you are my sunshine
10:52 p.m. on January 12, 2007
i went to yet another professional inservice yesterday. it was on reading teaching reading fluency. the presenter was a male professor from a university out of state. you could tell he loved his job and loved to find ways to help his students have academic success as well.
i have to admit i was going with preconcieved thoughts. i begrudgingly entered the presentation room and thought here we go again, another speaker talking about stuff we won't have time to do due to the "teaching to the test" mentality that rules around here.
he was very informative and extremely entertaining. if he could liven up a bunch of grumpy jaded teachers i can only imagine how he could inspire students. he spoke on how fluency is so important to teach in the reading class. having the students do repetitive reading...practice, practice, practice....helped them with building their vocabulary, confidence and reading skills. and how and when do we do repetitive reading? singing, poetry, theatre. he went on to talk about how we don't do very much singing in school anymore...a shame.
and then he ended with a song. i heard him sing. i saw the second verse and i started to cry. it caught me totally off guard.
it's a song i sing to Naima almost daily. when she was just born i would sing it to her every chance i had.
You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away
The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.
i never knew the complete song. as a matter of fact, i didn't even know the song had more than one verse. it's the second verse that really made me get so emotional.
tonight as i put Naima to sleep i continued with the second verse and thought of Mia. because it's every day and night that i dream of holding her, only to realize that can never be...
