Busby School welcomed a number of guests last week all in the name of literacy.
From Nov. 23 to 27, guest readers ranging from hockey coaches to dance teachers, police officers and a local firefighter read to students during the school’s first-ever read-in week.
Teacher Carla Felske, who organized the program, got the idea from other schools and thought it would be a perfect for Busby.
“I remember seeing [in the news] that they do read-in programs in the schools in the city,” Felske said.
“We thought it would be neat to bring it to Busby and have people from our community get involved with our school and come in and read with the kids and share their love of reading.”
Felske was able to book six readers, one for each class at the school.
“We tried to pick people the kids were familiar with,” she said, adding she wanted to get a diverse mix.
“I think the list of five or six that we started with was who we got. .”
Ultimately, Felske said she hopes the event will help promote literacy and get kids reading outside school hours.
“It’s getting them more interested in reading and seeing these adults in a different capacity and see that they’re reading, too,” she said.
“The idea is getting our community involved at our school with literacy and the kids seeing literacy as a big part of everybody’s life.”
Local RCMP Const. and hockey coach Dave Wilejto was one of the six guest readers and visited Jim Schaffer’s Grade 3 class.
Keeping in line with the hockey theme, Wilejto read The Hockey Card by Jack Siemiatycki and Avi Slodovnick.
After reading the book Wilejto explained why reading and numeracy are important and answered questions from the kids. Wilejto said he was more than happy to participate.
“I look at this as our future, and I’ve got kids this age and I enjoy doing this kind of thing,” he said.
“It’s good for them to have people that they recognize in the community to show that they care.”
Wilejto said it’s a matter of investing time in kids to get them interested.
“Kids are going to buy in if you show that you’re interested … I think it’s important to show that there’s interest there, and you’re interested and you’re willing to put time in, they’re going to give you time, too,” he said.
“I think that books aren’t utilized like they used to be. I don’t think kids are exposed to it as much as they used to, and I think they should be. The more competent you are with a pencil, paper and a book the better off you’re going to be.”
Felske said read-in week was such a success that she has already started planning a spring session.
“We’re planning on having another one in March and pick some different people … it would be nice if we could do it a couple times a year,” she said.
“As we get going I think the kids will come up with some good ideas for speakers to bring in.”
