They'll Do ANYTHING for Reading

Mercury Photo by John Strickler

Lincoln Principal Calista Boyer got cold comfort 

from her students' meeting of reading goals in

the first quarter of the year.

For teachers and principals in the Pottstown School District, it seems, nothing is sacred in pursuit of one of the most scared goals of education -- learning to read. 

In previous posts and articles in The Mercury, we've told out about principals getting pies in the face, being turned into an ice cream sundae, being slimed, having ice water dumped on them, kissing a pig -- all in the cause of promoting reading.

Often enough, this happens in elementary school.

At Lincoln Elementary School, Principal Calista Boyer, has already this year taken the ice bucket challenge and been a human hot dog.

As a result of Lincoln students reading 1,000 books per quarter, she and some of the teachers there had to undertake the "Smoothie Challenge."

PMS teacher Aaron Hinnershitz sporting his multi-colored

Mohawk haircut he wore until the end of school as a result

of his student's reading achievements.

This allowed children to come and add tasty, or not so tasty things, to a blender to be made into a smoothie that the children

But who is to say Pottstown Middle School can't get in on the act?

This year the school sponsored a three-month reading challenge to see which grade could read the most books.

The winners were the 5th graders. Their goal was to read 1700 hours from March to May and they exceeded that goal by reading 2,584 hours.

As a result, 5th and 6th grade principal Matthew Boyer, Assistant Principal David Todd, David Mabry, Jeffry Schloth and Thomas Simpson in the dunk tank.

The dunking took place on the football field last week.

Teacher Aaron Hinnershitz ("Mr. H," as the student call him) challenged the students in both of his Language Arts classes on the first day of school.

This year that if they could read 2,000 books on their reading level he would let them pick his hairstyle. This is an average of over 42 books per student.

They accomplished the goal and chose for him to get the Mr. T. haircut with the rainbow Mohawk.

But he kept the results of their votes secret until they came to school for a day at North End Pool.

Mr. H. kept his hair this way until after the school year is over.

Reading Their Way To the Goal Line

The footballs show how far each grade made it by reading more books.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

The collective efforts of Pottstown Middle School fifth and sixth graders enabled them to score a touchdown in a recent reading challenge. 

In order to cross the goal line and receive recognition, students had to log over 800 hours of at home reading. 

The fifth graders not only scored the touchdown but made the point after touchdown by logging over 1,247 at home reading hours. 

5th Graders Michael Lilick, left, and Shawn Hewitt get their snacks 

as part of their reward for helping put the grade past its reading goal.

Combined with the sixth grade effort, over 2,000 hours were achieved. 

As a reward, students were invited to the auditorium where they viewed the movie “Akeelah and the Bee.” They were served popcorn and drinks by the middle school Intervention Team, which sponsored the event.

The team consists of Lisa Kolb, Rebecca Wyatt, David Mabry, Kerry Kline, Matt Blute, and Assistant Principal David Todd.

Fifth and sixth grade Principal Matt Boyer said, “One of the goals at the middle school is to encourage our students to read and to develop a love of literature, the reading incentive program started by the Intervention Team was designed to motivate fifth and sixth grade students to read more books at home."

"A large number of our students bought-in to the program and were able to qualify to attend our reward movie," Boyer said.