Over time, Day has found more and more uses for books in the classroom. “I wasn’t alive, but I buy them online or at used bookstores.” Updating the book report “I have all the Newberry winners, and they’ve been around since 1922,” she said. I have books on war, child slavery, children’s rights, civil rights, the environment.” But she also has books that are just plain fun to use, such as her favorite read-aloud books, picture books that help teach art, and award winners, such as Caldecott and Newberry awardees. I probably have 300 books on immigration. In Phoenix, where homelessness is rampant, she started collecting books on homelessness and poverty. Teaching in Arizona, where water is especially precious, she saw kids waste drinking water and decided to buy books on the environment and taking care of the earth. Some purchases were inspired by her students. “By the end of the year I had 300 books in my first-grade classroom, and it continued to snowball. Textbooks were boring, “so I went to the library and checked out books, and started reading to my students.” Then she started buying books. When she started teaching first grade, she didn’t have a single one. All in all, Day owns about 16,000 children’s and young adult books. About 12,000 of Day’s books are stored in the Undergraduate Building. Her office isn’t big enough for her collection. I wanted to help kids who were just like me, who had difficulties learning to read, and use the power of books.”
That was the seed for wanting to become a teacher. “I had a teacher who let us read real children’s books instead of textbooks. “I did not learn to read until I was in the fifth grade, and children’s books helped me become a reader,” she said.
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Learning to Readĭay struggled to learn how to read until an insightful teacher introduced her to children’s books. She knows personally how books can change a life. In her office, surrounded by stacks, piles and shelves of books, with book posters on the wall and more piled on the floor, Day bubbles with enthusiasm for these stories. Not until the very last picture do you see his image on a computer screen and realize they meet daily by Skype. Called “Tea with Grandpa,” it’s the story of a little girl who has tea with her kindly looking grandfather every day. Day picks a book off the floor and starts paging through it. “You can teach everything out of a children’s book,” she said, ticking off phonics, parts of speech, grammar, math and art-not to mention technology.Ĭhildren’s books change with the times. Their teaching tool is children’s literature. Now, an associate professor of education at WSU Vancouver for the past 15 years, Day still teaches technology to kids, but she does it through her own students, who are teachers or teachers-in-training. “I knew I had to teach my kids technology.” “I bought my own Apple with my own money and had it in my classroom,” she said. When Deanna Day started teaching elementary school 31 years ago, the only computer in the building was an Apple Macintosh with a tiny screen, used by the school secretary.ĭay could see the future.
The best way to teach technology? Look to children's books, Deanna Day says.