November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today’s featured reader is Jane Little.

Name: Jane Little
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Third Grade Teacher
Blog: My Many Colored Crayons

Tell me some of your favorite things about your job
I love getting to know the kids and I especially love having siblings come up and watching the family grow. It is a real privilege to be part of people’s lives like that. When I taught 5th grade it was hard because the kids left our school at the end of the year. I didn’t get to see them from afar in the next grade. I didn’t get to enjoy them in a “grandparent” kind of way. When on the rare occasion they come back for a visit, it is a joyful reunion.

Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s)
I had a science teacher who would act goofy to help us remember things. he would tap dance and sing silly songs about fatty acids and glycerol. He also collected pigs. That collection was something we could talk about with him. Today I have a dog collection in my classroom.

List some of your most effective classroom management strategies
Praise! Praise! Praise! After praise is poetry . We read poetry together every single day without fail. It gives the students some repeated reading and we both enjoy it so much. I can reward them with the poetry after some boring work pages. It’s nice to have a dependable carrot to dangle!

Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe

• ms_teacher
• California Teacher Guy
• No Impact Man