The Extreme Read Challenge made the Long Beach Press Telegram’s ”Reader Page!” This article  and picture was submitted by our PTA president, Jeri Lynn Cullison (who has also been a great supporter of this event for all three years). It reads:

The Marshall Academy of Scholars Librarian, Ameelia Ghareeb is surrounded by participating students at the end of the evening when Marshall held its 3rd Annual Extreme Read Challenge on May 26.  Ghareeb, started this as a fun, collaborative event that encourages nothing more than the joy of quietly reading. This year 74 people participated including students, special guests, family members and school staff. Ms. Ghareeb’s signature “brain food” trail mix and lots of healthy snacks were served to keep everyone focused. When the gong chimed at the end of four hours, everyone cheered, prizes were distributed and cake served. This year the Marshall Extreme Readers reached a combined total of 10,860 reading minutes. That is the equivalent of seven and a half days of reading!
Jeri Lynne Cullison
PTA President, Marshall Middle School

Marshall’s 3rd Annual Extreme Read Challenge

This is the third time we’ve done this event, each time more successful than the last. I based the idea off my previous school’s “Read-a-thon, but  we adjusted a ew tings. First, I wanted a collaborative, but not personally competitive event. Nothings adder than being the kid who lost at reading; every reader contributes something to our collective goal. This makes it a much lower-risk event for students try out. 

During the event I make sure the kids are as focused as possible by serving only healthy snacks and a family style dinner. No junk food allowed (until the after party!)  I know it’s super attractive to kids to sip a coke and munch doritos, but we’re not helping anyone concentrate this way. Our PTA brings apples, bananas and grapes, several moms make a huge pile of PB&J, and I have out little cups of my signature  ”brain food” trail mix. We set out huge trays on each table, and  kids can graze while they’re reading. 

We’ll have prizes, donated by teachers ro gathered here and ther during the year (great way to recycle appreciated, but not useful holiday presents–don’t worry, no one will ever know!). At the end of out time we ring a gong and cheer and have cake. . .and enjoy our success together!

Extreme Read Challenge 2009

Have an Extreme Read Challenge at your school 

It may look like a huge event, but it only takes a few people and lots pf peanut butter & jelly  to pull this off. If you can get a couple of PTA parents and one or two teachers, you’re in business. This is a great way to promote literacy as well as your library program (because where else are they going to get all those books to keep them busy for 4 hours!). Invite guests, take pictures, call your local newspapaer. 

We’re looking for sometime to challenge to a “Read-off next year. We can post “team profiles,” set up a webcam to watch each other’s event. . .could be a blast!

Check out some interesting resources at Santa Monica’s public library: people.   Here’s information google can’t touch. Patrons can “check out” experts on health, civics, advocates and just plain neat folks for brief conversation opportunities. It’s their “Living Library Project,” and I’d hate to see the over due fines on one of these!

Long Beach Councilperson puts her money where her mouth is; if you want change, you have to ask for it!  Gerrie Schipske uses a district-wide collection of “spare change” to help fund public libraries. So simple, this idea just might work.

But as I started looking through this year’s stock, I found myself very disappointed. Most of the usual stand-bys were missing (not a single Garfield to be found, can you believe it?) and what was there was yesterday’s news. No skateboarding trick books, no Bart Simpson, no Shonen Jump. My book-taper gently weeps. 

Maybe it’s a refelction on these grey down-trodden times, but this Book Fair seems extra barren. Perhaps fall will be better.

Cptn. Snyder answers student's questions about being a pilot.

I must stop here and loudly thank my guest and airline pilot, Captain Eric Snyder, for  attending. Not only did he drive 2 hours to get here,  and then stand out in the hot sun for 3 more, but he talked and talked with our students, telling wonderful stories about traveling the world and patiently answering all thier questions (even when they asked if he was afraid of heights for the hundredth time). My informal polling later that day showed he was a top favorite. 

The event was in two parts: one was a formal assembly, in which student council members interviewed several professionals, including a neurologist, an inventor, a lawyer, a museum director, and several public service jobs. But the real fun was out a t the “fairgrounds,” where the firemen and beach rescue had pulled up their trucks, a welder was demonstrating his blowtorch, Verizon had electrical gadgets the kids could take a part, and several others (including my favorite pilot!) had tables set up. Kids could wander around and talk one-on-one with anyone and everyone.

As I circulated with the other teachers and helped supervise, we all noticed something amazing happening out on the PE field that day: these kids were genuinely interested and curios, they were asking very good questions, and  without a doubt they were–without a multiple choice test in sight– learning. 

Students get a peek inside the firetruck.

Our Library put together a special display section on careers especially for this event. Featured titles included:

Career Building Through Blogging by Deirdre Day-MacLeod. Even some of our teachers didn’t know this was a viable career field.

Working In The Fashion Industry by Margaret McAlpine. Not to be discounted (was that a pun?); there’s serious money and huge career opportunities in this industry. 

Working With Animals by Margaret McAlpine.

Cool Careers Without College for People Who Love to Organize, Manage, and Plan by Robert Greenberger. GREAT series! Covers a range of interests, form nature to computers to building. What a concept: introducing careers based on what kids actually like to do!)

Earning Money by Patricia J. Murphy. Basics, basics, basics.

Design and Technical Art by Richard Spilsbury.

How The President Is Elected by Heather Lehr Wagner. Aim big, kids.

From Cnn.com: Hard Economic Times a Boon for Libraries

I did not believe it would ever happen. Our Book Truck Guy strolls in: “I’ve got some books for you.”

Ms. G looks at his empty hands for a moment, puzzled.  She’s thinking, “So. . .where are they? I don’t see any books? Why would you tell me you have books when you don’t have any books. . .” 

“They’re out in the hall.”

“Oh.” pause. realization. no way. “OOOOHHHHHHH!”

There they were. The huge order we placed to bring our library into the 21st century. All $19,000 worth. Science, History, Poetry! Topics the kids have been dying for, like soccer, current biographies, and awaited additions to several fiction series. There were shouts and cries alive with sheer joyousness.  I may have teared up. It’s entirely possible. 

Only issue? We ordered these books two years ago. Before California’s Budget Crisis consumed every resource we had. Before the economy got so bad I was thankful for even bookfair junk. To see this; this was magic. This was a miracle. Everyone told me I’ d never see a single page of those books. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m not thankful. I know a blessing when I see one. But alot happens in two years, enough to make you feel a little dumb as you start opening boxes. Like the 5 copies of “Diary of a Whimpy Kid”  that were already finagled through various donations. Or the soccer books that don’t have last years’ world cup winners in them (and you’d better believe the kids notice). Or that biography of a young Illinois senator who, two years ago, was only just getting his “I’m going to make history” groove going. 

But no matter, we are grateful to have these new books and our 900 kids will love them until they, quite literally, fall to pieces. Universe, however you  managed to pull this one off, I humbly thank you.

Over 50 students showed up for yesterday’s lunchtime Poetry Reading in the library; and not just a bunch of GATE kids, either. We had a group of 6th grade boys laugh at all the mentions of love, 8th grade girls shushing them, and a collection of middle school couples who actually read love poems for each other (cue 6th graders: add fake barfing here). Some poems were serious, while others were on the silly side (I personally read my favorite poem by Jack Pretulsky, “Homework, Oh Homework, I Hate You, You Stink”). As brave leaders got up to share their poems first, the list of kids who wanted to read got longer and longer. It was a wonderful and positive event for everyone.

Writing Workshop Gets Our Authors Ready 

All week long, a group of kids have been attending a Creative Writing Workshop hosted in our library. The first day provided a very informal introduction to collaborative writing; we did acrostic poems and worked together on choosing only the best, most interesting words for our poems. We were then blessed to have a wonderful poet, mentor, and writing coach, Shawn Marie Turi, join us for some more direct instruction. She worked with a group of about 10 girls, working on opening up the creative process and helping them find confidence in their words. She tirelessly listed to poem after poem, giving feedback and suggestions for revision. Several of these young ladies proudly read their poems at Friday’s event. As we wrapped it up, one student asked if we could do this every Friday!

Now I’ve done a few very successful creative writing events in my years, one including Ms. Turi’s magical ability to get kids to take their own ideas seriously (when all their regular teachers ever get from them are eye-rolls and attitude.) What stuck me about this event is the ease in which everything came together. We didn’t need fancy staging, tons of prep, or stuffy teachers directing the whole thing. All these kids needed was a opportunity to to try reading a poem out loud, whether it was their original work or one from our library’s poetry collection, and they created their own successful experience.

Long Beach Unified has just published the results of a comprehensive budget survey, designed to help identify priority programs as huge budget cuts loom. There were almost 6200 responses and among the top results were elementary and middle school libraries. 

Here are the results broken down  for middle school:

This tells me a few things about. First, it clearly demonstrates that parents, teachers, and administrators are noticing how important school libraries are to the educational process. I often feel like I’m just a broken record, having to repeat over and over again all the ways I’m closely involved in learning. Results like these whisper to me, “Hey, people notice. ” It’s nice to hear. 

Secondly, I think it’s very interesting how two reading-involved programs (School Libraries and Reading Intervention) out-weigh math. My experience has been that Language Arts teachers are constantly having to point out that acquiring reading skills is a vastly different (and much less clear-cut) process than acquiring math skills. It’s not that reading is harder or more important, but the process is just so complicated, lengthy, and vital to proficiency in every toher content area that we can’t let reading development out of our sights for second. Results like these lend support to this point of view. 

The results of this survey are meant only to “assist” in deciding which programs will be cut, and with California’s financial situation worsening everyday (today was the first Furlough Friday!) I’m certain school libraries will be affected in some way. My hope is that if they do cut our funding, it will neither be hasty nor will it be overly deep. LBUSD now knows that people, and lots of them, will be watching what happens to their school libraries. 

Full LBUSD Survey Results

UPDATE: As of Feb. 18, this is the official word from our Chief Library Lady: ” No mention has been made whatsoever of changing Librarians for next school year.”  Hopefully it will stay that way. A huge “Thank You” to everyone who completed the survey (and convinced their friends and family take it too!); our students really owe you one.

CONTINUED UPDATE: The LBUSD School Board just held their last meeting before the MArch 15 “pick Slip” deadline, with no one getting lay off notices. Whew!

Image from lbpl.org

 Councilwoman Gerrie Shipske (District 5) wants special district assessment to fund Long Beach library system. She makes several good points about the benefits of public libraries, but I’m not sure how crazy I am about relying on specialty groups for funding. Sounds  a little “iffy.”

Elementary students don’t have a school library, so they’re hoofin’ it. I applaud the staff at Castelar Elementary for “doin’ what you gotta do”: taking that weekly field trip to the public library and getting those kids reading. Now if only the school administration could get their act together. . .