Profile - Lennea Lacey

Reading Recovery is a first grade short-term intervention developed in New Zealand by Mari Clay. It is for young students who are struggling to learn how to read and write. I work one-on-one with these underperforming students for approximately a semester to bring them up to the “average range” of most other first grade students. It is my passion and delight to help these young learners overcome their reading and writing obstacles and deficiencies. My goal is to equip them to become proficient first grade students with tools that will serve them throughout their lives academically, in the workplace and society.

While growing up I played “school” with my siblings and friends using real wooden classroom desks in our basement. I always knew that someday I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I walked a block to our neighborhood school each day, went home for lunch in my early years when my mom wasn’t working, and then walked back for afternoon classes. I had the most wonderfully positive elementary school education and experience.

Professional Experience

I graduated from Iowa Western Community College with an Associate Degree; then Buena Vista Community College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education. I also continued my studies and obtained my Early Childhood Endorsement Certificate from the University of Northern Iowa. I was a first grade classroom teacher in Council Bluffs Public School system in Iowa. Upon moving to Lincoln, NE I was again a first grade teacher before the opportunity presented itself for me to become a Reading Recovery teacher in 2001. I received my certificate during the 2001-2002 school year. It has been my delight to be a Reading Recovery teacher ever since.