Newbery Award Winner Kwame Alexander speaks to students at Castleton Elementary School
In May, Castleton Elementary School students had a chance to visit with Newbery Award winning author Kwame Alexander. He spent the day in classrooms, assemblies, and eating with the students.
This wasn’t the first time the students got to spend time with the author though. They had Skyped with him twice during the school year as part of the school’s Newbery Project. Students read multiple books, debate, and then select the book they think should receive the Newbery Award.
This year, two of the three groups chose Alexander’s book The Crossover. That book happened to be chosen as the award winner this year. Soon after winning the award, Alexander emailed librarian Stacey Rattner asking if he could Skype with the students again at the annual Newbery Celebration.
But, there was more reason to his visit than just seeing the students.
Questar III’s School Library System (SLS) receives state aid funding to provide leadership to librarians, offer high quality professional development, and connect school libraries with the larger library community in the area.
SLS Director Jen Cannell contacted Alexander to provide professional development for librarians, teachers, and administrators from the Capital Region. Since he would be in the area and had a relationship with the school, he agreed to meet with the students.
The SLS played a big support role in Alexander’s visit. Cannell’s staff coordinated all the events, funded the professional development session, and hosted a small group event the night before with teachers and students.
“The stars really aligned for this, it wouldn’t have happened if all those pieces didn’t fall into place,” Cannell said.
While the SLS does not fund author visits, the Arts in Education CoSer does provide support and coordinate for author visits allowing districts to receive State Aid back on the cost of the event.
For more information on the School Library System, visit old.questar.org/library/
