Little red bookshelves are popping up all over Minnesota with the help of members of the MRC.
Members in the North Central and North East regions are sponsoring BRBs – specifically, Bright Red Bookshelves with Project READ through the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and Big Red Bookshelves through the United Way of Duluth. Hopefully this won't turn into an MRC competition of bookshelf against bookshelf. Let's all just remember it's for the kids.
Aside from semantic differences, these bookshelves are all sponsored with the intention of improving childhood literacy by getting books to children early on. Kids can use any of the books at the site, or take one home for free.
These members keep their bookshelves active by soliciting donations, running book drives, sorting books and spreading the word in the community about childhood literacy. In Duluth, members also participate with the United Way in the Big Red Bookshelf committee and one member is a liaison between the committee and the shelf host at a local hospital.
Jill Henners, Patrick Antil, David Bard and Lara Olson from the North East region collected 612 books for their six Big Red Bookshelves in Duluth.
Dion Card, Jeanette Brown, Carolyn Boyer and Jane Shaner-Mauser sorted books from Project READ for the bookshelf in Grand Rapids.
Heather Gilge, Jeanette Brown, Sara Gonzales, Arlene Feltus sponsor the Grand Rapids bookshelves.
The BRBs are yet another example of the various efforts that MRC members are making in the community to advance literacy education. As the Minnesota Reading Corps, it is the MRC’s responsibility to do the work in Minnesota, but by members going beyond the individual sites and collaborating with other organizations like Project READ, Read for the Record and Books for Africa, there is a much greater impact being made on a local, national and global scale. As if spending your time teaching children to read wasn't enough.
11.12.2009
11.09.2009
MRC at the Tesfa Foundation 5k
The Tesfa Foundation funds early childhood education in Ethiopia. So far, five schools have been opened and the sixth is in progress. Their work has provided an education to nearly 1,000 children who would otherwise have no school to go to.
11.05.2009
Double Post!!
I'll let this speak for itself:
Calling all runners!So e-mail Paul and represent the MRC and its support for the Tesfa Foundation!
MRC Member Paul Duncan is organizing a Minnesota Reading Corps team to take part in the Tesfa Run for the Kids 5k on Saturday November 7th. Money raised by the event supports the Tesfa Foundation, a Minneapolis-based charity that provides early childhood education to disadvantaged children in Ethiopia, where no public preschool or kindergarten is available. Tesfa has founded five schools in and around Addis Ababa and will open a sixth next year. For more information, please see http://www.tesfa.org/.
To encourage participation, Paul has offered to pay the race registration fees for the first five MRC members who e-mail him at pnduncan@gmail.com. Please include your name and phone number. Paul will contact you for registration details if you are one of the first five to contact him. If you are not one of the first five, but would still like to take part in the race, the registration form can be downloaded at http://www.tesfa.org/events.html.
PLEASE NOTE: Members who sign up for this civic engagement event will be expected to participate in the race as promised. Members will also be required to wear their MRC T-shirts during the event.
Minnesota #1 in Civic Engagement
Earlier this week, Minnesota was dubbed the number one state in the nation for civic engagement. The ranking was based off of voter turnout rate and volunteerism among other factors.
I'm sure Minnesota's rank was completely coincidental with the fact that the research was done by The Center for Democracy and Citzenship at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Really, I'm just bitter that my home state is unmentioned in the report.
Even though the rest of the country showed a drop in civic engagement during the recession, Minnesota “showed civic resilience”. 60.5% of Minnesotans reported volunteering while the rest of the country reported 39.9%.
You can read more about the results here, along with some comments from the co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. The report is also available to download here, however I couldn't get it to open.
It seems like there is just more and more to brag about recently. Minnesota’s ranking as #1 seems to be echoed by the MRCs record recruitment this year. 555 new members have been placed in schools.
I'm sure Minnesota's rank was completely coincidental with the fact that the research was done by The Center for Democracy and Citzenship at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Really, I'm just bitter that my home state is unmentioned in the report.
Even though the rest of the country showed a drop in civic engagement during the recession, Minnesota “showed civic resilience”. 60.5% of Minnesotans reported volunteering while the rest of the country reported 39.9%.
You can read more about the results here, along with some comments from the co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. The report is also available to download here, however I couldn't get it to open.
It seems like there is just more and more to brag about recently. Minnesota’s ranking as #1 seems to be echoed by the MRCs record recruitment this year. 555 new members have been placed in schools.
11.03.2009
The Official Count
Way back in October, The MRC participated in something called Read for the Record. I'm sure you've never heard of it. It's this event where people gather up students in schools and read the same book all over the country. It really didn't go over that well. And by didn't go over well, I mean it was a huge success. As of October 15, Read for the Record had tallied over one-million readers, and since that is the last number that they have announced, I can only assume they are still counting.
The MRC on the other hand, has finished their own count and has officially announced that its members read to 10,945 young readers! You have claimed your very own percentage of the humongous number of people participating in Read for the Record this year, and it's even a whole number. Awesome job everyone!
The MRC on the other hand, has finished their own count and has officially announced that its members read to 10,945 young readers! You have claimed your very own percentage of the humongous number of people participating in Read for the Record this year, and it's even a whole number. Awesome job everyone!
10.27.2009
Who Needs Candy?
I’ve been practicing my vocab recently. Thanks to a site called freerice.com, I can quiz myself on new vocabulary while watching TV. It shows you a word, ideally one you’ve never seen before, and you have to choose the right definition. The words get harder as you go and the points that you earn get translated into grains of rice that are donated to Africa. This has made me think about how oddly fun learning new words can be.
Over the summer, I started keeping a word-journal. Every time I come across a word I’ve never seen before, or something that just interests me (ever wonder why “enough” and “although” look the same and sound completely different?), I research it. I put the definition in a little book and never, ever forget the word again.
Studying Latin roots and prefixes might be a little too intense for kids just learning their ABCs, but I’ve been thinking about how exciting new words are when you are just learning them for the first time. The word-journal might be nerdy and probably a little extreme, but think about opening one of the fortune cookies with the Chinese vocab on the inside. It’s fun, right?
With Halloween coming up, kids of course will go candy-crazy, but there’s no reason why MRC kids can’t trick-or-treat for words too. Little candy bars with vocabulary words written on them can be the new fortune cookie. Trick or Treating might be forever changed with this idea, and you will have heard about it first here. When you consider the number of Halloween-related words that don’t really get used the rest of the year, it really seems like there’s a lot to work with too. How often do you use “ghoul” or “spook” November through September?
It’s just a thought. How are you going to be celebrating Halloween at your site? Have any volunteer horror stories to share?
Over the summer, I started keeping a word-journal. Every time I come across a word I’ve never seen before, or something that just interests me (ever wonder why “enough” and “although” look the same and sound completely different?), I research it. I put the definition in a little book and never, ever forget the word again.
Studying Latin roots and prefixes might be a little too intense for kids just learning their ABCs, but I’ve been thinking about how exciting new words are when you are just learning them for the first time. The word-journal might be nerdy and probably a little extreme, but think about opening one of the fortune cookies with the Chinese vocab on the inside. It’s fun, right?
With Halloween coming up, kids of course will go candy-crazy, but there’s no reason why MRC kids can’t trick-or-treat for words too. Little candy bars with vocabulary words written on them can be the new fortune cookie. Trick or Treating might be forever changed with this idea, and you will have heard about it first here. When you consider the number of Halloween-related words that don’t really get used the rest of the year, it really seems like there’s a lot to work with too. How often do you use “ghoul” or “spook” November through September?
It’s just a thought. How are you going to be celebrating Halloween at your site? Have any volunteer horror stories to share?
10.22.2009
Books for Africa
Last Saturday, members of the MRC participated in a service project with Books for Africa. MRC members worked in two shifts to sort as many books as possible so they could be packed up and sent to schools in Africa. The books are being sent in the effort to end Africa’s book famine.
It seems unusual to someone brought up in an American school to think of students going to class and for the only book they see to be the one that the teacher is reading aloud from. This is often the case in many African schools. Most African children who attend school have never owned a book. Books for Africa solicits donations, and with the help of volunteers like those from the MRC, packs and ships books to Africa, to students seeking an education. Kris Jensen, a volunteer coordinator from the metro region, said that it was neat to know each book she touched would eventually make its way to Africa to enrich another’s life.
The goal of Books for Africa is undeniably noble, and according to Hannah Kinney from the metro region, sorting books is even fun. She enjoyed sorting and coming across books she remembered from childhood or that she had read in a class. For her, it was great to see that “these books, many of them in excellent condition, aren't just being thrown out because the school district decides to switch the curriculum but that kids can continue to use them to learn.”
It seems unusual to someone brought up in an American school to think of students going to class and for the only book they see to be the one that the teacher is reading aloud from. This is often the case in many African schools. Most African children who attend school have never owned a book. Books for Africa solicits donations, and with the help of volunteers like those from the MRC, packs and ships books to Africa, to students seeking an education. Kris Jensen, a volunteer coordinator from the metro region, said that it was neat to know each book she touched would eventually make its way to Africa to enrich another’s life.
The goal of Books for Africa is undeniably noble, and according to Hannah Kinney from the metro region, sorting books is even fun. She enjoyed sorting and coming across books she remembered from childhood or that she had read in a class. For her, it was great to see that “these books, many of them in excellent condition, aren't just being thrown out because the school district decides to switch the curriculum but that kids can continue to use them to learn.”
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