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Emily Ball Awarded $500 to Enhance Reading Instruction
posted by: Cindy Omlin | May 08, 2017, 08:24 PM   

Congratulations to Ms. Emily Ball, 3rd and 4th grade Language Arts, Science, Social Studies teacher at the Idaho Arts Charter School in Nampa, Idaho!  She has been awarded a $500 grant to enhance her Engage New York curriculum.  She will use the funds to purchase additional books which will help her students develop their fluency, comprehension, and reading stamina skills through hands-on reading practice.

emily ball cropAn NWPE member and believer in our core belief that the educator’s first duty is to the student, Ms. Ball shared this quote which she wrote affected her greatly, both personally and professionally: 

When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as ‘rootless and stemless’. We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we do not condemn it as immature and underdeveloped, nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change, yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is. (Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance). 

Ms. Ball loves the above metaphor, because it parallels very well with the way that she sees the process of learning to read. “Children are individuals, and no amount of quantitative data can make them machines. People are, in my view, qualitative – and, in my opinion, treating them as such is far more important than any other aspect of teaching theory. When it comes to changing the teaching profession, I think that treating children as individuals is the single most important thing that a teacher can do.” 

We are grateful for Ms. Ball’s dedication and heart for children in all stages of their development.

Comments (1)Add Comment
Teacher
written by Emily, Idaho, May 08, 2017

I was able to buy 55 new and used books for my classroom. Thank you so much for your generosity!

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