February 7, 2024 • 40 mins
BPS School #61 Arthur O. Eve School of Distinction Principal Nathaniel Barnes joins me to talk about the impact of their Inchy the Bookworm book vending machine and how it has changed the school's approach to literacy. Barnes engages his students and families with a variety of unique and engaging activities, both in the classroom and out and is proud to lead his teachers with the very first Inchy machine ever created. Visit their website: https://www.buffaloschools.org/o/ps61
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Episode Transcript
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Are you ready to embark on an adventure through the world of words?
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Join us on the reading revolution and let's explore the exciting world of literacy together.
Welcome to this episode of the reading revolution powered by book vending.com.
I am your host, Josh Gregory. Very excited for this episode.
The first time that we are on location and not in our studio or doing a zoom call.
So it's excellent that we're here. We're very happy that we've been invited to Buffalo Public
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School 61 Arthur O. Eve School of Distinction. And my guest today is principal Nathaniel Barnes.
Thank you so much for joining us on the reading revolution. Good evening. Thank you for having me
and having the podcast here at our school. We appreciate it. We've got a lot to talk about.
Obviously, we've got a machine in the back. Something that happened in September in about
a year or five and a half years ago, how this whole program with Inchi the bookworm and his
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journey started. So we're really excited about what we're going to be talking about today. So
let's start off with your background, how you came into education and what were the decisions
that led you to say, Hey, I want to be an educator. Oh, that's a great question. So I
determined that I wanted to be a teacher around third grade. What many may or may not know about
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me is in third grade, I was identified as a student with learning disabilities. And I overheard
a teacher speaking to my mother saying, I don't know what else we can do for Nate. And she wasn't
trying to be difficult. She genuinely didn't know what else she could do. And then at that point,
I made up my mind, I said, I'm going to be a teacher because I have to make sure other kids
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don't hear their teachers saying that to their parents. So I knew at that point, I wanted to be
a teacher. And teachers were what I was around every day of my school age career, if you will.
So I was inspired as a child. In my primary years, I used to play school. When I was in high school,
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my senior year of high school. I think the practice is still followed today. If you get so many
credits by the time you're a senior, you get a shortened day, senior year, it's like a big,
a big, a big positive, right? So my senior year of high school, we had half day. And what I would do
is because the elementary school of the district I attended was on the same campus of my high school,
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I would leave around 12 o'clock and I would go over to the elementary school and I would do
an internship with fourth grade students with a teacher who was once my teacher. And then after
that, I went on to Maday College to become an elementary teacher. My bachelor's is in
childhood education. As I chaired, I was a student with learning disabilities. I struggled
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big time with reading in my primary and adolescence years in full transparency.
So about my sophomore year of college, I said, you know, how am I going to be a teacher when I
struggle with reading myself? So when I was blessed to be able to obtain my bachelor's degree,
I went back to school for a master's degree in literacy, which really focuses on teaching
students how to read. And I was able to obtain that credential, which qualified me to be able
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to be a reading specialist, as well as a literacy coach to work with teachers on how to teach
students how to read. So I started my career as a third grade teacher, a one year long term
substitute position in Chigduaga, which is where I attended. After that, I moved away to Baltimore,
Maryland, where I taught first grade at private and public schools. I moved back to Buffalo and
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became a first grade teacher in Buffalo. Then I started to execute my literacy credentials
to a higher degree if I became a literacy coach. So in that role, it's a quasi leadership role
that serves as a conduit between administration and teachers to support teachers on effective
teaching strategies and execute the principal's vision, if you will, as it relates to district
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expectations and their building expectations. While doing that role, I realized that I liked
leadership. So I went back to school to become, to get credentialed to be a building administrator.
After receiving those credentials, I started to work as an assistant principal and director
of curriculum at a local charter school. I went on to become the principal of that charter school.
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I also started to work as an adjunct instructor. So I started to teach other educational professionals
who wanted to go back to school to be administrators at Canisius College, an adjunct instructor at
Madai College for future teachers as well. I then later became the founding principal of a local
charter school. So I did all of the founding work connected to supporting with writing the curriculum,
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the onboarding of teachers, coming up with a professional development plan and things of that
nature. And to fast forward, I'm now the principal here at this wonderful school,
Arthur O'Eave School of Distinction, which is a very interesting school because it's programming
within the building. We have specialized programming. We have an arts integration
programming, an exploratory arts program, in which all of our students can participate in dance,
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theater, visual art, vocal, and violin. And then we also have a criterion-based component,
which is a gifted and talented program that those students have to take a qualifying test to be a
part of. And then they feed into our five through 12 gifted and talented building, Olmstead, in the
district after they leave here. So that's kind of my educational and professional journey in a nutshell.
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So when you decided to leave the classroom setting and get into leadership,
there still has to be, and maybe I'm crazy to say this, but that yearning to be back in the classroom.
How do you do that on a day-to-day basis if you can to not just be the leader of the school,
but also someone who is welcome in those classrooms? That's a great question. So the
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primary responsibility of a building principal and an assistant principal is to be the
instructional leaders of the building. And in order to instructionally lead the building,
you have to have a pulse on the instruction that's happening. So as I shared, I have a
background in literacy, and our assistant principal has a background in math, so it strikes a happy
balance. And one of the things that our district has in place, which helps administrators
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instructionally lead effectively, is something that's called instructional walkthroughs.
So we have instructional priorities for the areas of English language arts and the areas of math,
and one of the instructional priorities specifically for English language arts is all
students read. So we have look-fors, if you will, as to what does all students read look like in the
classroom. And that gives us the opportunity as administrators to go in and with a very, you know,
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close lens, look at the work that students are doing connected to reading, provide feedback to
teachers, have some collaborative conversation, and use our background, our experiences, our
expertise, and our credentials to further support and develop the teachers in that area, or to give
them ideas on ways to maximize the work they're doing that's aligned to best practices, as well as
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it serves as a continual opportunity to build relationships with students. And the work that
they're doing serves as the nucleus of that relationship between the students, administrators,
and teachers, because that's the center of what's common between all those different stakeholders,
if you will. So again, we'll enjoy how beautiful this machine is. This Inchi Bookworm program
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started here five and a half years ago with the very first book vending machine that ever existed.
It came out of this school. So when you came and took over the leadership, you were aware of this
machine being here and its legacy before you said, hey, I'm grabbing these reins? It was. So one of
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the things when I was appointed and assigned to this school, the school has always had a very robust
website. So I did some research. And one of the things that was on the website was the Hope Book
Vending Machine Initiative. And that initiative, I must say, was started by my predecessor, Mrs.
Walker, who's now retired. So when I came here, I said, you know, you have to tell me all about this
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book vending machine. And she gave me some insight. She said, you know, a few years ago, I had this
idea of a book vending machine. And she spoke about that idea with her then assistant principal,
who had some experience with book vending machines at another place. And they implemented it here.
And one of the things that she put in place that I carried over into my principalship is the
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principal's reading challenge. And what that looked like and looks like now is each month,
we encourage our students to read 10 books or 10 chapters. And that number is based on the fact
that all of our students, we encourage them to read 15 minutes per night. So if they're reading
15 minutes per night, 10 books or 10 chapters for the adolescent students can easily be obtained,
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if you will. So we have this principal's reading log. And it's housed outside of the library,
because the book vending machine, the beautiful book vending machine is inside the library.
And at the beginning of every month, we send the logs home with the students. We keep them,
as I said, outside of the library and on our welcome table in case they get misplaced.
And as they read books or as they read chapters or their parents read to them for the students
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that are our youngest students, like pre-K students, parents are able to write the titles
or the chapters of those books down on the logs and sign off on them. And they're turned into
the building. So they go to our literacy coach and our literacy coach vet to make sure the
expectation was met, the 10 books or 10 chapters. And each month at the beginning of the month,
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we make a big deal and we call all the names of the students who've met that goal over the
announcements. They get to come down to the library, they get a golden coin, and they get
to select the book that they want to read. And then that book serves as the first book to go on
their log for the next month. So it's a way to build an intrinsic as well as extrinsic, if you
will, love for reading. And it worked for the former principal. I thought it was brilliant.
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I upheld it and it's continued to work. So that's one of the things that we've done here,
how we've incorporated it into our programming, into the expectations we have for students
so that it's fun and so that they have some collective efficacy connected to it.
And we're in a library where a student can come in and take out a book or two, 10, how many ever
they want to. What's the excitement behind a student actually selecting a book that they know
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they're going to actually keep and not have to just lend and bring back? Well, the excitement
about it is one, I know that this book gets to go on my log for me to get another one next year,
next month. So the goal is we want to have programming in place where that every student
by the end of the school year can have their own library of minimally 10 books, if you met the
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expectation each month. In addition, the excitement is when students come to the library, they have
scheduled times, they get to take out books, but those books have to be returned, right? And what
if I really wanted to read this book again? So they get to have this visual reminder that if I'm
reading my expectations of 10 chapters or 10 books per month, I always will get to select a book that
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I get to keep. So although I may have a variety of books that I can choose from in the library that
has to be returned, each month I get a book that's mine. And that builds their excitement,
that builds their love for reading, and that builds their desire to be in the library where
the books are. How important in your estimation is it for the families to be involved with reading
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starting at a young age instead of the old, well, that's what schools are for. You're supposed to
teach our kids to read. It's vital to be perfectly honest with you. The old times saying that parents
are the first teachers is 100% true. So if parents are involved in reading and they're reading to
their children and they're exposing their children to text, one of the tips I gave my parents on our
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life the other day is when you're driving down the highway and you see a billboard, read the billboard
to your child and talk about it, right? If you're in the house and you're eating breakfast, put the
cereal box in front of them and let them look at the ads. If you build that type of excitement for
students around reading that is not structured, if you will, when they have to read to perform a task
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in class, it's not daunting and they're more likely to be able to do so successfully and willingly
because the willingness has a lot to do with the performance, right? So if I'm disgruntled,
I'm already at a disadvantage of how well I'm going to perform. So the parents' involvement is
key, but the schools do have a responsibility and parents understanding that. So we have to build
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initiatives and things in place that also excites the parents about it. So in addition to the book
vending machine, just one example, one of the things we do is we do a monthly mystery reader,
right? Each classroom picks a parent once per month to be the mystery reader. That teacher gives
the students different clues about the parents throughout the month and they try to figure out
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who's that parent. And on the day of, the parent comes in and reveals themselves and read a story
they select. Well, if their child won a coin and was able to get a book out of the book vending
machine and their parent is the mystery reader, the parent may come in with that book and read it
to the entire class. So it's all interconnected. So with test scores and reading and literacy,
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we know, we see all these statistics about how this country is really struggling in all their
efforts and that sort of thing. What kind of challenges are families facing when in a lot of
times you think, well, can't you just read all those things that you just said, cereal box,
a billboard kind of generate that excitement about reading. What are the families facing that are
struggling with getting kids to start reading? I think with education or knowledge, right? Yeah.
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So one of the things I say is if I go into a procedure room at a hospital and a doctor's
performance surgery, I'm going to have no idea what's happening unless I'm educated on it.
So that which is psychic nature or innate to us as education practitioners, because that's what we
do, you can't expect that to be the case for the population that you serve. Sure. So as I shared,
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you have to, one thing is every parent want their child to succeed, right? But we have to come up
with innovative and equitable ways in order for all parents to engage. So it's our job to come up
with initiatives that engages the family, but simultaneously shows them the importance of that
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engagement. And those initiatives then not only need to engage, but needs to educate, right? So
if I have a mystery reader and I'm walking in the room and I see all the kids jumping up and down
and excited that I'm reading to them, I then say that this is something I need to turn key on.
Key in my home. So we just have to be really metacognitive and reflective on how we do it
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so that we are building a love for reading, getting books in children's hands, but also ensure that
parents are understanding the importance of simultaneously because traditional, here's a
packet of why you should do this may not work for everyone. So we have to come up with ways that work
for everyone. The traditional packet of this is why you should do it isn't bad, but what are we
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going to do in addition to that for the parent that doesn't read that packet? So really when we talk
about you never stop learning, sometimes we have to teach those who thought they've been taught
everything already. That's exactly correct. That's exactly correct because I know how to read doesn't
mean I know how to teach a child how to read, right? And I know when I was in school, we were taught
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certain words that you just need to know that this is the word yellow and that's just the end of it,
right? But there is actually a systematic approach to teaching students how to read, right?
And there are initiatives and systems and things of that nature that parents can engage their
children in that parallels to that systematic approach we take at school. But again, we have
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to be innovative in how we roll those out and how we build collective efficacy with the at-home
connection for those things to be paralleled and then you'll see the fruit of that as it relates
to student achievement in school. So when we're on the topic of statistics and you know literacy
where it stands in this country, can you talk a little bit about the successes that you've seen
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here at the Arthur O'Weave School? Yes, I can. I am so grateful to God to say that we have
made some progress this year on the 2023 New York State ELA assessments. Our ELA scores
jumped 14% which was pretty amazing and I'd be remiss if I did not credit the work of the teachers,
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right? What I tell them is I facilitate but they do the work, right? In addition to that,
in addition to the New York State assessments, we have building level assessments. So we use
something in-house that's called Dibbles which kind of gives us a pause on students' reading
level and kind of helps us drive our instruction. So when our intermediate students take those state
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assessments, their performance is optimal and we were very fortunate to stumble upon an investigative
post released by the Buffalo News outlining the fact that our Dibbles scores for the fall of 2023
were the highest they've been in seven years which we were very excited about that considering
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we're just three years back after COVID as well and then again it shows when you're strategic
about instruction, when you're strategic about initiatives, you get buy-in from all stakeholders
and that formula or that equation equals academic achievement. You know you mentioned COVID and I
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think it's a foregone conclusion that everyone says education was hurt very much so by kids not
being in the classroom and not being around their peers and instructors. Looking back on that, what
kind of lessons did you learn from what you were doing that was successful and how we could actually
jump ahead and even do more and do better knowing that you just went through this awful time. What
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do we need to do to get back and hit the ground running and maintain the high level of education
we were doing before kids were trying to do everything from home remotely? Well in full
transparency, we've been back in the buildings now probably close over two years so everyone should
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be on the ground running and they really should have been on the ground running the first day
we got back and I would imagine that every school system and district was but what COVID taught us
here at the home of the arts is that students are resilient and regardless of what they missed,
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it does not fully, what they can do is not fully contingent upon what they missed
right and what it has helped us to understand is the importance of reflection because it caused us
to have to sit back and say we have to do some things differently to fill this achievement gap
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too. We have third graders who haven't been to school since they were in first grade when they
were when they were supposed to learn how to read so it helped us to understand the importance of
reflection and really value the word innovation and when we talk about the word innovation,
some of those initiatives that we reference that we have in the building and some that we connect
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to the book vending machine are a part of that innovation of building a love and a collective
joy around learning and two years later we're grateful that we've seen the fruit of that.
So in earlier this past fall when we unveiled the new machine which was so much fun to do and have
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the board president was here and the superintendent was here it was a great great afternoon
the excitement of the kids. When kids see that is there a level of even at that young age of
you know I see a level of investment from this school in my education when they see a machine
like this placed in their library. Absolutely our students what we do is we consider the gifts when
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when they get the golden coin we consider those books gifts to them right and we have time set
aside in the day when teachers are doing small group instruction and things like that when
students can read independently right and that's when they're able to read their book that they got
out of the book vending machine right and they see it as an investment because they understand
that a vending machine you have to use money they go to TOPS they go to Wegmans they go to Target
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and they see the soda in the machine or they see the candy bar and they know it costs a dollar
and if mommy or daddy doesn't give me a dollar I can't get that but if they give me a dollar
they they have the resources I did something well I deserve it so that directly transfers to
the book vending machine where if I'm able to get a book out of class even if I didn't do as well on
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something as my peer I'm still being acknowledged for what I did do and I think they're able to
make that connection very clearly. And after so many students and after so much time of the machine
standing here in the corner proudly is the excitement just continued to just happen every
single year where kids come in and they're like oh yeah the machine is still here the program is
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still in place I'm gonna get more books if I read. Absolutely they love the machine and never dies
I have one student in particular who does not fill out a reading log per month he does 10, 5 to 10 per
month and he's been doing that for the past two years and one of the things that keeps the
excitement going is every year we get a new cohort of pre-k and kindergarten students so the book
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vending machine concept is completely new to them right so every year we launch this we launch the
principal's reading challenge in September each each month if the due date for the reading log
is the 30th I have students I have parents and we missed the due date but here's our log can we
still get the book so there's a great deal of buy-in connected to it the the machine does the
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marketing for us for the students right because they I've had students who said you know what
I didn't do my book event I didn't do my book log this month Mr. Byrnes but can I please have a book
I've had parents bring their kids back to me in July because they forgot to turn their book their
their log in at the end of June and now they're on summer vacation and mom is like she is just
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driving me crazy will you please give her a book and that's what we want we're never going to turn
a kid down from a book but what we want is we want them to be reflective so I like I said I've had a
student that said I did not do the log this month but I want to read that's what we want and that
sounds you know just like the strong community you have built here in this school knowing that
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yeah I missed the deadline but I still want that book can we do it in a lot of cases maybe some of
those students get turned away but not here that also has to make the community students parents
everyone feel really good about coming to to school 61 I like to believe so and I hope so our
theme here is we are family so we try to make sure that our actions align to that so when global
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vending you know updated this wonderful book vending machine we were so so so grateful and
it's so aligned to our theme of we are family because it was such a generous family like
a donation and it really helped us to bring our building theme full circle because the students
came this year and they knew the book vending machine was going to be here but they didn't know
it was going to look like this sure okay is the success with the readers that are really into and
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doing all these logs is that infectious to other students who may be kind of on the fence with
their reading and the struggles that they're having it is because some of the some things that we
will see is we will see some of our more enriched readers they'll get a book out of the book vending
machine and let's say their school bus is coming late and it's going to be 30 minutes late and
they're sitting on the steps with me and in the winter it's dark at 5 p.m they're opening up that
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book and they may be reading that book as a third grader to a kindergartener who can't read or
another third grader who may not be as strong of a reader so they still get to benefit from it so it
also builds relationships amongst the students and it builds a love of reading that way if I'm not
necessarily the strongest reader or if I not necessarily or if I didn't bring in the log
because the dog ate it or what have you I still get to benefit from my peer that did and that
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really builds a community of readers which is what we want exactly so and that just continues to
to grow every year especially with returning students who know the programs here there's
excitement there there's excitement for the new students who look at it and go oh I can be a part
of that too absolutely what else are you doing outside of the book vending machine I know that
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you have some things that you're doing personally every month to again encourage the reading at home
can you talk a little bit about the other things that you're doing sure we're doing a variety and
I'll share one so one of the things that we're doing is we do what's called the once a month
read aloud with the bowtie principle so that's what I record that's what I identify myself as
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here at the school as the bowtie principle so we have a robust website and social media presence
so on our facebook live the first monday of every month what we do is we select three children title
books and we send out a google survey to our families and they can select which book they
would like to be as the read aloud and the book with the most votes that's the read aloud so the
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first monday of each month at 7 p.m I go live on facebook I'm from our school library sometimes
from my living room because we are family and we want students to feel comfortable and I engage
them in a read aloud and in that read aloud the parents join the facebook they put their children's
names in the chat as they join I'm able to greet the children and what and what we do is it's an
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another opportunity for me to build a student's literacy capacity if you will because we we do a
think aloud really so when we talk about a think aloud we talk we make predictions by looking at
the title what the story may be about we look at the pictures we we bring out certain vocabulary
words right it helped we make inferences we go back and we you know we when we were on page two
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of the story we asked this question when we got to the end wasn't answered it gives students an
opportunity to put emojis in the chat if you like this part show me a heart you know if this made
you sad give me an orange face so it's a way for parents and students to interact virtually
wherever they may be at the homework table or driving home from soccer and that goes back to
what I said well we have to come up with innovative ways to engage families so I may be a parent
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that I cannot get to the school during the school day because I'm working but I can log on to facebook
in the car while my high school students had soccer practice with my eight-year-old and engage
in the read aloud so that's what I'm referencing when we're talking about innovative ways to get
students and families involved and build a sense of buy-in connected to reading so that there's a
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generic authentic love for for the act of reading if you will what other kinds of activities have
you implemented through uh you know the literacy programs that are happening here oh sure so as I
share we've we do the mystery reader once per month yeah that's great where the parents can
come into the classroom and they can read to the children um in addition to the mystery reader we
have what's called a jedi initiative here um justice equity diversity and inclusion is all
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over our website so we have a different theme of inclusivity for every month of the year
so for uh january the theme is physical disabilities so we have an author of the month board so the
author we select is an author that's reflective who has overcome or is successful in spite of a
disability a physical disability sure and then we select a book or title from that author to be our
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read aloud of the month so now we are also exposing children to books that incorporates
you know uh characters if you will who have disabilities so what that does is it teach
students acceptance and tolerance and then that spills over into our arts department program
because our arts teachers then expose students to this is a visual artist who's had a disability
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this is a uh a singer who's had a disability this is an actor in their theater class who's had a
disability right and then when their teachers if their teachers choose to engage the students in
their read aloud they're able to say oh that person has a physical disability and we've learned about
that in our various disciplines uh we we know about that because we've seen that on the author
of the month board so now that gives them something if they're reading independently at home
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maybe you know the the story that they're reading says you know and jay was once upon a time in a
wheelchair and they're able to say oh he had a physical disability at one point and they're
able to make a connection and what it really does is it maximizes their comprehension so it's so
that cross curriculum through different classes really reinforces the ubiquity of reading and
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lets every student know that reading isn't just the library reading isn't just when i go home and
and get my books and that sort of thing they're going to be doing it in every facet of their
life pretty much absolutely in every facet of their life so we try to give them opportunities
to engage in reading in ways that are not intimidating because reading to perform a
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task is a thing and it's what the state uses to determine who's proficient so we have to so we
have to read but no one said that it doesn't have to be fun so we try to come up with ways that
reading is fun and we try to incentivize and recognize students for reading so that when they
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have to perform the standardized test the building level test in class assessment it's it's nothing
for them it's just more reading so it has worked and we continue to take we plan to continue to
take that approach moving forward how important is it to mix up those genres to really keep that
interest level going where it's not just you know we're coming in or reading these set books
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there are books that they have to read as you mentioned and there are books that they can read
for fun but there's also other materials that they need to to keep that cadence up of different
subjects that they have to read about how important is that in their in their the way that
they're going through school it's very important because reading is confirmed based on experience
right so if i read something that says if you put a seed in the ground and you water it out comes a
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plant that's confirmed when i do that right so when we're talking about the content areas of
science and social studies that really gives students an opportunity to read it's particularly
science and do to confirm their understanding or comprehension so having a variety of titles and
genres is vital in order to give students an opportunity to read things that they can or have
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experienced so one of the things that we try to be strategic about with the book vending machine
in particular is making sure it is not just randomly putting titles in but for an example
if it's february we're trying to put a lot of culturally relevant books in sure right um if it
is um april or may we're coming up on earth day we try to put a lot of books in that may be connected
(31:27):
to gardening and planting and the the environment right we we try to make sure that we have books
that are cross-curricular focused so the books that are science focused books that are social
studies focused whether they're fiction or non-fiction as well as a balance of fiction
and non-fiction text so students um have a wide range of text that's available to them because we
(31:50):
want to also make sure there's equity in regards to what children are reading you know if they're
only reading fiction picture books it doesn't help them become familiar with multiple genres it
doesn't help them with tolerance it doesn't help them with acceptance and it doesn't help them with
content knowledge so we we try to be very strategic and intentional about that when you talked a little
(32:12):
bit about you know the reading what you're reading aloud the bowtide principles reading this book
and that instant feedback you get with the emojis in the chat talk a little bit about the not so
instant feedback that you've gotten from the parents in the community about having the book
machine as part of what the kids are going to be doing at school yeah the parents they love the
book i so one of the good things about the the live is if i work three to eleven and i'm not with my
(32:39):
child it's there and i can access it with him or her the next day or when i'm not at work right
so i get a lot of feedback um after the fact for folks that are not necessarily online right um
um we've had families join that are not a part of our throw eve so they'll say you know how do you
use that because they probably don't have a book vending machine at their school right um i've had
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parents say you know um can my kid get a book out of there because we have parents who they may be a
parent of a pre-k student or a kindergarten student so we're in the first four months of the school
year so they're relatively new so their schedules may not have allowed them to become as accustomed
to our initiatives as other parents right but then again that live was a platform because they're
(33:24):
like you're doing this read aloud and you're sitting in front of this book vending machine
so what's that about or i came and did a tour at the school and i saw that book vending machine so
now what does that mean to joey who's actually going there right and what we really see is the
children going home and telling their parents about the book vending machine and you got to sign
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here you got to sign here so that i can get a coin you know and then parents are coming and saying
what is this that they keep bringing me this log that they're adamant that i signed show me so now
we have parents in the building so it works for multiple goals of an optimal school if you will
sure and we've talked a lot about you know during the school year those summer months can be a little
(34:07):
bit tougher to keep kids attentions going with the things that they're reading or actually getting
them to read what kind of things are you doing to make sure that that love of reading is not falling
stagnant over those months that they're not actually coming to school yes well we um send home what's
called a summer learning enrichment packet we do one for the content area of ela and one for the
(34:28):
content area of math as it relates to just authentic reading because i want to get under a tree
and the shade on a sunny day and read our literacy coach has a robust page where we have uh activities
and book titles recommended and it goes back to our jedi initiative so our jedi initiative if you
go to our website for an example it will say for january these are the titles these are we're
(34:54):
focusing on physical disability but then we have a book list of titles of children's books that
embraces physical disabilities that parents can click on and read it to them in their child right
uh this here new reading with the bowtie principle that has started at the beginning of this school
year we're going to continue that over the summer this year so our students who don't see us in
(35:17):
july and august they'll still be able to see us virtually and be connected reading so they're
ready to hit the ground running in september so we're excited about that with everything in
technology changing so much and we've talked about innovation what do you see coming down
the pipeline as other possible forays to delve into to keep kids interested in reading other than
just picking up a book in the library what else is going on in education to maybe use other forms
(35:43):
of technology that we haven't used in the past so that's it technology technology technology
so the next few years you're going to see all state tests across the state transition to fully
online there will be no more paper and pen uh you know so i see uh technology technology technology
having a very big presence um in what it looks like when kids read um moving forward i can confirm
(36:08):
that as it relates to the reading that students have to do to perform a task because if they test
are transitioning to online right so i see technology having a very very heavy presence
um as it relates to the reading i have to do to show that i am a reader for the state is online
so we're going to have to uh strike some semi of a balance when we are asking students to read
(36:30):
that they're having that opportunity to do so online so for an example one of the uh platforms
we have access to uh with our district is called myon which is an online reading platform that
there's several books but we're going to have to be careful that we strike a balance and don't
dismiss a book in the hand right so we we're in a texting generation we're in a 21st century
(36:53):
everything is technology and everything is online but we really want to be careful that a child
still can write a friendly letter right so that's going to be our job as education practitioners
to ensure that we are relevant but that we don't inadvertently uh do anything that results in
(37:13):
students losing skills that we have always uh nurtured or massaged if you will sure
do other principals of other buildings come up to you and say hey i don't have one of those
it's really interesting what you're doing over there what are the kinds of things that you tell
them as other leaderships or persons of leadership um in their schools and in their districts right
(37:35):
i have really a lot of uh school leaders and district leaders from other school systems
reach out to me some suburban locally and several from um different states because like i said
we have a robust social media presence so we post our book vending machine days each month and
when we post that like on our facebook or our linkedin i've gotten i've gotten several um
(38:00):
correspondences which my predecessor warned me she goes you're going to get inundated with this
and oh boy was she correct but i get several correspondences in regards to you know where
did you get this from how does this look what does this look like how does it work how have you done
it in your school so i get several of those correspondences uh so much so where i kind of
have a standard response drafted so when i get it it takes me five seconds as opposed to 10 minutes
(38:25):
per person but i've had several inquiries over the past two years and it was really interesting
is what mrs walker and her former assistant principal dr robinson put this in place over
five years ago she was inundated and i came along in 2000 to 21 and now in 2024 i still get those
correspondences so it is it is i think an epiphany to schools uh because i think everyone's mind is
(38:46):
cultured around how a vending machine is supposed to be used but when you see books and they're like
so what is what are the initiatives connected to that that gets that book fall out of the the
holder and into the child's hand and um i'm happy to share that information sure and we will actually
make sure that we have all the ways that people can get a hold of you if they have any questions
(39:08):
but it's been wonderful to sit down and talk with you it's great to see you again thank you it's
great to see this wonderful inchi bookworm yes book vending machine behind is still getting its
love from the kids and from everyone in the community here at the other always school i've
had i i happened to do a walkthrough the other day and i saw a kid in the library run up to the
machine and hug it so it is a part of our family to say the least okay and where can we find you
(39:34):
personally online if folks do want to reach out and get in contact with you yes so um my my
profession my work email is nbarnes at buffalo schools.org anyone can email me and we also have
a school facebook which is our thrills school of distinction if you type that into the search
engine of facebook our school page will come up so any of those platforms are okay and i also can
(39:54):
be reached by calling the school at 716-816-3400 have a dynamic office staff who shares with me
all correspondences and if anyone reached out i'd be happy to share information awesome principal
barnes it's so good to see you thanks so much for being on the reading revolution thank you
Are you ready to embark on an adventure through the world of words?
(00:03):
Join us on the reading revolution and let's explore the exciting world of literacy together.
Welcome to this episode of the reading revolution powered by book vending.com.
I am your host, Josh Gregory. Very excited for this episode.
The first time that we are on location and not in our studio or doing a zoom call.
So it's excellent that we're here. We're very happy that we've been invited to Buffalo Public
(00:26):
School 61 Arthur O. Eve School of Distinction. And my guest today is principal Nathaniel Barnes.
Thank you so much for joining us on the reading revolution. Good evening. Thank you for having me
and having the podcast here at our school. We appreciate it. We've got a lot to talk about.
Obviously, we've got a machine in the back. Something that happened in September in about
a year or five and a half years ago, how this whole program with Inchi the bookworm and his
(00:50):
journey started. So we're really excited about what we're going to be talking about today. So
let's start off with your background, how you came into education and what were the decisions
that led you to say, Hey, I want to be an educator. Oh, that's a great question. So I
determined that I wanted to be a teacher around third grade. What many may or may not know about
(01:11):
me is in third grade, I was identified as a student with learning disabilities. And I overheard
a teacher speaking to my mother saying, I don't know what else we can do for Nate. And she wasn't
trying to be difficult. She genuinely didn't know what else she could do. And then at that point,
I made up my mind, I said, I'm going to be a teacher because I have to make sure other kids
(01:35):
don't hear their teachers saying that to their parents. So I knew at that point, I wanted to be
a teacher. And teachers were what I was around every day of my school age career, if you will.
So I was inspired as a child. In my primary years, I used to play school. When I was in high school,
(01:55):
my senior year of high school. I think the practice is still followed today. If you get so many
credits by the time you're a senior, you get a shortened day, senior year, it's like a big,
a big, a big positive, right? So my senior year of high school, we had half day. And what I would do
is because the elementary school of the district I attended was on the same campus of my high school,
(02:16):
I would leave around 12 o'clock and I would go over to the elementary school and I would do
an internship with fourth grade students with a teacher who was once my teacher. And then after
that, I went on to Maday College to become an elementary teacher. My bachelor's is in
childhood education. As I chaired, I was a student with learning disabilities. I struggled
(02:38):
big time with reading in my primary and adolescence years in full transparency.
So about my sophomore year of college, I said, you know, how am I going to be a teacher when I
struggle with reading myself? So when I was blessed to be able to obtain my bachelor's degree,
I went back to school for a master's degree in literacy, which really focuses on teaching
students how to read. And I was able to obtain that credential, which qualified me to be able
(03:04):
to be a reading specialist, as well as a literacy coach to work with teachers on how to teach
students how to read. So I started my career as a third grade teacher, a one year long term
substitute position in Chigduaga, which is where I attended. After that, I moved away to Baltimore,
Maryland, where I taught first grade at private and public schools. I moved back to Buffalo and
(03:26):
became a first grade teacher in Buffalo. Then I started to execute my literacy credentials
to a higher degree if I became a literacy coach. So in that role, it's a quasi leadership role
that serves as a conduit between administration and teachers to support teachers on effective
teaching strategies and execute the principal's vision, if you will, as it relates to district
(03:48):
expectations and their building expectations. While doing that role, I realized that I liked
leadership. So I went back to school to become, to get credentialed to be a building administrator.
After receiving those credentials, I started to work as an assistant principal and director
of curriculum at a local charter school. I went on to become the principal of that charter school.
(04:12):
I also started to work as an adjunct instructor. So I started to teach other educational professionals
who wanted to go back to school to be administrators at Canisius College, an adjunct instructor at
Madai College for future teachers as well. I then later became the founding principal of a local
charter school. So I did all of the founding work connected to supporting with writing the curriculum,
(04:40):
the onboarding of teachers, coming up with a professional development plan and things of that
nature. And to fast forward, I'm now the principal here at this wonderful school,
Arthur O'Eave School of Distinction, which is a very interesting school because it's programming
within the building. We have specialized programming. We have an arts integration
programming, an exploratory arts program, in which all of our students can participate in dance,
(05:03):
theater, visual art, vocal, and violin. And then we also have a criterion-based component,
which is a gifted and talented program that those students have to take a qualifying test to be a
part of. And then they feed into our five through 12 gifted and talented building, Olmstead, in the
district after they leave here. So that's kind of my educational and professional journey in a nutshell.
(05:24):
So when you decided to leave the classroom setting and get into leadership,
there still has to be, and maybe I'm crazy to say this, but that yearning to be back in the classroom.
How do you do that on a day-to-day basis if you can to not just be the leader of the school,
but also someone who is welcome in those classrooms? That's a great question. So the
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primary responsibility of a building principal and an assistant principal is to be the
instructional leaders of the building. And in order to instructionally lead the building,
you have to have a pulse on the instruction that's happening. So as I shared, I have a
background in literacy, and our assistant principal has a background in math, so it strikes a happy
balance. And one of the things that our district has in place, which helps administrators
(06:10):
instructionally lead effectively, is something that's called instructional walkthroughs.
So we have instructional priorities for the areas of English language arts and the areas of math,
and one of the instructional priorities specifically for English language arts is all
students read. So we have look-fors, if you will, as to what does all students read look like in the
classroom. And that gives us the opportunity as administrators to go in and with a very, you know,
(06:36):
close lens, look at the work that students are doing connected to reading, provide feedback to
teachers, have some collaborative conversation, and use our background, our experiences, our
expertise, and our credentials to further support and develop the teachers in that area, or to give
them ideas on ways to maximize the work they're doing that's aligned to best practices, as well as
(06:57):
it serves as a continual opportunity to build relationships with students. And the work that
they're doing serves as the nucleus of that relationship between the students, administrators,
and teachers, because that's the center of what's common between all those different stakeholders,
if you will. So again, we'll enjoy how beautiful this machine is. This Inchi Bookworm program
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started here five and a half years ago with the very first book vending machine that ever existed.
It came out of this school. So when you came and took over the leadership, you were aware of this
machine being here and its legacy before you said, hey, I'm grabbing these reins? It was. So one of
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the things when I was appointed and assigned to this school, the school has always had a very robust
website. So I did some research. And one of the things that was on the website was the Hope Book
Vending Machine Initiative. And that initiative, I must say, was started by my predecessor, Mrs.
Walker, who's now retired. So when I came here, I said, you know, you have to tell me all about this
(08:07):
book vending machine. And she gave me some insight. She said, you know, a few years ago, I had this
idea of a book vending machine. And she spoke about that idea with her then assistant principal,
who had some experience with book vending machines at another place. And they implemented it here.
And one of the things that she put in place that I carried over into my principalship is the
(08:30):
principal's reading challenge. And what that looked like and looks like now is each month,
we encourage our students to read 10 books or 10 chapters. And that number is based on the fact
that all of our students, we encourage them to read 15 minutes per night. So if they're reading
15 minutes per night, 10 books or 10 chapters for the adolescent students can easily be obtained,
(08:52):
if you will. So we have this principal's reading log. And it's housed outside of the library,
because the book vending machine, the beautiful book vending machine is inside the library.
And at the beginning of every month, we send the logs home with the students. We keep them,
as I said, outside of the library and on our welcome table in case they get misplaced.
And as they read books or as they read chapters or their parents read to them for the students
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that are our youngest students, like pre-K students, parents are able to write the titles
or the chapters of those books down on the logs and sign off on them. And they're turned into
the building. So they go to our literacy coach and our literacy coach vet to make sure the
expectation was met, the 10 books or 10 chapters. And each month at the beginning of the month,
(09:35):
we make a big deal and we call all the names of the students who've met that goal over the
announcements. They get to come down to the library, they get a golden coin, and they get
to select the book that they want to read. And then that book serves as the first book to go on
their log for the next month. So it's a way to build an intrinsic as well as extrinsic, if you
will, love for reading. And it worked for the former principal. I thought it was brilliant.
(10:01):
I upheld it and it's continued to work. So that's one of the things that we've done here,
how we've incorporated it into our programming, into the expectations we have for students
so that it's fun and so that they have some collective efficacy connected to it.
And we're in a library where a student can come in and take out a book or two, 10, how many ever
they want to. What's the excitement behind a student actually selecting a book that they know
(10:25):
they're going to actually keep and not have to just lend and bring back? Well, the excitement
about it is one, I know that this book gets to go on my log for me to get another one next year,
next month. So the goal is we want to have programming in place where that every student
by the end of the school year can have their own library of minimally 10 books, if you met the
(10:46):
expectation each month. In addition, the excitement is when students come to the library, they have
scheduled times, they get to take out books, but those books have to be returned, right? And what
if I really wanted to read this book again? So they get to have this visual reminder that if I'm
reading my expectations of 10 chapters or 10 books per month, I always will get to select a book that
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I get to keep. So although I may have a variety of books that I can choose from in the library that
has to be returned, each month I get a book that's mine. And that builds their excitement,
that builds their love for reading, and that builds their desire to be in the library where
the books are. How important in your estimation is it for the families to be involved with reading
(11:30):
starting at a young age instead of the old, well, that's what schools are for. You're supposed to
teach our kids to read. It's vital to be perfectly honest with you. The old times saying that parents
are the first teachers is 100% true. So if parents are involved in reading and they're reading to
their children and they're exposing their children to text, one of the tips I gave my parents on our
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life the other day is when you're driving down the highway and you see a billboard, read the billboard
to your child and talk about it, right? If you're in the house and you're eating breakfast, put the
cereal box in front of them and let them look at the ads. If you build that type of excitement for
students around reading that is not structured, if you will, when they have to read to perform a task
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in class, it's not daunting and they're more likely to be able to do so successfully and willingly
because the willingness has a lot to do with the performance, right? So if I'm disgruntled,
I'm already at a disadvantage of how well I'm going to perform. So the parents' involvement is
key, but the schools do have a responsibility and parents understanding that. So we have to build
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initiatives and things in place that also excites the parents about it. So in addition to the book
vending machine, just one example, one of the things we do is we do a monthly mystery reader,
right? Each classroom picks a parent once per month to be the mystery reader. That teacher gives
the students different clues about the parents throughout the month and they try to figure out
(13:00):
who's that parent. And on the day of, the parent comes in and reveals themselves and read a story
they select. Well, if their child won a coin and was able to get a book out of the book vending
machine and their parent is the mystery reader, the parent may come in with that book and read it
to the entire class. So it's all interconnected. So with test scores and reading and literacy,
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we know, we see all these statistics about how this country is really struggling in all their
efforts and that sort of thing. What kind of challenges are families facing when in a lot of
times you think, well, can't you just read all those things that you just said, cereal box,
a billboard kind of generate that excitement about reading. What are the families facing that are
struggling with getting kids to start reading? I think with education or knowledge, right? Yeah.
(13:47):
So one of the things I say is if I go into a procedure room at a hospital and a doctor's
performance surgery, I'm going to have no idea what's happening unless I'm educated on it.
So that which is psychic nature or innate to us as education practitioners, because that's what we
do, you can't expect that to be the case for the population that you serve. Sure. So as I shared,
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you have to, one thing is every parent want their child to succeed, right? But we have to come up
with innovative and equitable ways in order for all parents to engage. So it's our job to come up
with initiatives that engages the family, but simultaneously shows them the importance of that
(14:32):
engagement. And those initiatives then not only need to engage, but needs to educate, right? So
if I have a mystery reader and I'm walking in the room and I see all the kids jumping up and down
and excited that I'm reading to them, I then say that this is something I need to turn key on.
Key in my home. So we just have to be really metacognitive and reflective on how we do it
(14:52):
so that we are building a love for reading, getting books in children's hands, but also ensure that
parents are understanding the importance of simultaneously because traditional, here's a
packet of why you should do this may not work for everyone. So we have to come up with ways that work
for everyone. The traditional packet of this is why you should do it isn't bad, but what are we
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going to do in addition to that for the parent that doesn't read that packet? So really when we talk
about you never stop learning, sometimes we have to teach those who thought they've been taught
everything already. That's exactly correct. That's exactly correct because I know how to read doesn't
mean I know how to teach a child how to read, right? And I know when I was in school, we were taught
(15:36):
certain words that you just need to know that this is the word yellow and that's just the end of it,
right? But there is actually a systematic approach to teaching students how to read, right?
And there are initiatives and systems and things of that nature that parents can engage their
children in that parallels to that systematic approach we take at school. But again, we have
(16:00):
to be innovative in how we roll those out and how we build collective efficacy with the at-home
connection for those things to be paralleled and then you'll see the fruit of that as it relates
to student achievement in school. So when we're on the topic of statistics and you know literacy
where it stands in this country, can you talk a little bit about the successes that you've seen
(16:24):
here at the Arthur O'Weave School? Yes, I can. I am so grateful to God to say that we have
made some progress this year on the 2023 New York State ELA assessments. Our ELA scores
jumped 14% which was pretty amazing and I'd be remiss if I did not credit the work of the teachers,
(16:46):
right? What I tell them is I facilitate but they do the work, right? In addition to that,
in addition to the New York State assessments, we have building level assessments. So we use
something in-house that's called Dibbles which kind of gives us a pause on students' reading
level and kind of helps us drive our instruction. So when our intermediate students take those state
(17:06):
assessments, their performance is optimal and we were very fortunate to stumble upon an investigative
post released by the Buffalo News outlining the fact that our Dibbles scores for the fall of 2023
were the highest they've been in seven years which we were very excited about that considering
(17:28):
we're just three years back after COVID as well and then again it shows when you're strategic
about instruction, when you're strategic about initiatives, you get buy-in from all stakeholders
and that formula or that equation equals academic achievement. You know you mentioned COVID and I
(17:48):
think it's a foregone conclusion that everyone says education was hurt very much so by kids not
being in the classroom and not being around their peers and instructors. Looking back on that, what
kind of lessons did you learn from what you were doing that was successful and how we could actually
jump ahead and even do more and do better knowing that you just went through this awful time. What
(18:10):
do we need to do to get back and hit the ground running and maintain the high level of education
we were doing before kids were trying to do everything from home remotely? Well in full
transparency, we've been back in the buildings now probably close over two years so everyone should
(18:30):
be on the ground running and they really should have been on the ground running the first day
we got back and I would imagine that every school system and district was but what COVID taught us
here at the home of the arts is that students are resilient and regardless of what they missed,
(18:51):
it does not fully, what they can do is not fully contingent upon what they missed
right and what it has helped us to understand is the importance of reflection because it caused us
to have to sit back and say we have to do some things differently to fill this achievement gap
(19:12):
too. We have third graders who haven't been to school since they were in first grade when they
were when they were supposed to learn how to read so it helped us to understand the importance of
reflection and really value the word innovation and when we talk about the word innovation,
some of those initiatives that we reference that we have in the building and some that we connect
(19:32):
to the book vending machine are a part of that innovation of building a love and a collective
joy around learning and two years later we're grateful that we've seen the fruit of that.
So in earlier this past fall when we unveiled the new machine which was so much fun to do and have
(19:57):
the board president was here and the superintendent was here it was a great great afternoon
the excitement of the kids. When kids see that is there a level of even at that young age of
you know I see a level of investment from this school in my education when they see a machine
like this placed in their library. Absolutely our students what we do is we consider the gifts when
(20:23):
when they get the golden coin we consider those books gifts to them right and we have time set
aside in the day when teachers are doing small group instruction and things like that when
students can read independently right and that's when they're able to read their book that they got
out of the book vending machine right and they see it as an investment because they understand
that a vending machine you have to use money they go to TOPS they go to Wegmans they go to Target
(20:47):
and they see the soda in the machine or they see the candy bar and they know it costs a dollar
and if mommy or daddy doesn't give me a dollar I can't get that but if they give me a dollar
they they have the resources I did something well I deserve it so that directly transfers to
the book vending machine where if I'm able to get a book out of class even if I didn't do as well on
(21:08):
something as my peer I'm still being acknowledged for what I did do and I think they're able to
make that connection very clearly. And after so many students and after so much time of the machine
standing here in the corner proudly is the excitement just continued to just happen every
single year where kids come in and they're like oh yeah the machine is still here the program is
(21:29):
still in place I'm gonna get more books if I read. Absolutely they love the machine and never dies
I have one student in particular who does not fill out a reading log per month he does 10, 5 to 10 per
month and he's been doing that for the past two years and one of the things that keeps the
excitement going is every year we get a new cohort of pre-k and kindergarten students so the book
(21:52):
vending machine concept is completely new to them right so every year we launch this we launch the
principal's reading challenge in September each each month if the due date for the reading log
is the 30th I have students I have parents and we missed the due date but here's our log can we
still get the book so there's a great deal of buy-in connected to it the the machine does the
(22:14):
marketing for us for the students right because they I've had students who said you know what
I didn't do my book event I didn't do my book log this month Mr. Byrnes but can I please have a book
I've had parents bring their kids back to me in July because they forgot to turn their book their
their log in at the end of June and now they're on summer vacation and mom is like she is just
(22:34):
driving me crazy will you please give her a book and that's what we want we're never going to turn
a kid down from a book but what we want is we want them to be reflective so I like I said I've had a
student that said I did not do the log this month but I want to read that's what we want and that
sounds you know just like the strong community you have built here in this school knowing that
(22:54):
yeah I missed the deadline but I still want that book can we do it in a lot of cases maybe some of
those students get turned away but not here that also has to make the community students parents
everyone feel really good about coming to to school 61 I like to believe so and I hope so our
theme here is we are family so we try to make sure that our actions align to that so when global
(23:16):
vending you know updated this wonderful book vending machine we were so so so grateful and
it's so aligned to our theme of we are family because it was such a generous family like
a donation and it really helped us to bring our building theme full circle because the students
came this year and they knew the book vending machine was going to be here but they didn't know
it was going to look like this sure okay is the success with the readers that are really into and
(23:41):
doing all these logs is that infectious to other students who may be kind of on the fence with
their reading and the struggles that they're having it is because some of the some things that we
will see is we will see some of our more enriched readers they'll get a book out of the book vending
machine and let's say their school bus is coming late and it's going to be 30 minutes late and
they're sitting on the steps with me and in the winter it's dark at 5 p.m they're opening up that
(24:05):
book and they may be reading that book as a third grader to a kindergartener who can't read or
another third grader who may not be as strong of a reader so they still get to benefit from it so it
also builds relationships amongst the students and it builds a love of reading that way if I'm not
necessarily the strongest reader or if I not necessarily or if I didn't bring in the log
because the dog ate it or what have you I still get to benefit from my peer that did and that
(24:29):
really builds a community of readers which is what we want exactly so and that just continues to
to grow every year especially with returning students who know the programs here there's
excitement there there's excitement for the new students who look at it and go oh I can be a part
of that too absolutely what else are you doing outside of the book vending machine I know that
(24:50):
you have some things that you're doing personally every month to again encourage the reading at home
can you talk a little bit about the other things that you're doing sure we're doing a variety and
I'll share one so one of the things that we're doing is we do what's called the once a month
read aloud with the bowtie principle so that's what I record that's what I identify myself as
(25:10):
here at the school as the bowtie principle so we have a robust website and social media presence
so on our facebook live the first monday of every month what we do is we select three children title
books and we send out a google survey to our families and they can select which book they
would like to be as the read aloud and the book with the most votes that's the read aloud so the
(25:32):
first monday of each month at 7 p.m I go live on facebook I'm from our school library sometimes
from my living room because we are family and we want students to feel comfortable and I engage
them in a read aloud and in that read aloud the parents join the facebook they put their children's
names in the chat as they join I'm able to greet the children and what and what we do is it's an
(25:56):
another opportunity for me to build a student's literacy capacity if you will because we we do a
think aloud really so when we talk about a think aloud we talk we make predictions by looking at
the title what the story may be about we look at the pictures we we bring out certain vocabulary
words right it helped we make inferences we go back and we you know we when we were on page two
(26:18):
of the story we asked this question when we got to the end wasn't answered it gives students an
opportunity to put emojis in the chat if you like this part show me a heart you know if this made
you sad give me an orange face so it's a way for parents and students to interact virtually
wherever they may be at the homework table or driving home from soccer and that goes back to
what I said well we have to come up with innovative ways to engage families so I may be a parent
(26:43):
that I cannot get to the school during the school day because I'm working but I can log on to facebook
in the car while my high school students had soccer practice with my eight-year-old and engage
in the read aloud so that's what I'm referencing when we're talking about innovative ways to get
students and families involved and build a sense of buy-in connected to reading so that there's a
(27:07):
generic authentic love for for the act of reading if you will what other kinds of activities have
you implemented through uh you know the literacy programs that are happening here oh sure so as I
share we've we do the mystery reader once per month yeah that's great where the parents can
come into the classroom and they can read to the children um in addition to the mystery reader we
have what's called a jedi initiative here um justice equity diversity and inclusion is all
(27:32):
over our website so we have a different theme of inclusivity for every month of the year
so for uh january the theme is physical disabilities so we have an author of the month board so the
author we select is an author that's reflective who has overcome or is successful in spite of a
disability a physical disability sure and then we select a book or title from that author to be our
(27:58):
read aloud of the month so now we are also exposing children to books that incorporates
you know uh characters if you will who have disabilities so what that does is it teach
students acceptance and tolerance and then that spills over into our arts department program
because our arts teachers then expose students to this is a visual artist who's had a disability
(28:20):
this is a uh a singer who's had a disability this is an actor in their theater class who's had a
disability right and then when their teachers if their teachers choose to engage the students in
their read aloud they're able to say oh that person has a physical disability and we've learned about
that in our various disciplines uh we we know about that because we've seen that on the author
of the month board so now that gives them something if they're reading independently at home
(28:44):
maybe you know the the story that they're reading says you know and jay was once upon a time in a
wheelchair and they're able to say oh he had a physical disability at one point and they're
able to make a connection and what it really does is it maximizes their comprehension so it's so
that cross curriculum through different classes really reinforces the ubiquity of reading and
(29:04):
lets every student know that reading isn't just the library reading isn't just when i go home and
and get my books and that sort of thing they're going to be doing it in every facet of their
life pretty much absolutely in every facet of their life so we try to give them opportunities
to engage in reading in ways that are not intimidating because reading to perform a
(29:27):
task is a thing and it's what the state uses to determine who's proficient so we have to so we
have to read but no one said that it doesn't have to be fun so we try to come up with ways that
reading is fun and we try to incentivize and recognize students for reading so that when they
(29:47):
have to perform the standardized test the building level test in class assessment it's it's nothing
for them it's just more reading so it has worked and we continue to take we plan to continue to
take that approach moving forward how important is it to mix up those genres to really keep that
interest level going where it's not just you know we're coming in or reading these set books
(30:11):
there are books that they have to read as you mentioned and there are books that they can read
for fun but there's also other materials that they need to to keep that cadence up of different
subjects that they have to read about how important is that in their in their the way that
they're going through school it's very important because reading is confirmed based on experience
right so if i read something that says if you put a seed in the ground and you water it out comes a
(30:38):
plant that's confirmed when i do that right so when we're talking about the content areas of
science and social studies that really gives students an opportunity to read it's particularly
science and do to confirm their understanding or comprehension so having a variety of titles and
genres is vital in order to give students an opportunity to read things that they can or have
(31:04):
experienced so one of the things that we try to be strategic about with the book vending machine
in particular is making sure it is not just randomly putting titles in but for an example
if it's february we're trying to put a lot of culturally relevant books in sure right um if it
is um april or may we're coming up on earth day we try to put a lot of books in that may be connected
(31:27):
to gardening and planting and the the environment right we we try to make sure that we have books
that are cross-curricular focused so the books that are science focused books that are social
studies focused whether they're fiction or non-fiction as well as a balance of fiction
and non-fiction text so students um have a wide range of text that's available to them because we
(31:50):
want to also make sure there's equity in regards to what children are reading you know if they're
only reading fiction picture books it doesn't help them become familiar with multiple genres it
doesn't help them with tolerance it doesn't help them with acceptance and it doesn't help them with
content knowledge so we we try to be very strategic and intentional about that when you talked a little
(32:12):
bit about you know the reading what you're reading aloud the bowtide principles reading this book
and that instant feedback you get with the emojis in the chat talk a little bit about the not so
instant feedback that you've gotten from the parents in the community about having the book
machine as part of what the kids are going to be doing at school yeah the parents they love the
book i so one of the good things about the the live is if i work three to eleven and i'm not with my
(32:39):
child it's there and i can access it with him or her the next day or when i'm not at work right
so i get a lot of feedback um after the fact for folks that are not necessarily online right um
um we've had families join that are not a part of our throw eve so they'll say you know how do you
use that because they probably don't have a book vending machine at their school right um i've had
(33:01):
parents say you know um can my kid get a book out of there because we have parents who they may be a
parent of a pre-k student or a kindergarten student so we're in the first four months of the school
year so they're relatively new so their schedules may not have allowed them to become as accustomed
to our initiatives as other parents right but then again that live was a platform because they're
(33:24):
like you're doing this read aloud and you're sitting in front of this book vending machine
so what's that about or i came and did a tour at the school and i saw that book vending machine so
now what does that mean to joey who's actually going there right and what we really see is the
children going home and telling their parents about the book vending machine and you got to sign
(33:45):
here you got to sign here so that i can get a coin you know and then parents are coming and saying
what is this that they keep bringing me this log that they're adamant that i signed show me so now
we have parents in the building so it works for multiple goals of an optimal school if you will
sure and we've talked a lot about you know during the school year those summer months can be a little
(34:07):
bit tougher to keep kids attentions going with the things that they're reading or actually getting
them to read what kind of things are you doing to make sure that that love of reading is not falling
stagnant over those months that they're not actually coming to school yes well we um send home what's
called a summer learning enrichment packet we do one for the content area of ela and one for the
(34:28):
content area of math as it relates to just authentic reading because i want to get under a tree
and the shade on a sunny day and read our literacy coach has a robust page where we have uh activities
and book titles recommended and it goes back to our jedi initiative so our jedi initiative if you
go to our website for an example it will say for january these are the titles these are we're
(34:54):
focusing on physical disability but then we have a book list of titles of children's books that
embraces physical disabilities that parents can click on and read it to them in their child right
uh this here new reading with the bowtie principle that has started at the beginning of this school
year we're going to continue that over the summer this year so our students who don't see us in
(35:17):
july and august they'll still be able to see us virtually and be connected reading so they're
ready to hit the ground running in september so we're excited about that with everything in
technology changing so much and we've talked about innovation what do you see coming down
the pipeline as other possible forays to delve into to keep kids interested in reading other than
just picking up a book in the library what else is going on in education to maybe use other forms
(35:43):
of technology that we haven't used in the past so that's it technology technology technology
so the next few years you're going to see all state tests across the state transition to fully
online there will be no more paper and pen uh you know so i see uh technology technology technology
having a very big presence um in what it looks like when kids read um moving forward i can confirm
(36:08):
that as it relates to the reading that students have to do to perform a task because if they test
are transitioning to online right so i see technology having a very very heavy presence
um as it relates to the reading i have to do to show that i am a reader for the state is online
so we're going to have to uh strike some semi of a balance when we are asking students to read
(36:30):
that they're having that opportunity to do so online so for an example one of the uh platforms
we have access to uh with our district is called myon which is an online reading platform that
there's several books but we're going to have to be careful that we strike a balance and don't
dismiss a book in the hand right so we we're in a texting generation we're in a 21st century
(36:53):
everything is technology and everything is online but we really want to be careful that a child
still can write a friendly letter right so that's going to be our job as education practitioners
to ensure that we are relevant but that we don't inadvertently uh do anything that results in
(37:13):
students losing skills that we have always uh nurtured or massaged if you will sure
do other principals of other buildings come up to you and say hey i don't have one of those
it's really interesting what you're doing over there what are the kinds of things that you tell
them as other leaderships or persons of leadership um in their schools and in their districts right
(37:35):
i have really a lot of uh school leaders and district leaders from other school systems
reach out to me some suburban locally and several from um different states because like i said
we have a robust social media presence so we post our book vending machine days each month and
when we post that like on our facebook or our linkedin i've gotten i've gotten several um
(38:00):
correspondences which my predecessor warned me she goes you're going to get inundated with this
and oh boy was she correct but i get several correspondences in regards to you know where
did you get this from how does this look what does this look like how does it work how have you done
it in your school so i get several of those correspondences uh so much so where i kind of
have a standard response drafted so when i get it it takes me five seconds as opposed to 10 minutes
(38:25):
per person but i've had several inquiries over the past two years and it was really interesting
is what mrs walker and her former assistant principal dr robinson put this in place over
five years ago she was inundated and i came along in 2000 to 21 and now in 2024 i still get those
correspondences so it is it is i think an epiphany to schools uh because i think everyone's mind is
(38:46):
cultured around how a vending machine is supposed to be used but when you see books and they're like
so what is what are the initiatives connected to that that gets that book fall out of the the
holder and into the child's hand and um i'm happy to share that information sure and we will actually
make sure that we have all the ways that people can get a hold of you if they have any questions
(39:08):
but it's been wonderful to sit down and talk with you it's great to see you again thank you it's
great to see this wonderful inchi bookworm yes book vending machine behind is still getting its
love from the kids and from everyone in the community here at the other always school i've
had i i happened to do a walkthrough the other day and i saw a kid in the library run up to the
machine and hug it so it is a part of our family to say the least okay and where can we find you
(39:34):
personally online if folks do want to reach out and get in contact with you yes so um my my
profession my work email is nbarnes at buffalo schools.org anyone can email me and we also have
a school facebook which is our thrills school of distinction if you type that into the search
engine of facebook our school page will come up so any of those platforms are okay and i also can
(39:54):
be reached by calling the school at 716-816-3400 have a dynamic office staff who shares with me
all correspondences and if anyone reached out i'd be happy to share information awesome principal
barnes it's so good to see you thanks so much for being on the reading revolution thank you
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