By Daniele Berman, Operations Manager
The Rogers-Herr Rams, Durham middle schoolers, are planning a book drive. But if their Advanced and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) program teacher, Jennifer Miske, has her way, they’ll do much more than just collect books. As she explains, “I try to make things as student directed as I can,” and so she has left it up to her team to determine the direction for the project.
Although the book drive will run for about a week at the end of the month, the AIG students organizing it are starting their work now. Their task: to develop a presentation with an infograph about why they’re doing the book drive and then, in pairs, deliver the presentation to all the other classes in the school. As a representative of Book Harvest–both the recipient of the books and a local voice for children’s literacy efforts here in the Triangle–I was invited to visit with the students today to help kick off their drive.
The students had great questions for me as they plan their project, everything from how the books they collect will be used to what the vital statistics are about children’s literacy to how to make their book drive as successful as possible. After our time together, they went off to start their research, armed with a list of resources to consult and plans to concoct. Incentives for donating? Ways to incorporate the school’s upcoming book fair? Locations for collection bins? Goals for number of books collected? We can’t wait to see what they come up with and how many books they collect! You rock, Rams!
