By Matt Tasler/sports@trcle.com
The students at Alvarado Intermediate School had a special treat on March 12-13 when several members of the community came to the school and read book excerpts to homeroom classes as part of the Indian Friend Reading Days.
The guest readers were assigned to a homeroom class and briefly explained to the students what their jobs entail and how having a solid educational background is important to them on a daily basis.
Alvarado ISD Superintendent Dr. Chester Juroska, athletic director Jeff Dixon, Alvarado mayor Tom Durrington, and members of the local police and fire departments were among those who read to students.
Board members, church representatives, administrators and high school students also donated their time to the program.
Alvarado Intermediate School Assistant Principal Lou Anne Stevens said the school didn’t have to do much planning to set up the morning’s events.
“We set aside the first hour of the day, and made our teachers aware of that,” Stevens said. “Our teachers have been made aware of the books that will be read in their classes, so they can expand on that if they want to in their class. Really we haven’t done a whole lot. We’re just relying on the good folks that are coming to help out.”
High school coaches stress academics to their athletes, and Dixon said spending an hour with the students is one way to show them how important a solid educational background is to success in life.
“There’s no doubt that’s why they’re here,” Dixon said. “Sports and extracurricular things are different avenues you can take, but academics are extremely important. I look forward to the opportunity to read to them, to meet some of our younger kids, and get to know them.”
Tommy Brown, public information officer for Alvarado ISD, said the district put together a reading day in November.
Eager volunteers
Several of the community members who participated also read to the students the first time around and were eager to volunteer again, he said.
“We were hoping to obviously get them excited about reading,” Brown said, “but at the same time get them excited about their community by getting community leaders to come in and do the reading. That’s a little more exciting than sitting down with mom or dad and reading, which is just as important. When they see police officers reading kids books, they’ll say, ‘Well, I can do this, too.’
“That’s the biggest thing — to get them excited about reading, but also get them excited about their community and learning a little bit about the people in our community from some of the leaders.”
Stevens said this was the first time the intermediate school was included in the program, and she said readers were stationed in all 20 homeroom classes at the school.
She said it was an enlightening experience for the students.
“They get to meet people from the community and find out why reading is important to them,” Stevens said. “Or why education is important to them. Then, they get to hear them read a story. I think it helps them to realize the importance of school. That it’s important later on in life.
“We’d love to have it grow. We’d love to have it more than once a year to give our kids the opportunity to meet more people and to see the opportunities that are out there for them through people that come into the school.”
Brown said several of the community members he approached about volunteering were eager to participate, and the majority of the ones who turned him down had prior engagements.
Change of pace
Having guests conduct the class for an hour or so provided a change of pace for the students, Brown said.
“Anytime you have a different voice it’s good for them,” he said. “Whenever you have a teacher you’ve been listening to for six months or whatever, sometimes you start to tune out a little bit. When you get somebody new, a different voice, and somebody exciting that you’ve never met that has this cool job, it might pique their interest a little bit more.”
Dixon said students who aspire to attend college need a solid reading background to maintain the academic success schools require. He said starting a reading program with the younger students will give them a head start on the rest of their academic career, since it is difficult to catch up as they get older.
For the most part, Dixon said he was looking forward to interacting with the students on a more personal level than normal.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know some of these younger kids,” he said. “I want to get into a classroom setting with them and read because they’re very attentive. The kids here are fantastic. Some of these kids I don’t know, and it gives me an opportunity to get to know who they are. And they’ll get to see a side of me they don’t normally get to see, which I think is important.”
