Oklahoma Book Bus Brings Reading to Kids Over the Summer
Never underestimate a teacher who believes in the power of reading.
Misty Eidson is an educator in Oklahoma at Mustang Public Schools, and she spearheaded efforts in her district to get a summer book motorbus on the streets of her community. This was no piece of cake feat, considering they had cipher budget and no bus at the start. Merely that didn't stop them.
"It actually seemed similar there was no mode we could do this at get-go," Eidson says. "We knew we had to testify people our vision."
Summer + reading = genius
This vision started last summer when Eidson was reading a professional development book about merely how powerful getting kids to autumn in honey with reading is.
"The inquiry shows that if students take access to 12–15 books over the summertime, the loss of learning over the two-month break tin be minimized or even overcome," Eidson says.
Since Eidson'southward district doesn't have a traditional summertime school program, this statistic really stuck with her. As a teacher, she's definitely seen the firsthand impact of the summertime slide—when students lose two months of educational activity—and she loved the thought of books offering a solution.
She and other organizers went directly to their superintendent considering they knew what they needed first: a bus.
Anyone desire to paint a motorbus?
Fortunately the schoolhouse district had a autobus that would soon be retiring from regular routes, which was smashing. But they shortly found out that they had a long way to go before information technology could get their official Mustang Bronco Volume Coach.
It needed a lot of work on both the inside and outside to operate as a volume bus, and the district didn't have money in the upkeep for it. So Eidson and others got creative. They asked the AP fine art kids from the high school to pigment it. Their maintenance coiffure offered to become the inside prepare and build shelves—fifty-fifty the wood for that was donated. And then they put out a telephone call for books to make full it.
"One time people heard well-nigh it, books just started pouring in," Eidson says. "Our community really came together for this project."
Books and snow cones simply belong together.
The book motorcoach goes out into the community twice a calendar week, covering a large commune of about 70 miles. In particular, the coach goes to areas that aren't most a public library.
"A lot of our kids aren't within five miles of a public library," Eidson says. "Having access to books is a need in our community. It's a need in a lot of communities."
When students visit the book bus, they can check out 2 books at a fourth dimension. They tin can too stick effectually for special story times with local celebrity readers, games, and other activities. Students can earn tickets for prizes by making repeat visits or returning books. There'southward fifty-fifty a snowfall cone truck (genius idea) that follows the book bus around, and 25 percent of its sales go toward paying for the bus' fuel.
"I had no idea how it was going to become, but it'due south been amazing to watch," Eidson says. "The first stop, nosotros had kids walking and biking up to united states of america right away, and they all took books. My favorite moment was a trivial girl who got on the motorcoach and immediately started squealing. She had found a Harry Potter book that she had been wanting for months, and she was so excited to finally accept information technology."
The Mustang Bronco Volume Charabanc is non the newest, biggest, or fanciest affair around, but Eidson knows information technology has plenty of centre. And it's doing exactly what Eidson and her coworkers set out to do—get kids reading.
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Plus, how to bring little free libraries to your school.
Source: https://www.weareteachers.com/book-bus/
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