Thursday, May 29, 2014

Give Books, Create Readers



A local group of retired educators and other staff reached out to the next generation when the organization handed nearly 240 free special interest and elementary-level fiction books to third- and fourth-grade students at Edgewood Elementary School.

Dwayne Munos, a retired Spring Branch ISD coach and administrator who is now an officer with the Northwest Harris County Retired Teachers Association, joined school librarian Barbie Miller recently to distribute free books to students in the two grade levels.

The book giveaway was made possible through donations by members of the local retired teachers association, an affiliate of the Texas Retired Teachers Association, and the National Retired Teachers Association.

The district-related association has distributed free books to elementary students for several years now at several district campuses.

On April 11, Munos joined Miller in the school library to distribute books. Students gathered at library tables to review titles, picked the exact book that they liked, and then signed labels inside the front covers to make the choices their own.

Do books designed as reading for pleasure make a difference in children’s lives? Librarian Miller, for one, proclaims “Yes!”

“It’s about literacy. Young children need to be reading each and every day. All the research shows that reading is the key to everything – student achievement, regular attendance, test scores, graduation, just everything,” Miller says.

“Students need to read, read, read so that they love books and then become lifelong readers,” she adds.

For Munos, who coached and was an assistant principal and athletic administrator at the secondary level, watching young children pick out books for themselves has its own personal reward. “My years were spent in the secondary area. It’s exciting to see these little ones get excited about reading their own book, and it’s really fun,” Munos says.

Munos serves as second vice president for the local association. The giveaway at  Edgewood Elementary was one of the area Retired Teachers Association’s special projects this year.

To learn more about the association, visit the group online:
http://www.localunits.org/northwestharris/index.cfm/membership/

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