by Ashlee Kaminski, TK Grade 3 Teacher -

Being a risk-taker requires bravery, pushing yourself beyond your comfort level and trying new things. Ayaha’s journey through the Reader’s Cup not only highlights how she has become a risk-taker, but also how her persistence and dedication has reaped many benefits. Joining the TK campus in August 2014, Ayaha’s command of the English language was very limited. As an English Language Learner, her teacher Mrs. Hagan observed that she managed to jump from Phase 1 to Phase 3 within her first year, a very rare feat, and one which was a result of Ayaha’s habit of reading every night.

This year, encouraged by her friend Mriganka, Ayaha nervously joined the Readers’ Cup team, after discovering that the competition is also open to ELL students. Week after week, she worked her way through the six Red Dot books, making copious notes on each book. Her teacher, Julie Serrao, was not surprised by Ayaha’s dedication to this new reading challenge, as she has always been dedicated to pushing herself to take on new challenges to the extent that she was willing to do the regular language homework in addition to her ELL workload. Ms. Serrao has always been proud of Ayaha’s excellent work ethic and passion for reading.

During the Readers’ Cup trials, Ayaha was dismayed to learn she couldn’t take her notebook with all her notes into the competition. However, her hard work paid off as she earned her place on the team that competed in the National Readers Cup Competition on 19 May at CIS Lakeside.

Way to go Ayaha!