This morning, I got to be "Mama llama" a group of kindergarten students at Casis Elementary School in West Austin, where Patty Martin is principal.
As part of the national Read for the Record reading event, I donned red llama ears and read “Llama Llama Red Pajama,” by Anna Dewdney, to a very attentive group of youngsters, who also looked very cute in their llama ears. I had a great time acting out the baby llama's "tizzy" with them.
This reading, presented in partnership with the Pearson Foundation, was part of an effort to set two new reading records – for the largest shared reading experience, and, for the first time, the largest digital reading experience.
As part of today’s event, Pearson donated a copy of the book to each of our pre-K and kindergarten classes in AISD, which amounts to more than 700 classrooms.
Thanks, Pearson.
This event couldn’t have come at a better time.
This year, one of our focuses as a district is on literacy. So, there is nothing like a live demonstration of one of our big district initiatives to model good behavior.
Starting with my Convocation at the beginning of the school year, I have been telling people that I want AISD to “blow the cover off” reading this year. We are also working with some of our government partners to create a citywide reading initiative. And, speaking of government, one of our adult readers at Casis today was State Sen. Kirk Watson. We were glad to see the Senator there—even if he didn’t wear the cool red llama ears.
Thank you, Senator, for your continued advocacy and support of public education and the Austin Independent School District.
Another public servant, State Rep. Paul Workman, read to students at Kiker Elementary in South Austin. We appreciate that he took the time to read to Kiker students today. Today’s event provided a wonderful opportunity to get our students, at the earliest age, excited about reading. We are committed to teaching our students the important of reading.
And, today’s lesson learned is that reading is fun!
