About Me

Welcome to my blog! I'm Rachel Ceci, a Family and Consumer Science Teacher at Kennett High School.  I have been teaching at KHS for three years and am looking forward to incorporating more technology into my lessons, during my fourth year. I teach Pastry Arts, Foods and You, Nutrition and Wellness and International Foods. I am searching for ways to motivate my students to write extensively and become avid readers.  I incorporate reading and writing into every lesson, even on days that we cook.

I am almost finished earning my MA in the TESOL program at West Chester University.  I am passionate about reading romantic novels and mysteries, when I am not reading my grad textbooks.  In my spare time, I love to cook, decorate cakes, rock climb, run and travel.

I enjoy learning how to use new technology. However, I am relatively slow at mastering the skills I learn.  I am very quiet, but I must have a lot to say because it comes out in my writing.  I love to write letters, e-mails and write in my journal.  I will try to keep my blog posts brief, but it goes against my nature. :-)

As I mentioned before, I deeply enjoy reading.  I would like to share this love with my students.  Reading, whether a traditional bound book or an electronic source, is simply the interaction between the reader and the text.  Reading is a fairly subjective experience, as each reader brings unique background experiences and knowledge to the text.  Thus, it is extremely possible for different readers to obtain different meanings from the same text.  I recently was reminded of this fact when a friend zealously recommended that I read a specific book.  She told me that it was captivating and she could not put it down.  When I got the book, I was so excited about reading it because of the good recommendation.  I read the first three chapters and felt overwhelmed by the depressing content.  I could not understand how anyone could find enjoyment from it.  Later, I brought up my feelings about the book to my friend, she was shocked and shared that she had not interpreted it the same way.  I believe that I was interpreting the content in a more negative light because of the negative events taking place in my own life, at the time.  Therefore, one’s background experience is very powerful in directing his understanding of any given text.  I look forward to any suggestions you might be able to offer in supporting my students to become proficient readers and writers. 

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