I've written before about Chantel Nicolella, an English teacher at McGuffey Middle School. This is the second time I have blogged about Nicolella who has invited me to speak to her classes on career day every day for the last four years.

First off, I hate public speaking. Every time I speak to public school students, I spend the entire period babbling incoherently and counting the number of sleepers and droolers.

I'm not interesting. I get desperate and then I always, always resort to my awful "tripping-over-the-sheet-covered-body-lying-on-the-Interstate-79-from-my-first-night-of-work-as-a-police-reporter-storythe first time I went to a fatal accident" story. If that doesn't work, I name drop. It is just so sad.

But self-mocking was not my intention in writing to you today dear bloggee. I am writing about Nicolella who is a teacher that every student should have, no matter where they go to school.

She doesn't start her class period yelling for students to be quiet. She starts by reading for a few minutes. That's it. She just opens a book and starts reading. Many of her students, the principal of the middle school once told me, will rush into class early and sit at their desks quietly just so they don't miss a part of the story.

Nicolella loves books. On career day, in between classes, she tells me that most nights, when all is done, she doesn't turn on the television. She reads, plowing through several books in a week. She regularly checks out new titles from the school library. I'll admit, this is one of the few bright spots of career day, and one of the reasons I come to career day, to hear her talk about books.

Last year, she recommended, The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.

This year she recommended "Twilight" and "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyer and "Because of Anya" by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

Ms. Nicolella told me that she chose "Because of Anya" this year, a story about a girl who has to wear a wig because of cancer, because one her students recently grew his hair out and donated it to Locks of Love.