<\/p>\n
Fortunately, I was raised in a family that encouraged reading at a young age.\u00a0 I can still recall some of my favorite childhood books that I would return to over and over again such as More Spaghetti, I\u00a0<\/em>Say <\/i>and\u00a0The Biggest Sandwich Ever<\/em>, both written by Rita G. Gelman and Mort Gerberg.\u00a0 Upon entering primary and secondary school, I learned to take notes in class and from textbooks.\u00a0 This process continued through college, both undergrad and master\u2019s programs.\u00a0 The difference, however, was that I purchased the books and had the freedom to highlight and underline, a process I continue today.\u00a0 I am not a fast reader; in college I averaged about 20 pages\/hour for a textbook.\u00a0 I also have the desire to read every page in a book; failure to do so will cause me to miss something vitally important is the belief that I have.\u00a0 Historically, I have enjoyed writing essays over taking tests.\u00a0 In studying for a test, I tend to not feel completely ready. Can I access all the material that I crammed into my brain over the course of several days or weeks?\u00a0 In writing an essay, I know that I am not the best writer, but feel that I can adequately cover the topic to a point in which it feels complete.<\/p>\n Starting the doctoral program, I realize that I have to shift my ways of doing things.\u00a0 Last semester, I had to begin to improve my writing to be more succinct.\u00a0 Last semester, I began reading an older copy of Adler and Van Doren\u2019s[1]<\/a> book How to Read a Book<\/em>.\u00a0 It was a bit overwhelming, reading it with the same belief that I have to read every page so that I don\u2019t miss anything.\u00a0 It was comforting to read that some books don\u2019t deserve anything more than an inspectional reading, that we do not have to do an analytical reading of every book we pick up.\u00a0 This will be a process to retrain how I approach books, but one I am excited to start.\u00a0 In regard to analytical readings I did enjoy the authors\u2019 chapters on Criticizing a Book Fairly<\/em> and Agreeing or Disagreeing With an Author<\/em>.[2<\/a>] I<\/u><\/span>\u00a0incorporated these rules into a freshman orientation class that I taught as the class prepared to research and write a paper on an opposing viewpoint.\u00a0 I hope to incorporate these rules into my own processing of books and articles as I explore my NPO.<\/p>\n I am also excited to start using Obsidian for note taking.\u00a0 I like the premise of Ahren\u2019s[3]<\/a> smart note taking ideas.\u00a0 I have several sticky notes on my computer, the program not physical notes, or files that contain ideas that I have for different classes I teach.\u00a0 However, I find that I seldom refer back to them.\u00a0 They get buried and forgotten.\u00a0 I think this system will work well for me as I try to get more organized and deal with an aging brain.\u00a0 I believe it will be interesting to see the connections that can be made between our leadership readings and our NPO research.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book<\/em> (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972).<\/p>\n