Love and the Time of Cholera

"All you need is love!"

-The Beatles

I am wearing my green Wild About Reading t-shirt today.  It says "Daniel Webster Middle School, Los Angeles, California" on the back.  I got it because I read a million words a few years back.

Everyone else is wearing red today, it seems.  Grinning students are carrying around stuffed bears and bunnies, more chocolate than they can eat, balloons, and roses of every color imaginable.  I saw a black-leather jacket clad dark haired boy give his equally dramatically dressed, heavily eye-linered friend three black roses.

The main office is filled with contraband items: cupcakes, cookies, balloons, etc. captured from loving celebrants who might get them back at the end of the day.  Ms. Meekins did not need to decorate this year!  Valentine's Day is in full swing.

I'm not even present to that.

What I am present to is the fact that thirty-seven students, faculty, and staff have managed to read one million words in the space of just one semester.  This is more than we have had at the end of first semester ever.  This is thrilling to me, especially in light that there were times when Accelerated Reader, the program that we use to track student reading, was down.

California state educational standards expect that by eighth grade, students ought to be reading one million words per year.  If you think about it, that's about the entire Harry Potter Series, with a Twilight or two thrown in.  Those are huge books!  And, if you continue to think about it, reading them all in one semester is quite an accomplishment.

On February 24 during lunch, we will have a reading celebration for all the thirty-seven.  Each person who met their goal will dine on pizza and bottled water as they are called up in front of the group one by one to much applause and given a certificate and a t-shirt.  We will take a group photograph that will go on our website and be displayed proudly in the library.  This is a big deal.

The following faculty members joined in the fun: Mr. Higgins, Ms. Orendorff, Mr. Brener, Ms. Strong, and, of course, yours truly (I WILL have a Wizard of Oz t-shirt).

I also want to give a shout out to one of our paraprofessionals who joined us in this endeavor.  Ms. Smith--who also sang and played the guitar for the show we put on for our students last semester--particularly stands out to me because she participates in school activities.  Paras don't usually get so involved, and this is Ms. Smith's third year joining us for pizza and a shirt.  Way to go, Ms. Smith!

So today I celebrate not by wearing red and eating chocolate (ok, tonight my husband is making me a special lamb dinner and I'm surprising him with cupcakes--but that's after school...) but by doing the prep work to reward our readers so that reading stays special and precious to them.  This work makes my heart feel good.  And that's really the point of today, right?

Happy Reading!