Teaching reading and writing in the NYC Public Schools was rewarding . Working with students that were not great readers and encouraging them to enjoy and embrace print was my greatest reward as an educator. Students that were nonreaders in September became avid and fluent and proficient readers by the end of the year and sometimee before. Writing their own version of short stories and classics was one thing that they loved to do. Adding a twist to Dracula or the Invisible Man or just writing a funny story brought smiles to their faces and made them feel like real authors.