| | |  News from Around Banderas Bay | October 2008 
Puerto Vallarta Honor Students Share the Joy of Reading
 PVNN
| | Leer y Crecer invites all members of our community to join in and spread the joy of reading. For more information, please write to us at leerycrecer(at)aspv.edu.mx or call the American School of Puerto Vallarta at (322) 221-1525, ext. 301. | | |
This fall, Leer y Crecer (Read and Grow), a program designed by the National Honor Society (NHS) students of the American School of Puerto Vallarta to promote reading advocacy among our public school children, is underway in its third year.
To inaugurate the new school year, eleven high school students met at their advisor Lisa Schalla's home in the village of El Colorado to discuss their ideas on leadership and service, plan their objectives for this year, and visit the newly opened afternoon elementary school and the local plaza for a presentation on recycling garbage and reading with the children.
Leer y Crecer has been part of NHS since the fall of 2005, when the students received a Rotary International Matching Grant in partnership with the Rotary clubs in Invermere, British Colombia and the Bay of Banderas. In remembrance of their ex-Rotary president Del Hoffman and his wife Bev, the Canadian Club was looking for a project in Mexico that would support children's education. With the initial grant of $10,000, the American School students were able to donate sets of 100 books in Spanish to twenty different elementary schools in our area, with the generous support of Gonvill Distributors and Scholastic, Inc.
What we have found, however, is that the real need in our schools is not the supply of books so much as the support and training in reading advocacy - getting our children connected to books and discovering the joy of reading. We were pleased to find that, through the SEP, public elementary schools are provided with excellent and inspiring children's books each year, and that most schools have a supply of around 500 books.
Unfortunately, due to organizational challenges and lack of space, many of these books are still in boxes or not available for students to read freely. Based on these observations, Leer y Crecer has branched out into other areas, namely by assisting in the forming of school libraries and offering teacher workshops in Reading Advocacy.
In the last three years, NHS students have been pleased to see at least three public elementary schools open their school libraries, whether it is by transforming other school areas, getting funding from parents, or soliciting funding from the SEP. In other schools, dedicated teachers are successfully running their Bibliotecas de Aula, or classroom libraries, where students can read in class when finishing lessons or check books out.
It became clear that in order to truly understand the nature of reading advocacy, our NHS students needed to have personal access to schools and, ideally, run a reading circle themselves. The American School provides training by giving students opportunities in our own primary library, sending them to volunteer with our partner, the Biblioteca Los Mangos, or helping them to set up their own reading circles.
This year's NHS members are Janette Hernandez (Pres.), Gabriela Aragon (VP), Pamela Martinez (Treas.), Alex Flamant, Lolita Davis, Alejandra Fregoso, Beatriz Oliva, Cecilia Novoa, Gabriela Urrutia, Rafael Aguirre, Erika Yamada, Mari Carmen Morales (Sec.), Nancy Rendenius, and Kari Felton. New members are selected each spring by a teacher committee based on the qualities of Leadership, Character, Service, and Scholarship. Ms. Lisa Schalla, also a high school Social Studies teacher, is NHS advisor and works generally with students in the area of community service projects.
One thing is clear: children LOVE to have access to books, in order to read themselves or be read to. Our children in Puerto Vallarta are waiting and ready for our support to make their lives richer by engaging them in the world of literature
Leer y Crecer would like to extend an invitation to all members of our community to join in and spread the joy of reading. For more information, please write to us at leerycrecer(at)aspv.edu.mx or call the American School of Puerto Vallarta at (322) 221-1525, ext. 301. |
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