March 12th - Books for Everyone

Our second meeting meeting was another success. Attendance was down a bit, leading us to have a conversation about the day we choose to meet. Thursdays seem to yield a lot of competing mandatory events throughout the county. Please take a moment to vote for your choice of day, so we can better serve everyone for 09-10.

Our meeting began with a membership report by Suelyn Brooks announcing we've grown to more than 70 members! That's incredible. Thank you to everyone who has supported us by becoming a member this first year. We hope you'll renew for next year as we have some great things planned. A local BCRC newsletter, mini-conference and Saturday Brunch are all in the works. Jan Sparks shared with us a treasury report letting us know that we're on our way to having a working budget.

We began our new regular segment at this meeting, our "Idea Share." Anyone from our membership can share a quick 5-10 minutes on something they've learned through professional development or something that's been working in their experiences with children. Leah Roche from Beaufort High School shared wonderful ideas about a project she's been using to combine literacy and technology while enticing kids to pick up a book they may enjoy. The concept was developed along with Jessica Mangum, the Media Specialist at Hilton Head High School, who wanted something promoting books and reading to run all the time at a kiosk. The project has grown to involve the kids creating their own "Book Bitz" using Movie Maker and Powerpoint in conjunction with Teen Tech Week.

Susan Olsen, Diane Wiggins, and Laurie Allenbach, from Barnes and Noble Booksellers at Indigo Run on Hilton Head, presented a variety of goods and services that are available at their store. Susan stated that daily she is asked to match a book with a child. She shared many book titles for younger children. Diane shared a list of books available at their store for readers between 3rd grade and high school. She also gave plot summaries for many of the books, teasing many of us to want to pick them up or match them with children. Laurie wrapped up the presentation by mentioning some of the events and services offered by Barnes and Noble including the 20% educators discount, Educator Appreciate Week which is coming up in April and in store book fairs which can be used as stress free fund raisers.

To end the meeting, we awarded many doorprizes. Attendees had written their name and their favorite book on a shamrock as they entered. Here are some of those favorites:

• The Twilight Series
• The Bible
• Pink and Say
• Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See?
• Skippy yon Jones
• Wump World
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Oh the Places You Will Go
• The Great Gatsby
• At Home in Mitford
• Love You Forever
• Something Borrowed
• The Paperbag Princess
• Baby
• Harris and Me
• Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk

Our Next Meeting - March 12th

The newly forming Beaufort County Reading Council will be holding its second meeting on Thursday, March 12th at 4:15 in Okatie Elementary's Library.

We've listened to all of our attending members' comments and suggestions and we're happy to announce that representatives from Barnes and Noble will be presenting a book talk to include titles for all age ranges from elementary through middle and high school aged children. They will also be bringing teacher discount cards for all those who don't already have one.

Also that evening, Leslie from Teaching Carolina in Beaufort will be on hand to talk about her relocation, offer coupons, and show us some of the exciting teaching tools she has to offer.

Also as a result of your suggestions, we are implementing a new feature as a part of our meetings. We will begin each meeting with a 5 minute Idea Share when some of our own talented literacy professionals will share an idea either from their own classrooms or from a professional development opportunity they've had. Times are tough. We need to look to each other to continue to grow as professionals.

If you'd like to present an idea at an upcoming meeting, please send your information to cynd1234@hotmail.com.

As always, we will have refreshments and lots of door prizes.

We need to try to meet our goal of having a contact at each school both public and private. If you'd like to be that contact for your school or organization, please leave a comment and we will add you to our list.

Membership - A HUGE Success

These totals are just in from Suelyn, Membership Director for BCRC. Last night we signed on 41 new Beaufort County Reading Council members. That's an amazing beginning!! Our Charter paperwork is complete and will be mailed today. There was a ton of positive feedback and many great suggestions. Thank you to everyone who helped organize the event. The BCRC Board members are incredible in doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Thank you to Jamie Pinckney and Okatie Elementary for hosting the event. Thank you to Ellen and Laura for helping with some of the goodies. And, thank you to all of you for coming, participating, joining and giving us wonderful feedback. We are looking forward to our next meeting on March 12th. Hope to see you there!

Watermelon ABCs & So Much More

Our first meeting went well. Guest author, Mary Beth Roulston was inspriring. We all shared great snacks and conversation. We received a lot of good feedback too. I'll write more about exact attendance and membership numbers soon, but for now here are some pictures.

Our New Shirt

Here it is.... our first BCRC T-Shirt.
It will be nice to represent our new organization by wearing one!!

Order one now by emailing me:
cynd1234@hotmail.com

They are only $10.00!!
We have M, L, XL and XXL ($1 extra)

Our First Meeting

We will be holding our first meeting in less than two weeks. There has been and will continue to be a lot of planning. We're all very excited about it. We will be welcoming new members and partners from all across Beaufort County! If you're an educator or working to become one, you should come, join, and participate.

Where: Okatie Elementary School Library

When: Thursday, February 12th at 4:15

Who: Educators (elementary, middle, high, post-secondary, preservice)

Why: Get together with collegeaues to enjoy learning about and sharing what we love about the teaching of reading.
Hear guest author Mary Beth Hiers Roulston speak about her book Watermelon ABCs and how she teaches writing using picture books.

How It All Got Started

It was the beginning of a new school year and as usual I was reflecting on my goals for the year. One thing I planned to do was join the state reading council. I had been a member of the IRA for many years, but never joined out state's organization. So, as I was filling out the form from the SCIRA website, I noticed it said to send to my local council. I wasn't aware of one, so I began to look into it. After emailing the SCIRA, I found out there wasn't one and I could mail my payment directly to them. So my next email to them was, "If we don't have one, can we start one?" Michael Teal, the current SCIRA president and I began some back and forth emailing and before you knew it, a friend and I were heading to Columbia for a board meeting. We gathered lots of information and shook lots of hands, and we were on our way. After holding an organizational meeting and getting some key people on board here in Beaufort County, we are ready to apply for charter with the IRA. It's all very excited to watch the whole thing unfold and grow before my eyes.