My Dream Job

Believe it or not, one day a week, I have my dream job. Very few people have their dream job, and as much as I enjoy teaching ingeneral, I wouldn't necessarily say it is my dream job - at least, not teaching composition. But one day a week, on Wednesdays to be exact, I actually get to work my dream job. That is the day of the week when I teach Children's Literature at Modesto Junior College. I have been teaching this class for two semesters now, and it was only today, as I was photocopying the study questions for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", that I realized that this is such an awesome gig. Today I am being paid about $60 an hour to talk about the book "Holes" and then watch the movie. Next week I will be payed the same amount to gush over my love of Harry Potter...it doesn't get much better than that.

Last semester I did this class diferently, so I don't think it was quite my dream job yet. I used a anthology called "Classics of Children's Literature." While the readings in it were interesting (a lot of fairy tales and folktales, "Peter Pan," :Alice in Wonderland," "Wind in the Willows," etc.), they weren't really the works that kids are reading the the modern classroom. They were, indeed, the "classics"; and while there is a place to appreciate the classics, I think it is more beneficial to my students to expose themselves to what kids are reading and enjoying now. That's why I scrapped the anthology and chose 7 chapter books instead. By the end of the semester, we will have read:

"Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
"Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
"Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan
"Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo
"Holes" by Louis Sachar
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling.

I also photocopied them some other readings, like some fairy tales and folktales and some Beatrix Potter stuff, but overall, these children's novels have been a delight to read and discuss in class, and my students have really enjoyed them. I mean, honestly, I am being paid to talk about "Harry Potter"! How frickin' cool is that! So now I can honestly say that I am working jmy dream job - discussing great books and sharing my passion for children's literature. I just wish I could teach this class everyday or, even, every semester. I'll have to survive without it next semester, but hopefully in the Fall of 2009...

On a side, related, note: if you have never read "Esperanza Rising", I encourage you to do so. It's about migrant workers from Mexico, working in California, around the 1930's. It's a great book for adults as well as children!