may help spark conversation, and I imagine the kids writing stories, poems, plays, telling each other stories, listening activities, etc in a great display of creativity and imagination.  I envision a classroom that will have all parts of ELA easily accessible to the children and that this will bring about a passion for it.  I want this learning experience to be positive, warm, nurturing, enjoyable, and to have it open up a whole new world of possibilities that may have not been realized earlier.

This is Ben, you stay classy!