Every child deserves a positive, safe, enriching and stimulating learning environment in which they will grow academically, socially, emotionally and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment and education that will help them achieve academic success and lifelong learning. It is the responsibility of a literacy instructor to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide them with instruction that will help them become good readers and writers. There are many programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, everyone begins to develop their own creative approach to teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positives and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach to literacy seems to be the best way to teach the different needs of each student. As an educator, it is essential that goals include teaching students to be the best students they can be. In this context, teachers must choose among different literacy programs to meet the needs of all students. Providing a combination of approaches is the best way to teach literacy. Providing students with the benefits of a basic reader and using children's books is the best way to teach literacy in the classroom. According to Pressley, a balanced literacy program is one that integrates effective skills instruction and a high awareness of holistic reading and writing. By integrating skills teaching and a holistic approach, students will receive the basic skills and knowledge they will need to learn to read. A balanced classroom literacy program should explicitly involve...... middle of paper ...... power technology provides students with opportunities to succeed in reading and writing. As an educator, and perhaps a future literacy teacher, it is essential to teach students that learning is not something that only happens in school. Learning will happen every day for as long as one lives. Learning takes place at school, at home, at a sporting event, at the mall or on the computer. Learning happens everywhere. It is also important to teach students that reading is everywhere and will follow them throughout their lives. As educators, we must help students love reading and develop a love for it that will last forever. It is therefore our role to provide the best possible teaching and to use assessment which allows children to succeed. Most importantly, as lifelong learners, we must strive to ensure that our students become and remain lifelong learners..