Building a High School Library

I'm a high school English teacher in Rothsay, MN. I love my job, and, each day, I am grateful to be able to share my love of literature and composition with my students.


Rothsay is a sparsely populated, rural community. There are so many things that I love about this town. I grew up here and felt that the members of this community helped to support a safe environment for me and my friends. After graduating high school, I went on to pursue my dream of becoming a high school English teacher-- hoping for the chance to have a positive impact on high school youth in years to come. I was inspired by my high school English teacher, Susan Ward, who showed me, as William Butler Yeats said, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." I graduated from NDSU with a BA in English Education and immediately began my teaching career. I spent three years teaching in Grand Forks, ND, and the next two years in Breckenridge, MN, before returning to Rothsay to teach in my home town.


I truly believe that our students here in Rothsay are among the best youth in our region; they are kind, compassionate, and trustworthy. I also believe that it is our duty to provide our youth with the best education possible.


THE PROBLEM
One drawback of teaching in a small school is that there is a definite lack of resources. As an English Language Arts teacher, I believe students should be surrounded with books. Despite moving into our brand new school facility this year (and experiencing the benefits a new facility brings), our Media Center is quite obviously geared towards elementary students and lacks high school level titles. I have spent years lamenting about the lack of high school level books in our school district, and I decided that my thoughts and inaction were not helping. It is clear to me that someone needs to do something about the lack of books available to our high school students, and that is why I'm requesting this.


THE FACTS
Reading nonfiction texts and fictional literature helps improve focus and attention span, helps to reduce stress, builds memory and analytical thinking skills, and provides entertainment and enjoyment. Reading also builds vocabulary skills; countless studies show that reading improves writing skills. Beyond the academic benefits of reading, reading opens minds. It fosters empathy. What's more, reading is tested. Improving reading fluency helps improve test scores not only in reading but in a variety of disciplines, and it helps create lifelong learners. 


THE SOLUTION
Your donation will help build a library of age appropriate  and classroom sets of titles for high school students. 

PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING FUND THIS VERY IMPORTANT CAUSE.

#thankateacher