1. 1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
April 16, 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton GA, 30115
Dear Judges:
My name is Jenna Rehm and for my senior project I came up with a reading program at
Macedonia Elementary to help foster the love and importance of reading to young
students. I had strong goals in mind when creating this project. Throughout this process I
wanted to be able to prove to the elementary students the strong power that reading has
on their education. While developing this project with the after school program, I kept
another goal in mind. This goal was to continually keep the meetings fun and interesting.
I knew that in order to send a message to such a young audience, the only way to do so
would be to keep it entertaining for them every step of the way. My goal was to make a
difference to these children, and by having nine reading meetings with them over the
course of three months, I believe I have accomplished that goal.
The nine reading meetings I produced and led was the product of my senior project.
During each meeting I would meet with two of the grade levels. I would begin each
lesson by reading a short story. After I was done, I would help the children in making arts
and crafts and food activities. It was a great way to promote the importance and fun of
reading. This product strongly relates to my research paper. Throughout my paper, I
focused on why reading at such a young age is so important to young students. I found
that many elementary schools nation-wide are working hard to create with programs and
opportunities for their students that involve reading. The AASL (American Association
of School Librarians) is a program in particular that sets goals relevant to the needs of
individual schools in America in order to promote reading as a necessity. Schools are
beginning to do what they can to keep reading at a maximum for their students by
promoting programs such as “Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library”, which has
been recently set up around America. While producing these meetings and researching
background information, I overcame a few obstacles. One challenge was being aware of
allergies in my food choices. Peanut butter allergies were a big issue with the students, so
this allergy was handled very seriously each week as I picked out the snack. Another
obstacle I overcame was the day school was not in session on a Tuesday I had planned a
meeting for. I had to quickly send a notification to the office at Macedonia stating that I
would be there Thursday of that week instead. It was frustrating that everything did not
go as planned, but these obstacles only made my success feel that much better. Through

2. all of my hard work, I know that got my message to the children. They began to see just
what I was trying to convey to them through this project.
My topic and research relates to a career in the teaching field. I have always wanted to be
a teacher, but after doing this project, I have realized that it is not the career for me to
pursue in my postsecondary endeavors. Working with kids is something I really enjoy,
but I do not have the patience required to keep them occupied all day long with lessons
and activities. I enjoyed making hour-long lessons, but that was about all I would ever be
able to handle. I believe that I would do best in a career where I can challenge myself to
reach goals on a daily basis. Being able to reach my goal of showing the importance of
reading to young students was an amazing feeling. Setting a goal and reaching it through
hard work and dedication was the one aspect of this project that I would love to pursue in
my postsecondary endeavors.
I really enjoyed doing the Senior Project. I think that it was a great experience as it
challenged me to work alongside an interesting career. This project was definitely a great
learning experience. I have never been exposed to what goes on behind the scenes of
teaching, but through this process I was able to learn a lot. My project was an amazing
way to expose me to the world I will soon be encountering.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jenna Rehm