Tim Tingle

I had the chance to see Tim Tingle speak at the Library on April 8. He is a Choctaw Indian and he tells stories around the world. He was amazing! He started off with the Choctaw Indian version of Amazing Grace, playing the beat on one of his awesome drums. Words cannot explain how wonderful of a storyteller he was. His stories were awesome and very heart touching. The part of his story that really caught my attention was the story about his trip to Alaska.

He went to Alaska to visit a school and while he was walking through the hallways, the principal told him, “You are about to see something you have never witnessed before.” While he was telling us this story I was thinking to myself, what in the world goes on at this school. Then Tim Tingle proceeded by telling us that at five minutes till ten, the secretary unplugged the phone and shut down her computer, the teachers came out of their rooms and got a cup of coffee, and the students moved to where they wanted to in the building. Each person had a book, every teacher, coach, secretary, administrator, and student had a book to read for fun. They could not read any book that had to do with their school subjects; it was purely reading for pleasure.

The school called it “The Sound of Reading.” I think this is amazing. They had an hour a day to read for pleasure! This is something that I think is very important. Reading opens so many doors; however, some people don’t explore those doors because they never have the chance to read for pleasure. I think this is a great way to get students back into reading and I really want to use this in my classroom one day.