Look What's Happening at Hill!
But the task was, How? Along came the Parent Involvement Grant which made everything fall into place. Our motto this year is "Lose Yourself in a Good Book." At the beginning of the school year, I conducted a survey of our student body. Children will read about subjects that interest them. I asked three questions;
As a result of the survey, the top answers to the first question were doctor, lawyer, football/basketball player, policeman, fireman, a star, and a musician. But the most amazing outcome to me was that every student answered "yes" to questions two and three! I thought to myself, "How can I pull my resources and get all of these professionals in the same place at the same time?" So I called on a few friends, most of them I’ve known since childhood, and came up with... Conversations with
African American Role Models
This event was held in February to coincide with Black History Month. My friends were very excited to share their backgrounds and successes with the students. Most of them grew up in this very neighborhood and are very successful. They are always eager and willing to give back to the community from which they came. I had a pediatrician, an attorney, a NFL football player, a police officer, a firefighter, and a professional drummer. Because of time constraints, I decided it would be easier to let the audiences stay stationary in four small groups of twenty to thirty people and move the speakers around from class to class. This made for a much more intimate setting between the speakers and the audiences. I paired the doctor with the lawyer and the police officer with the firefighter. With the help of our two coaches, we were able to move the speakers around with ease. After refreshments, every child left with a book. All of the feedback was very positive. It was a great evening!
PJ's at PJ Hill (Dr.
Seuss Pajama Party)
Reading should be a family activity. The main theme of this program was to show the importance of reading together. Everyone, including staff and parents, came dressed in their pajamas. As every child entered, they were allowed to choose a book to add to their home library. To my amazement, 200 people, including 90 parents, attended the event. Our drama club and a special education class did two skits based on Dr. Seuss books. We brought in two professional story tellers for entertainment. But the most remarkable thing happened. The children weren’t paying any attention to the story tellers. Admittedly, I was very annoyed because it was extremely noisy. I felt I needed to restore order so I started walking towards the microphone and then it hit me. The children weren’t being rude; they were all reading their books with their families! To borrow a phrase from Ellin Keene, "How gorgeous!" I felt sorry for the story tellers, but I was overwhelmed with the outcome. Children were excited about reading and parents wanted to know if we would have books for adults at the next event. They were also excited about reading! The atmosphere was charged with positive energy and it felt great. Parents and children reading together...I love it! Book Writing
Now that we have students and parents interested in reading, it was time to move to the next level, writing. Because of the budget, we had to limit the book writing to 25 students. I thought it would be more than enough because writing is hard work and nobody wants to do extra work. To my surprise, we had a waiting list. Unbelievable! Our first session, instructed by our critical friend, was a smash. The children and their parents were so interested that they could hardly wait to get started. Some of them were even planning set times during each day to work together on this project. It was past bedtime and my own children didn’t want to stop writing. It was fantastic. We have two more writing sessions to complete the project and off it goes to the publisher to be hard bound and returned just in time for a huge signing party in June. Hopefully, I can convince some of my friends to return and sign the books.
We also have planned an activity called, "Bingo for Books" (self explanatory). Hopefully, every student will leave this school year with four to five books to add to their libraries. And we will be sending them off with a journal to write with their parents over the summer. I have also been keeping a video documentary of every event. A 15-minute clip will be put together for our summer institute. Hopefully, Steve will be able to squeeze it into the busy schedule (hint, hint). Thanks for letting me share our experiences and don’t forget to "Lose yourself in a good book!"
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