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Can you tell us about yourself? 

Hi, my name is June Parrilli and I am a library media specialist at Indiantown middle school in Indiantown, Florida.

Why did you start a career in education?

I started a career in education after being in the commercial printing business. And I was looking for a change. I saw a couple of friends do different types of jobs. And when I went and saw my friend teach school second grade in Miami, I thought, Oh, that's what I wanted to do. So it's been great.

If you could have any other job what would it be and why?

And, and as much as I do love my job, I have thought of other jobs I would have enjoyed, which would be writing children's books. Um, that's kind of an obvious one for a teacher-librarian, I think, but also a science or medical researcher or maybe a travel blogger reviewer.I think those would all be a lot of fun and excitingly different from today than 30 years ago. 

How are kids different now than 30 years ago?

One of the things that I feel educators need to work with are that students need, I can do if you will. I feel the attention span is shorter. They are used to video apps, music, words, everything popping out, but in short blips, they get their information differently. I feel that reading levels have gone down. I've looked at books that were really popular 40 to 50 years ago and the age level recommendation. I look at it now and think that would be above kids' heads, the vocabulary, the detail of setting and such kids really need stuff. I think fast-paced and moving forward are different because of technology. Certainly, um, it used to be that we could be really creative in the classroom as well, and kind of create our lessons to fit our teaching mold and our way of teaching. Just like students have different, um, ways to learn. 

How is teaching different now than 30 years ago?

Some are auditory, some are visual, some are hands-on. Teachers are like that as well. But I feel now we've got such a set curriculum, so much information, so many standards to meet and assessments that I feel a lot of that creativity has fallen away, which is too bad and land. 

What would you tell someone who wants to become a teacher?

Let's see, Oh, if you're thinking of becoming a teacher right now, I say, go for it. Some of my little complaints about the creativity and things being gone, or because I was teaching a long time ago and I see those differences, but those of you coming into the education field now, you don't know those differences and you can be super excited and teach in the way we need you to teach now and you'll find your own creativity and ways to do things. The technology aspect now is fabulous. There's so many things we can do on the video programs with the kids that, um, those are your strong suits.I wasn't raised on those capabilities. So there's a lot that you can still do and we need good teachers. We need people to make an impact. We need people to go on to professions that they're passionate about. So if you're thinking about teaching, go for it. 

What would you change to help kids learn better?

And one thing I would change to help kids learn, I'd like to try to incorporate reading of interesting books with the topic and subject areas going along in social studies and science. I think it would be a great way to teach nonfiction. And even if kids are reading historical fiction, um, taking place at a different time in history that they need to learn about if they can do that and reading class while learning about it in social studies, I think that would be wonderful. I also want kids to love to read. I feel the love of reading has gone out the window and as a library media specialist, it's what I'm trying to instill in my kids, because if they love to read, there'll be better readers obviously.And then there'll be able to get through the technical and fact texts that they need to read and absorb for their curriculum classes, social studies, sciences, and so on and so forth. So that's one thing I'd like to change is try to get a little bit more fun reading if you will pleasure reading, not analyze fiction to death. Sorry. I'll get off my soapbox now. Thank you TFD for the supplies. I use earbuds all the time. TFD is it's excuse for me. TFD is awesome. The earbuds come quickly. They're great. I use them in the media center. If students have lost their earbuds or headphones, they can come buy them for a dollar. They're also an incentive in my reading program. Thank you so much, so much. TFD appreciates this opportunity.