And the winners are… Season 1, Episode 13

Welcome to Season 1, Episode 13 of The Book Love Foundation Podcast! And thank you for joining us in this celebration of teaching and the joy of learning.

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Episode 13 Show notes
This episode, the last of our first season, is a celebration of teachers who are changing the reading lives of teenagers one kid and one book at a time.  

The 2016 grant winners join the Book Love Foundation family, which stretches across 24 states and 3 Canadian provinces.  They teach in public and private schools.  They teach honors students as well as students who have always struggled with reading.  

Books matter.  In every classroom, high interest books matter.  

I am so excited for you to meet these teachers.  

Thanks so much for joining us today.
- Penny

Congratulations to the 2016 Book Love Foundation Full-Library Grant Recipients:

Jake Casey

Jill Cooper

Kelsey Curlett

Jake Eismeier

Colin Flynn

Wendy Gassaway

Austin Hall

Michael Simental

Dawn Taylor

Shondra Walker

It has been a pleasure bringing you Season 1 of The Book Love Foundation Podcast.

Thank you very much for listening.

★ Support this podcast ★

Creators and Guests

Host

Penny Kittle

What is The Book Love Foundation Podcast?

Celebrate the joy of reading with the Book Love Foundation podcast. This is a show filled with information and inspiration from teachers and leaders across grade levels, states, and school systems. We interviewed authors and educators for the first five years and now turn our attention to leaders in public, private, and charter schools. Find out more at booklovefoundation.org or join our book-love-community.mn.co of 2500 educators from 28 countries. We sustain joy together, one kid and one book at a time.

Penny Kittle 0:00
The book Love foundation podcast is produced by the teacher learning sessions, connecting teachers with ideas, experts and each other.

Penny Kittle 0:16
Our board met last week, and we voted to send you 500 books.

Shondra Walker 0:23
How many books

Jake Casey 0:25
are you serious?

Penny Kittle 0:26
I'm serious. The board voted to give you a 500 book library.

Jake Casey 0:33
Yeah.

Dawn Taylor 0:37
Oh my goodness. I have goosebumps right now, just so you know,

Penny Kittle 0:43
goosebumps are good. You have 500 bucks coming your way.

Dawn Taylor 0:47
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, I must cry.

Penny Kittle 0:55
Welcome to the book, Love foundation podcast, this episode, the last of our season is a celebration of teachers who are changing the reading lives of teenagers, one kid and one book at a time. Our 2016 grant winners come from Michigan and Georgia and Mississippi, Iowa and Illinois, California and Oregon, as well as Manitoba, Canada. We also awarded smaller grants this year to teachers in Sudbury, Ontario, Idaho, New Jersey and North Carolina. Our 2016 library winners join the book Love foundation family, which stretches across 24 states and three Canadian provinces. They teach in public and private schools. They teach honor students as well as students who have always struggled with reading. Books matter in every classroom. High interest books matter, according to an Oregon teacher you'll meet on this podcast, new books acknowledge that students are worth a new book. I'm so excited for you to meet these teachers, and I have to confess, the joy here is contagious. I've teared up three times listening to this podcast. Joining me is Kevin Carlson from the teacher learning sessions

Moderator 2:15
the first book, Love foundation library. Winner we meet today is Chandra Walker, hi,

Penny Kittle 2:20
Chandra. It's Penny Kittle from the book club foundation.

Shondra Walker 2:24
Hi, how are you?

Penny Kittle 2:26
I'm great. How are you?

Shondra Walker 2:28
I'm doing really well. Thank you.

Penny Kittle 2:30
Well, our board met last week, and we have a really enthusiastic board member who has worked in schools all over the world, and she brought your application forward with her most important recommendation, that she really believed you deserved a library. So we voted to send you 500 books.

Shondra Walker 2:51
How many books? It's a 500 book library. Oh my gosh. You're just oh my gosh. I cannot believe it. I thought when I applied, I would have to, like, apply every year for a lot of years before this would even maybe happen. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna cry it off. Thank you so much.

Penny Kittle 3:13
Oh, you were so welcome. You know, we have a winner this year who has applied four years in a row. So you're actually not wrong about that.

Shondra Walker 3:20
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I can't even articulate how much this means to me. So it's Thank you, and to the person who believed in me, tell her thank you as well.

Penny Kittle 3:33
On finalist night, it's kind of emotional for all of us, because we all want all of our candidates to win. And she was really passionate about your application, she just said that when you said the best quote of your application is Mrs. Walker, I'm sorry I didn't get my homework done. I was up all night reading.

Shondra Walker 3:50
That's happened so many times. Just giving my kids time to read in class has just brought us all together. You know, everybody is reading, and the few that aren't feel like they should be reading. You know, they know that they're missing out, but it's just giving us things to share with each other, and the the culture has just grown tremendously this year.

Penny Kittle 4:17
I love that. Do you have your students more than one year?

Shondra Walker 4:20
Yeah, actually, actually, I have them now as ninth and 10th graders, and I was just told that they're going to have me teach them as 11th graders as well. So that's really exciting to me.

Penny Kittle 4:33
This is perfect. You know, you've already established this environment of regular reading, and now you're going to flood your classroom with books, and they're going to read more than ever.

Shondra Walker 4:42
Yeah, it's going to be like Christmas to them.

Penny Kittle 4:46
I think so, yes, oh, if you think about it, you know you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of titles to choose from. We have a list that's pretty long, but when you go through to select your books, I can imagine you're going to think a lot of. What your kids like, and the kind of books that you know they'll read.

Shondra Walker 5:05
Yeah, wow. Can't even, oh, my gosh, oh, you just made my like my year. This is so exciting.

Penny Kittle 5:14
Teachers like you, you know you're new to the profession, third year in according to your application, and we really want to support new energy in our profession, just that teacher who goes to whatever length she can to get turn kids into readers, and I can tell that that's what you do.

Shondra Walker 5:31
so I strive to do but yeah, thank you. So excited.

Moderator 5:38
Some teachers like Chandra are just getting started in their career. Some already have extensive existing classroom libraries. Meet Jake eismeyer,

Jake Eismeier 5:50
there's not really a culture of classroom libraries in the school right now, with the exception of mine, and so the kids will, they'll kind of talk to each other about where the books are, and it's great. But I'll get, you know, kids from other classes just stopping in throughout the day, checking the books out, which is incredible. And, you know, we try to keep track of it through, you know, through the classroom organizer, through booksource, but yeah, it does tend to kind of deplete it pretty quickly.

Penny Kittle 6:16
Absolutely. I think that's why the board voted to give you a full classroom library.

Jake Eismeier 6:21
Oh, wow, is

Jake Eismeier 6:22
that really,

Penny Kittle 6:23
really? 500 books

Jake Eismeier 6:25
that is incredible.

Penny Kittle 6:28
Well, we were really excited about all of the things you do that aren't just teaching. I mean, there's this long list, and it's very interesting because we fund all different kinds of people from really high free and reduced lunch populations like yours, right to some that don't have nearly as high but they're really making gains in an entirely different setting, like there's a winner this year who applied four years in a row, and in time that he keeps applying, he has developed this course at his school that's pleasure reading, And he now has 200 students enrolled in it. Oh, that's incredible. I know it's just the idea that you know, what we see in these applications is people who are growing and are probably going to go out and really make a mark on the world of teaching. And you certainly have such a wide variety of places where you're looking at what's working in your classroom, and then how you can scale that in other places.

Jake Eismeier 7:23
That's exciting. Wow, we're really excited. The kids will be thrilled.

Moderator 7:27
Well, Jake has spent years building his classroom library prior to receiving his book Love Foundation grant, Michael Simmental has been building his library one title at a time. He teaches at a school with very few resources.

Michael Simental 7:42
We're kind of known as the underachieving school. We're known as, quote, unquote, the School of diversity. We have some teachers who pour into this school for the students who, you know, are struggling with generational issues of, you know, addiction and incarceration. You know, deportation is a part of these kids lives. And then so many of them, reading is one of those things that of all the habits that they've inherited, that's not one. And so when they come to school, so many of them, you know, they're, they're looking for those books that they can connect with that will give them some sort of grounding and context, and hope you know, at the very least, understanding for what they're going through. And so it's a wonderful school. This is actually my first year at North Salem, but it's a school that I went to very purposefully and and hope to stay for quite a while.

Penny Kittle 8:38
Oh, I love that. In your application, you mentioned that you have mostly books from yard sales, and only about 10% of them are right.

Michael Simental 8:48
Yeah, I my kids joke all the time, because I bring in, like, you know, bags filled from like, you know, yard sales, library book sales, you know, hand me downs, you know, I'm almost dumpster diving at like, local nonprofits to to get what I can

Penny Kittle 9:06
that is, I mean, the Dumpster Diver teacher, you could have put that in your application Absolutely. So what do you think it's going to be like when they get 500 bucks arriving into your classroom?

Michael Simental 9:19
Truthfully, I have no idea. Like, I'm struggling to picture that myself. If I get a book that those kids are excited about reading, it's like we end up with, like, waiting lists, you know. And because it is the type of school that it is, you know, we're often like waiting lists are running from that classroom to classroom, you know. And so five 500 books is really sort of hard to fathom. 500 high interest books is really hard to even process on the teacher side. For the kids, this is one of those schools where new books are not something that they're used to seeing even even knowing that the. Zu there is kind of acknowledging, you know, that they're worth a new book. As silly as that might sound,

Penny Kittle 10:08
I understand completely. I love that. I just imagine that. You know, you're going to order all these books. You have hundreds and hundreds to choose from, but I'm sure you'll pick great ones for your students, and then you'll, you know, there'll be hardcover books that have never been opened, that will be in the hands of these kids.

Michael Simental 10:24
Yeah, exactly.

Moderator 10:26
Wendy Gassaway works at a school with a library, but no librarian. She applied for a book Love grant last year. She didn't get one, but the reflection on her teaching practice through the application process fueled her to make changes in her teaching for this year.

Penny Kittle 10:42
Hi, Wendy, it's Penny Kittle from the book club foundation.

Penny Kittle 10:46
Hi, how are you?

Wendy Gassaway 10:48
I'm doing pretty well. How are you?

Penny Kittle 10:50
I'm well. So our board met last week, and we were looking over your application, really intrigued by the hard work you're doing with your students. So we want to give you a 500 book library.

Wendy Gassaway 11:03
Yay. That's so exciting.

Penny Kittle 11:08
Oh, that's good. We kept reading about you don't have a librarian.

Wendy Gassaway 11:14
We do have a school library, but we don't have a school librarian. We have a library assistant who works very hard but doesn't have the the formal library training? Yeah. Well, it's been a big learning year. As I said in my application, going through the process last year really opened my mind up to a lot of things that I wasn't doing, that I could be doing. I was really inspired by that was working over the summer to think about reading workshop elements I could put into language arts. And then my principal asked me if I would actually do the reading intervention class instead of the general language arts. So I've really been able to do a lot this year. I really, you know, I love as I think everybody involved in this does. It's very exciting to try to get the right book for the right kid. Yeah, kids really get excited about something they're reading.

Penny Kittle 12:03
Yeah, and I can tell that you're a big reader, because the books that you listed that you've been reading are books that are, most of them pretty new, and I can tell that you're just like, dialed in to what kids need.

Wendy Gassaway 12:15
Thank you. Yes, it's, yeah, I do read a lot. It's, it's great to have a legitimate excuse to do so,

Penny Kittle 12:23
yeah, it's a good excuse. Well, we're excited to be funding you. I hope you'll stay in touch. We would love to hear about what happens in your classroom when these boxes of hundreds of books arrive,

Wendy Gassaway 12:35
yay. Oh, that's so exciting. Well, we're

Penny Kittle 12:38
excited for you. We just want to honor all that hard work you do every day in your classroom.

Wendy Gassaway 12:43
Thank you so much.

Moderator 12:44
So this teacher that's been mentioned, who was awarded a library this year after applying for four years, is named Austin Hall.

Austin Hall 12:52
At the tone, please record your message when you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options.

Penny Kittle 13:00
Hey, Austin, it's Penny Kittle at the book Love foundation,

Moderator 13:03
it seemed fitting that he had to wait a little bit longer for penny to tell him that he'd won.

Penny Kittle 13:09
Hi, is this Austin?

Austin Hall 13:10
Yes, it is.

Penny Kittle 13:12
Hey, it's Penny Kittle. How are you?

Austin Hall 13:15
Hey, I'm doing well.

Penny Kittle 13:16
I have good news for you.

Austin Hall 13:18
Okay,

Penny Kittle 13:19
the board voted last week to award you a classroom library.

Austin Hall 13:23
Oh, my god, that's amazing. Oh, that's awesome. Oh, penny that is. That's so happy. That makes me so happy.

Penny Kittle 13:32
So I have to tell you one of the things that really swayed us, and that was that you've started this elective course, and you now have 200 kids enrolled.

Austin Hall 13:43
Yeah, it's, it's crazy. That's like, the only thing I'm teaching next year, because it's because so many kids have signed up for it for next year.

Penny Kittle 13:51
And it's a course that's dedicated to reading.

Austin Hall 13:53
Yes, originally I called it reading for pleasure, because that's kind of what is at the heart of it. But now it's known as strategic reading just just so on, we had a few issues with like, colleges not necessarily understanding what the class was about.

Penny Kittle 14:07
And do you love this? But yeah, colleges don't understand what reading for pleasure is all about.

Austin Hall 14:13
Exactly right? That was the whole irony of it all. But yeah, centered around the classroom library. Basically our schedule is we have, most days are 90 minute periods. So I start the day with book talk. We build up to half an hour of independent reading. Then there's usually a mini lesson or two during the day, whether it's you know, like that, it's okay to abandon the book or rereading books or genre studies or things like that. And this semester, I actually did a read aloud, which is pretty, pretty fun. Ended up being a cool thing with seniors getting them into that.

Penny Kittle 14:48
It sounds fabulous.

Austin Hall 14:49
Yeah, no, it's been awesome.

Penny Kittle 14:51
So it was that course, and the fact that you've now applied, this was your fourth time. That was pretty persuasive,

Austin Hall 14:59
right? Getting sick of me, probably

Penny Kittle 15:01
not at all. You know, it wasn't just that you applied four times. It was that we could see that you were continuing to grow and change, and that you weren't letting the library hold you back. You were just continuing to make it all happen, right?

Austin Hall 15:14
It's turned into an obsession penny over the past few years.

Penny Kittle 15:19
I love that, and your students are responding, it sounds like,

Austin Hall 15:23
yeah, yeah. Actually, what's, what's kind of cool, getting your call basically right now, I'm my seniors just finished up last week, so as part of their final, I'm going through their reflections on their growth throughout the year. So it's, it's really kind of invigorating to really pick up on how, impactful it's been for them this year

Penny Kittle 15:42
every year, my colleague and I would gather with those reflective pieces and just kind of celebrate all that kids had achieved.

Austin Hall 15:48
Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah,

Penny Kittle 15:51
that is awesome. And now you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of books to choose from.

Austin Hall 15:56
Oh, man, I am so stoked.

Austin Hall 15:58
This is going to be great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Moderator 16:01
Ongoing growth, growth over time, that implies change, and Colin Flynn has changed as a teacher and a reader.

Penny Kittle 16:09
Well, I have to tell you, your application gave us quite a few laughs, from book snob to bad kitty, and we so loved it. We're going to send you a 500 book library

Colin Flynn 16:22
that is amazing. I am so excited.

Penny Kittle 16:24
Did you know that's why I was calling

Colin Flynn 16:27
I had a thought, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

Penny Kittle 16:33
So talk to me about this journey you made as someone who was a certified book snob, to someone who is just embracing independent reading and young adult literature, and just talk to me a little bit about how you did that.

Colin Flynn 16:47
So I think the biggest impact for me was was talking to students about the books that they were reading, and that feeling the passion that they had for the books that they read. One of my girls was reading out of the easy and she just loved it so much. I just kept looking at her, like, how did this happen? And it was that moment, like, I need to get these kids books that they can love. And that was really a big moment for me.

Penny Kittle 17:15
Oh, do I love that I need to get these kids books that they can love?

Colin Flynn 17:20
Yeah, I mean it, you know, I had a ready player. One has been a huge hit this year in my classroom. I mean, I've got these boys that don't read, they've never read, and they're reading it, and they're like, they're so excited about it now they want to read the second one and they want they they just, it's reading for them has never been important, yeah, and for for at least, you know, a year or a semester, I gave them that chance to experience reading as a positive in their life.

Penny Kittle 17:59
I don't think there's a greater gift you can give kids than that.

Colin Flynn 18:03
I don't either.

Moderator 18:03
Next we meet Don Taylor, who created a school wide reading program called a million words club.

Penny Kittle 18:11
Hi. Is this dawn of the million words club?

Dawn Taylor 18:14
It is

Penny Kittle 18:15
the one your classroom library is the center of your teaching world.

Dawn Taylor 18:22
It completely is what I based my entire curriculum on, and I have had huge results because of it,

Penny Kittle 18:29
I can tell. And we're going to make it much bigger.

Dawn Taylor 18:32
Oh my goodness. I have goosebumps right now, just so you know,

Penny Kittle 18:38
goosebumps are good. You have 500 bucks coming your way?

Dawn Taylor 18:41
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I'm a fun cry.

Penny Kittle 18:46
It's just so exciting. You know, you've worked so hard to build up that library, and I can only imagine what your kids are going to think about, oh my gosh, and boxes and boxes of books arrive.

Dawn Taylor 18:57
Oh my gosh. They aren't even going to know what to do. I have a I started a summer reading program last summer. When they see books arrive, and then they're going to, I mean, one of the big things they want to do this year, because I changed classrooms, was help me organize my classroom library. They are going to lose it. We put all the books by genres into lockers at the last day of school. And like, when do we start organizing the library?

Penny Kittle 19:20
It's gonna be great. I know you're gonna make some excellent choices that are just right for your students.

Dawn Taylor 19:26
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I am so excited. You have no idea I'm like, walking around in circles in my living room. Oh my gosh. I can't believe this. With this program, I've been able to actually change the atmosphere at our school into which reading is now like up front and people want to be part of it. People are talking about it. They're engaged. The kids come into the classroom apprehensive at first, but then wanting to be part of the whole thing. Thing that we do, and I my curriculum is based completely on student choice. It's taken on a life of its own, but it's doing exactly what I wanted it to do, and I'm so proud of it, but I'm so happy for the kids, because it's just changing them, and it's changing the fabric of our school environment to where it used to be, like kids just didn't really care about academics and their achievements much at all, and now it's like the neat thing to be part of. A million words Club kids will come to me at the beginning of the school year asking me how they can be part of it. I had one that emailed me right before you called, saying, This year, I really want to make it. Miss Taylor. Can you help me over the summer? Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's just somebody who can show them and model the behavior for them that I'm reading all the time. They always see what I'm reading and talking to them about it, like it's exciting, and then you get the right kids to be part of it, and then it just like a domino effect. And it's been wonderful. And I'm, I'm like, giddy about these books. I'm so excited.

Penny Kittle 21:01
Well, you have contagious book Love in your classroom already. I can only imagine when you add 500 new books,

Dawn Taylor 21:07
oh my gosh, I just know what to do. I literally have goosebumps all over my body right now. I am so excited.

Penny Kittle 21:16
This is a lovely story we are so excited to put bring you into the book. Love, foundation, family.

Dawn Taylor 21:22
Oh, I am beyond excited. I am thrilled. I am thankful. I am blessed. I am so, so happy. You have no idea how happy you just made. Me and my students,

Moderator 21:33
the book Love, library winners we've met so far are generous and nurturing. They are curious and thoughtful, and they are the kind of teachers with the courage and passion to add their voice to the profession. This is Kelsey curlette.

Penny Kittle 21:47
You are Kelsey. Let's see English. 10 is my game. World Literature is my name. Full class is the 31 reading is number one. That's you, huh?

Kelsey Curlett 21:56
Yes, that is definitely me.

Penny Kittle 21:59
Well, we are excited to grant you a 500 book classroom library.

Kelsey Curlett 22:03
Oh my gosh. I oh my gosh. I'm like, my heart is beating so fast.

Penny Kittle 22:09
Oh, that's awesome. So you have classes of 31 kids,

Kelsey Curlett 22:13
yeah, wow. They say it's supposed to go up next year. So that'll be interesting.

Penny Kittle 22:19
You need these books, then,

Kelsey Curlett 22:22
yes, definitely. Oh my gosh. I try to, like, spend as much of my own money as I can, but it only goes so far.

Penny Kittle 22:29
Oh well, it's your third year of teaching. I don't think you probably have a lot of money yet, right?

Kelsey Curlett 22:33
Oh no, and I'm a grad student and I'm getting married.

Penny Kittle 22:38
Oh my goodness, yeah, we noticed that you've already presented at mra. Yeah.

Kelsey Curlett 22:47
I just really love learning, so I have been pretty involved with some professors at my graduate school, and they invited me to come and talk about choice, reading and using writing notebooks and all that stuff. And I was, at first, I was like, Who in the world would want to listen to such a young teacher? But my friend convinced me to do it, and it was a good experience. Oh, that's so I hope to continue to do some of those things in the future.

Penny Kittle 23:15
Well, we were impressed that you're already out there giving back to the profession, being a leader. You know, it's, it's hard to do all that,

Kelsey Curlett 23:23
but I love it. Oh, I can love it so much.

Penny Kittle 23:29
So can you imagine getting hundreds of books and boxes delivered to your classroom?

Kelsey Curlett 23:33
No, I, I'm just so like, over the moon. You can probably tell I'm just ecstatic right now. I get excited to get like, two books from Amazon.

Penny Kittle 23:44
Well, you're going to have a lot to choose from.

Kelsey Curlett 23:48
Oh my gosh, my students are going to be so excited. They are going to be thrilled.

Penny Kittle 23:53
You're going to be such a leader in our profession. I can tell

Kelsey Curlett 23:56
Oh, I hope to be

Penny Kittle 23:58
that is fabulous. What lucky students who have you as their teacher? Well, you're going to get in touch with book source. I'll send you all the information, because they're our sponsor, and they'll get the books to you, and we hope that they will all be delivered by September.

Moderator 24:16
This summer, the teacher learning sessions is offering a free four week online course around the book, Love, foundation, podcast, the course will offer support material to help you build and get the most out of your classroom, library conversations in a private Facebook group, the chance to get and share resources and the opportunity to build your online network. And best of all, it will be made up of a community of teachers like you and the book Love Foundation award winners that you hear on this show all season, we have shared recommended titles from book Love foundation library winners, also from Penny's author friends and even from students themselves. It turns out a lot of you really like these recommendations. So we want to end the season by offering you more. We have gathered a list of about 200 titles. It includes every single one mentioned on the show and many, many more. And we want to give you this list as part of that free four week online course to sign up, dig deeper into some book, Love, foundation podcast episodes. Build your online network and get a list of top titles to help you build your own classroom library, all for free, visit teacher learning sessions.com/book. Love dash summer, that's teacher learning sessions.com/book. Love dash summer, there is a link in the show notes.

Penny Kittle 25:51
We will end today's podcast with Jake Casey, who leads what he calls a beautifully orchestrated collaboration between teacher and students to enhance the positive impact of reading and writing through modeling and choice. Jake leads 6/7, eighth and 10th graders in rural Bellevue, Michigan. He said in his application, I believe that every student wants to read, to experience, to grow intellectually and academically. I desperately want to influence this desire by putting knowledge in their hands and to open their eyes to the world around them. There's no better way for this to happen than to provide them with books that they want and need to read. We believe this too, Jake, thanks for being a teacher who makes that happen.

Jake Casey 26:46
Hello,

Penny Kittle 26:47
hi. Is this Jake?

Jake Casey 26:50
This is Jake.

Penny Kittle 26:51
Hi, Jake. This is Penny Kittle from the book club foundation.

Jake Casey 26:55
Hey, hi, Penny. How undefined

Penny Kittle 26:57
I'm great. How are you?

Jake Casey 27:00
I'm very good. I got a sick four year old, but other than that, I'm really good.

Penny Kittle 27:05
I'm sorry about that. Well, I have good news.

Jake Casey 27:10
Are you serious?

Penny Kittle 27:12
I'm serious. The board voted to give you a 500 book library.

Jake Casey 27:19
Yeah.

Penny Kittle 27:25
That's lovely.

Jake Casey 27:28
Oh, you don't even understand.

Penny Kittle 27:33
So tell me about your school in rural Michigan.

Jake Casey 27:39
What's that?

Penny Kittle 27:40
Tell me about this school where the books are going

Jake Casey 27:44
right right now, I'm at Bellevue, and we are a very small school. We got about 30 to 50 kids per class, and my I just, I don't know what to say right now. I'm trying to catch my breath. Um, but at my school, I am I'm just the go to person for book reading. I mean, I I lose books every year. I probably lose about 30 to 40 books a year just because kids take them. And I, I it's all about trust and whatever. And sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't, but, uh, we are, we are very passionate about reading. I mean, I know, since I've been there and what I've been doing, my math teacher, the math teachers there now have books in the room. It's just, it's a reading culture, and you, oh my gosh,

Penny Kittle 28:56
you're about to have a book flood come your way.

Jake Casey 29:00
Oh, Miss Kittle, I tell you what. You know, I've had a great opportunity to be at two of your conferences and just watch you on video and follow you on Twitter and all that great stuff that teachers do. And I tell you my I love it. Just love it. And this is just, this is just what I needed this year. This is unbelievable.

Penny Kittle 29:26
No, I just, you know, I love the thought of imagining all those boxes of books in your room and your kids getting to unwrap them and hold them.

Jake Casey 29:36
Oh, my goodness, I can't wait. I I, you just made my day.

Penny Kittle 29:47
I'm so glad this is, you know, it's just what we put our our foundation together to do is to help people like you. Your application was amazing. The stuff that you're you're doing with a school that you know is. Struggling to get kids to read. We can tell, but you're doing it.

Jake Casey 30:05
That is, man, I mean, there's a there's a little bit of a feeling that, you know, especially the boys, the boys just don't read. And I've had a couple opportunities to develop some classes there to try to encourage the reading. But I think the best thing is that I'm I'm the perfect role model, because every time they see me, I got a book. You know, whether it doesn't matter what it is, but there's always a book in my hand when I walk the hall. There's a book when they see me. I have a book. I have a stack of books on my desk, and when the boys and that school see me as who I am with the book, and they're more apt to, you know, give it a try, and I'm I'm giddy.

Penny Kittle 31:02
Do you know one thing we loved was how you said that you have 10th grade kids who come down to your middle school classroom and get books, and what a model that is for those kids, of these older kids coming in,

Jake Casey 31:16
that that's the coolest thing. Because, like, I mean, we have a school library, you know, just like every other school does. But I don't know what it is about my classroom, but the kids just come in and, I mean, I'm in the middle of class, and a kid walks right in and goes to the bookshelf and grabs the book, and, you know, it doesn't change any of my flow to the class. It doesn't change anything. It's just part of the culture that I established. That's just what I want. And I tell you when you know when, when a 10th and 11th grade girl will walk in the class and get a book, that sixth, seventh and eighth grade boy is going to be like, Oh, maybe I should be reading too good point. You don't know how awesome this is right now. It's been a very tough year at school, and this is, this is exactly what I needed.

Penny Kittle 32:18
I'm so glad you are going to make a huge difference with kids, with all these books.

Jake Casey 32:24
Well, Miss Kendall, you've made a huge difference because I am following you as a role model, along with you and Kelly Gallagher and Jeff Anderson and tylene beers. You know, I follow you guys. I I do what you guys have established and it works, and it's so awesome, and it's just, is just awesome. This is so cool.

Penny Kittle 32:58
Well, it has been great to talk to you. I hope I will see you the next time I'm in Michigan.

Jake Casey 33:03
I hope so. I absolutely hope so, because I'm guaranteeing I'm going to still be smiling.

Penny Kittle 33:11
That's awesome. Well, send me pictures when you finally get your books, and you'll have hundreds and hundreds of books to choose from, so you'll have to figure out which ones you want, and then we're going to hopefully have all of them shipped to your room by the start of the school year.

Jake Casey 33:26
Oh, my goodness,

Jake Casey 33:35
thank you. Thank you so much.

Penny Kittle 33:37
You are so welcome. Have a great rest of your day.

Jake Casey 33:41
Oh, I will. I definitely will.

Penny Kittle 33:46
Thank you for being a part of this first season of the book Love foundation podcast. I have so appreciated your tweets and messages you've sent me after listening, I truly couldn't do this without the vision and the smart editing of Kevin Carlson. He believes in this mission and has spent hours crafting each episode. He is masterful. Thank you to the many donors who have found the podcast and sent us money. 100% of donations go to fund the libraries of the teachers you met today and those we will fund each year, the book Love foundation is grateful for a dedicated and determined board of directors and for the generous support of Heinemann publishing and book source our two partners in this mission to ignite a love of reading in every Student. Thank you for being teachers to believe in enjoy your summer of reading. I'm Penny Kittle,

Moderator 34:47
the book Love foundation podcast is produced by the teacher learning sessions, connecting teachers with ideas, experts and each other.

Jake Casey 34:58
Oh, my goodness, it's.