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NORTH MANCHESTER - Manchester High School students will celebrate American Education Week Nov. 12-18, with several "Reading Rocks" activities.
"I wanted to do some promotion of reading this year," MHS media specialist Suzan Skaar said. "I just think reading is fundamental to education. Teachers promote reading in the classroom all the time. I just wanted to promote recreational reading, too."
The American Library Association has a Teen Week, but it came at a bad time for MHS. So Skaar came up with her own activities to celebrate reading through Reading Rocks. She said this is the high school's first year participating in Reading Rocks activities.
Through the ALA, Skaar received promotional T-shirts, temporary tattoos, bookmarks and posters. Each of these items will be used to promote reading activities.
As part of Reading Rocks, senior Andrea Shoemaker took pictures of approximately 16 students reading books. Skaar said the pictures will be made into posters and will be hung around the school during American Education Week.
"(We) try to make school celebrities out of kids who don't normally get to be school celebrities," Skaar said.
There also will be an all-day coffeehouse in the media center for students to visit during their study hall. Coffee and tea will be served. And each student who visits the media center can enter their name in a drawing for a free book or Reading Rocks T-shirt. Two names will be selected each day. Students also can get a free Reading Rocks tattoo, "in an appropriate place, of course," Skaar said.
Also as part of Reading Rocks, teachers' favorite books from their childhood or adult years will be displayed in a showcase in the commons. And, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. there will be a book club meeting for staff, students and teachers. "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson will be discussed. A video of book talks from Carmel, Ind., students also will be shown during the week.
Throughout the week, Skaar said, coupons from local businesses will be given away to students who have finished a book from the Rosewater list. Coupons may include free video rental, free cookie, free sundae, free pizza, etc.
The Rosewater list is part of a reading program for students across Indiana each year. This is MHS's fifth year participating in the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Awards. Skaar said a list of 20-25 books is displayed in the media center for students to read.
"I try to encourage them to read at least five books," Skaar said. Then students vote in April on their favorite books.
More than 100 schools in Indiana are participating in this program. "It's a pretty new program," Skaar said. Out of all the high schools participating, the votes are tallied and the author of the favorite book is awarded at a banquet.
Skaar said this program is "just to kind of tune kids in to reading stuff that's good. It covers a wide range of reading ability and interest."
The books are purchased in the spring and Skaar starts promoting the program when school starts.
"I just wanted to do one more activity to promote reading for fun," Skaar said.
She said American Education Week is going to be busy, but she's very excited about it.
"I want to make sure I don't forget anything," she said. "I think we still need to continue to encourage (recreational reading)."
