Ms Calahasen celebrates reading milestone (reading and sharing 1.5 million stories) at CJ Schurter School in her riding
The following is copied from the February 17, 2010 printed transcripts of the Legislative debate and discussion.
Ms Calahasen (Lesser Slave Lake PC): Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It took 15 years, a whole lot of staff members, the librarian, thousands of
students, parents, and community volunteers from C.J. Schurter school in
Slave Lake to reach their goal, and their goal was to read and share 1,500,000
stories. There is something very special about being able to pinpoint
the exact moment when we reach a goal. At exactly 9:40 a.m. on
Monday, March 16, 2009, C.J. Schurter school did exactly that,
recorded their reading milestone.
This all began when librarian Marge Rennick and her committee
organized a student reading incentive to celebrate the then 1994
Arctic Winter Games in Slave Lake. Students were encouraged to
read for Rocky, the Arctic Winter Games mascot. However, in
September 1994 special ed teacher Helen Ord and her team of
educational assistants took this initial concept and developed it into
a powerful reading link between home and school that enhanced
early literacy skills.
In September 1996 the Reading Cottage was introduced. Students
were encouraged to bring their completed reading sheets down to the
cottage, where staff would then write the child’s name on a square
located on the specific story character they were reading at the time.
Now, Snow White, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Wizard of Oz, Winnie
the Pooh and friends, Franklin and friends, and Muppets, just to
name a few, lined the hallways at C.J. Schurter, containing the
names of all the special students that have participated in this
program.
However, in September 2004 the program moved from the special
ed area to each individual classroom. Teachers and students
recorded the stories read in the classroom and reported the number
of experiences at each assembly.
It is common wisdom that literature expands our perspective of
the world. In the words of Dr. Seuss: “The more that you read, the
more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places
you’ll go.”
Congratulations to the visionaries and the whole community for
nurturing reading as a great experience. Keep up the great work. (145)
