"Miss Prinzo, I'm Learning to Read."

The title says it all. One of my most difficult students said this in a very sincere tone today during Literacy Rotation. I almost cried. The best part is that he is right. Things are starting to click for him and I couldn't be happier. His attitude has really improved over the past few weeks. He even has started filling out his reading log with "I RDBK" ( "I read a book" for those of you who are not fluent in first grade writing) every night . I didn't have a chance to check his folder for it yesterday and he reminded me at least 4 times. This is what drives me. You cannot bribe this type of motivation--it is a real desire to learn.