More than 50 community members join Trojans Love Reading event
The Hot Springs School District held its inaugural Trojans Love Reading event on Feb. 3, in which more than 50 community members read to students in their elementary classrooms.
The readers, who represented various businesses, organizations, and leadership positions throughout Garland County, were each assigned a children’s book by a library media specialist, and were then escorted to a classroom by a sixth-grade student volunteer or staff member.
They read to students at all four
HSSD magnet elementary schools, including Main Street Visual & Performing Arts Magnet School at 701 Main St.; Park Magnet, an IB World School at 617 Main St.; Langston Elementary Leadership Academy at 300 Silver St.; and Oaklawn STEM Magnet School at 301 Oaklawn Blvd.
“Learning and student engagement absolutely must go beyond our classroom walls,” Hot Springs Superintendent Stephanie Nehus said in a news release. “When our community and families show students that they are also excited about reading, it makes a huge difference in the motivation of our students to improve literacy skills and practice reading on their own terms.
“Learning to read is hard work, so when we make it fun and we involve a community of love and encouragement, our kids begin to thrive. Thank you to the many readers who participated with us — you are making a difference in the lives of our students and we appreciate your support!”
With a goal of using a village approach to get students excited about reading and to develop their literary skills, the event will be held again on March 3 and April 14, starting at 1:30 p.m. The district asks that community readers arrive promptly at that time.
According to the news release, they will be in and out of a school within 20 minutes.
“If readers have a specific classroom that they would like to read with, they can make that request as they sign in,” it said. “If readers don’t have a preference, or they need help navigating to one of our four elementary campuses, or if readers would like to RSVP for a large group of readers, please send questions to barnesa@hssd.net.”