Miss Eyre at NYC Educator describes feeling “insanely, irrationally jealous” of her students during their free reading time. She writes:
It's really hard to do quality reading during the school year, especially if you're an English teacher and you have to stay on top of the texts you're reading with your students. ... I need someone to sit me down, stare at me, and instruct me to do nothing but read for a period of time every day.
The jealousy is probably heightened in part because of her hands-off policy on book selection. Miss Eyre explains:
Now, true independent reading involves students reading—just reading—self-chosen texts, and that's how I roll. I maintain a sizeable classroom library for kids who don't have something of their own to read, and I'm happy to let kids read skateboarding magazines or comic books if that's what they're into.