"Beary" Special Effort Nets $5,000
Meet a Giant Step Award winner
If you've ever been wowed visiting a great library, you know how media specialist Nancy Baumann feels. A longtime elementary school teacher, Baumann fulfilled a goal when she obtained her M.L.S. and set out on a new career path, one that eventually led to a School Library Journal/Thomson Gale Giant Step Award.
Along the way, Baumann worked in her home state of Wisconsin, then in Texas and finally in Georgia, following her husband, who teaches at the University of Georgia. After serving briefly at Barnett Shoals Elementary School in Athens, Ga., Baumann left to join a newly built middle school, where she helped set up the media center from scratch ("a librarian's dream").
Though she enjoyed the middle school position, "I missed the puppets and sitting on the floor," says Baumann. So when an opening became available at Barnett Shoals, Baumann jumped at the opportunity, and was thrilled to be welcomed back to the elementary school.
Her return was marked by a challenge. Barnett Shoals serves a widely diverse student population, with the majority from low-income urban and rural households. Reading readiness at the kindergarten level was singled out as a need.
Though Baumann was not short on strategies, she also knew that "you can have lots of good ideas, but you need support." And she got it, in the form of "a wonderful principal who's supportive of the library program and values face-to-face interaction with students." Backed by her administration, Baumann coordinated the Beary Special Readers program – appropriate, as the school mascot is a bear.
A Reading-Readiness Revolution
The program set a high goal – 100 books per year read to kindergartners by parents or other volunteers – but it was one Baumann felt her school could achieve: "We've seen how our students and parents rise to the occasion," she said.
Key to the Beary Special Readers program was the participation of volunteer readers, and Baumann's team got everyone from the principal to the school custodian into the act. Even more volunteers came in the form of Barnett Shoals' third- and fourth-graders. After some coaching in expressive reading, the young mentors did a remarkable job. What's most inspiring, Baumann notes, is "when you see it happening, the nurturing of the older kids with the little ones."
Beary Special Readers gave the early grades a reading boost that helped Barnett Shoals reach No Child Left Behind-mandated Adequate Yearly Progress three years running.
On a roll, Baumann launched the Bear Bookstore – a cart stocked with books available for only a dollar each – with grant money donated by local businesses. This simple idea www.schoolwide.com proved to be a hit with kids and adults alike, and the Bear Bookstore has become a school staple. Another successful project, the Newbery Club, is targeted at fourth- and fifth-graders readers.
Giant Step Winner
An experienced grant applicant, Baumann saw the Giant Step Award, sponsored by SLJ and Thomson Gale, as a chance to demonstrate the progress her school has made. When I was done filling out the application," she says, "I saw how much our library had accomplished. So the application was an accomplishment in itself." And when School Library Journal phoned Baumann with the good news? "I was on Cloud Nine."
The Giant Step prize – $5,000 awarded to each of this year's two winners – was presented at the American Library Association. Baumann plans to use her prize to beef up the Beary Special Readers collection. In addition, Baumann and public-library winner Amelia Shelley of Cheyenne, Wyoming, were the subjects of a June 2005 School Library Journal feature story.
Applications for the 2006 Giant Step Award are being accepted through Feb. 15, 2006. If you have any questions, call Phyllis Levy Mandell at SLJ at 646-746-6763 (or toll-free at 1-866-436-0727, ext. 6763) or your Thomson Gale representative at 1-800-877-GALE.