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Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Episode 86: Lighting a Literacy Beyond School Walls Part 2
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This episode builds on Episode 85, where we introduced the story behind a community-driven literacy movement.
In Episode 86, we go deeper into the how.
In Part 2 of our conversation, we continue with Brook Schueller and Amy Simpson from Spencer Community Schools to unpack the strategy behind building a true community literacy movement.
If Part 1 shared the story, Part 2 shares the strategy.
We explore:
• How districts can get started—without waiting for the “perfect” plan
• What it really takes to shift mindsets from “school initiative” to “community responsibility.”
• How to engage students and families in ways that feel authentic, not forced
• The reflective process that keeps the work evolving year after year
This episode is practical, honest, and hopeful. If your district has strong literacy goals but you’re wondering how to move beyond school walls and into your community, this conversation offers a starting point.
Lighting a literacy fire doesn’t happen by accident—it happens by design.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Compass PD podcast where we dive into evidence-based practices and research-driven strategies that empower educators and leaders to make a lasting impact. I'm Dr. Carrie Hepburn, your host, alongside my friends Brooke Shuler and Amy Simpson from Spencer Community School District. Hi, Amy. Hi, Brooke. Hello. How are you guys? We are great. Doing really well. Just to give you a little bit of information about Spencer, Iowa. Spencer Community Schools is located in Spencer, Iowa, which is in the northwest corner of Iowa. They have around 10,000 residents and 2,300-ish students. I would love for both of you to just take a couple minutes and tell us who you are.
SPEAKER_01Sure. My name is Brooke Shuler. I'm currently working for Spencer Community Schools. I've spent about 21 years in education. Most of those years were spent in early childhood, mostly kindergarten, but also specialist. I have my reading endorsement, a lot of learning around reading and how kids learn to read. Currently I am serving as an elementary principal, but my most recent role before this was the district literacy coach. So I continue to keep some of those literacy roles in the district. One of those is Spencer Reads, which we'll tell you about.
SPEAKER_00Yay! And I'm Amy Simpson, and I am Brooks co-chair of the Spencer Reeds Initiative here. I have a background actually in psychology and child and family services. I grew up in Spencer, spent about 15 years in the nonprofit sector, and about six years ago, started working with Spencer Community Schools, contracted to coordinate some programs, and some of them are contracted, some of them I volunteer with. And so then when Spencer Reed started, my friend Brooke reached out and said, Hey, we need a we need someone to represent the parent sector, the community sector.
Quick Wins To Start Next Week
SPEAKER_02Now, before we go any further, I want to let you know that this is the second half of episode 85, where we started talking about lighting a literacy fire beyond school walls and using Spencer Reeds as inspiration for you. So you'll hear the second half of this conversation of the conversation in this podcast. If you haven't heard episode 85, Lighting a Literacy Fire Beyond School Walls, I highly recommend that you go back and you listen to that. You don't have to listen to that first, but it's really nice to give you some background knowledge regarding how the program was started, some of the foundational pieces of beginning a community engagement program such as Spencer Reads. And I am certain that you will learn so many things from Amy and from Brooke that will really get you excited about doing this work within your school district. Now I want to move into our next goal of this next part of our podcast, where we're going to try to help listeners see what's possible in their own context. And they've already probably started. I hope that they're taking notes frantically, like I am with all of my pens and colors. Like, try this, try this, try this. So let's start with like, what are some simple low-cost ways districts can engage families in literacy today? If they wanted to start next week, what would be some things they could do?
SPEAKER_01Well, one of the first things that we did was that Together We Read event. So that was after we kind of got a committee together, we got um our name established. So this is kind of within that first month of trying to kick something off, like get your champions involved, just name yourselves. And then ours was a cost-free 10 o'clock on a Tuesday, our whole community was going to be reading. Um, and we just um asked radio stations if we could advertise or promote and um really got people into um our vision, why we were doing this and how our community can be helpful in helping us reach our goals.
Meeting Families Where They Are
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we, I mean, we kind of just we, you know, we spoke about this a little bit, but early on it was where can we find the families? How do we rather than say uh you can gauge with what we're doing, it was where how can we join where they are already? And so, you know, it was what are the upcoming things and could it be just a very simple presence at that thing? And all of a sudden families were engaged. And it's helpful that part of our volunteers and our committee are school employees. So then if those kids and families come and they see their teacher staffing the table that's giving away the books, you know, they're very excited to see their teachers out in the real world, you know. That's so much fun for them. Um, you know, that it's it was exciting for the kids to like, oh wait, you're here? I didn't expect to see you at the you know, whatever it was. Um we did uh book swap at a high school basketball game. And um very simple bring a book, take a book, you know. And we brought a handful for those that if you didn't bring one, you still get to take one. We don't care. We had we had a drive, we had books on hand. Um, but but most did. And if you brought a book, then you got a free popcorn ticket. Go to the concession stand and get a free popcorn. So that again, that was, you know, partners involved in that. We had a little bit of media needed to get the word out. Um we had people that were coming anyway to the game, bring a book and take a new one home. You don't have to invest anything. Um, we got support from our school district, from our activities department to say, can we hand out a ticket? And if they bring a book, they get a free popcorn, you know. So there was that entity that was a part of it. Um we had the we had the announcer in the at halftime of the game that say a little thing about why reading is important and why Spencer reads is a big part of Spencer schools. And so these are the Spencer fans and the other the visiting schools fans who are hearing this. And and we said, even if you didn't bring a book, come and get one anyway, and come get your free popcorn. And so um, you know, it was just a way to say we weren't asking them to engage, we were just finding a way to make a fun reading piece of where they already were. Where they already were, right? Find a so find that would be, you know, a suggestion. Find something that's coming up in the next couple of months and figure out a way that you can just pop on board with it and make something, you know, then it's fun, it's joyful. It's you know, every time we do those book swaps, we always have kids sitting in the stands who they may not be watching the game, but they maybe weren't going to be watching the game anyway. But if they're reading their book, it makes us so happy. You know, it's so cute.
SPEAKER_02So now, does the does the book swap include like adult books too? So if parents wanted to swap too, or people who are attending, we did have, yeah, it's adult all the way down to board books.
SPEAKER_01We had the whole assortment.
SPEAKER_00So um and we did have we did have some very adult books, which we don't typically have on hand, you know, Fred Spencer Reads events, but right we had that table staffed, and so we had them support it or excuse me, organized and separated out. Yeah, yeah, so that as the parents came to shop for a book, we directed them down to their end of the table and those weren't available to the kids. That's that's a good, that's a good idea, but that's something people need to think about, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So um that is that is something that you have to think about. One of the things I do have a question, and uh what about families maybe that speak other languages are at these events, are there opportunities for them to have have access to books that are in other languages as well?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we have been building that. We did get some donated that are um bilingual, mostly Spanish is what we have. Okay, and then we also um our EL department actually um had some funds and they donated us some books that are sort of like um read together, Spanish and English. So we tried to have those books. That is something, you know, they're expensive. And so we're just looking for avenues to support that anywhere we go and jump on the opportunity when it comes. But we do try to have some Spanish books, other languages we have not supported yet, yeah. Other than um, you know, utilizing some public library services and educating parents on how to access that.
Inclusive Access And Multilingual Books
SPEAKER_00So one thing I might recommend is districts do have a need for other languages. We have found that the community has been very supportive when we've requested books. When we do a book driver, and all we have to do is put the word out, and what's you know, we would say, okay, we need, you know, we have a need for this particular level of reading, or you know, so you may be able to say, we're looking for this particular language of books. If you have them, one of the ways that we made it really easy for people to donate. Sometimes we do drives and we have a set spot. We were able to find um in our mall an empty store space that wasn't being utilized. And so in kind of back behind is where we have all of our books stored. So there's another community resource, they weren't using it, it was open, and and so then now that's a anytime the mall is open during business hours, that's a drop-off spot. So when people say, Oh gosh, you know, I found a box of books in the closet I didn't know I have to lessen the hassle, break down the barrier of them, making it very easy for them to be able to donate anytime, any day. They can just drop those off in that spot. And it's kind of a take a book, leave a book, we don't have to police it. It's got some signs up, and that's the spot. And but anyway, back to my original thought. People have been very generous with the donations when we have asked, had a specific need, they show up and they have them, they just don't know what to do with them a lot of the time. They're hanging on because they're not sure what to do with it. So we take it off their hands and rehome it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I love it. I love it. It well leads us right into our next question. Like, how have you leveraged community partners to support literacy? And a couple of times I was like, I wanted us to go into this, and then I know we're trying to hold back so we can we can like reveal as we go. And so, um, could you talk to us about how did like what community partners do you have? How did you leverage them? How are they helping you in this big work? You've already mentioned a lot, but I know there's even more.
Year‑Round Donation And Drop‑Off System
Power Partners: Library, Chamber, Schools
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there are. Do you want to talk about our committee? Sure, yeah. I mean, I would say probably our most valuable community partner is our public library. They are a wealth of resources and they're amazing and they're fun and they're creative, and and they have some resources of their own, which is helpful too. There have been times where Spencer Reeds has not had the means to um, I'm trying to think, oh, like we had one event, uh community event, and we wanted to set up a little photo booth. Well, the library had props and they had a backdrop and they had things. And so that was the Spencer Reeds booth, but they brought the stuff because they had resources for that. So um, but and it I think it's mutually beneficial with them though, because they have so many wonderful offerings to people and they're not utilized nearly enough. And I think people don't either realize it or just don't take the time. And so we try really hard to highlight what they have going on and coming up and you know, helping share that load. And then they're wonderful. Like we we talked about the firehouse reads that we have tomorrow. They organized that completely. So they reached out to the fire chief, they set it up, they ordered the donuts. We're gonna just show up and have fun and wear our shirts, and we have no responsibility, which is what which is great. That's take pictures and hashtag Spencer Reads, exactly. Exactly, right? Yeah, so that I would say that's for sure um a really, really big important community partner. But we've got our chamber of commerce on board, our Main Street director, those are two really good resources in connections to the business community. They help spread the word when we have a specific need, they know which business we we could and should reach out to, who we're going to be most successful with. Um, our Iowa State University Extension has a local office and they offer tons of programming and wonderful things. Um, the local education coordinator is part of our committee, and she's great. Um, who are we forgetting? We talked about school representatives and our private school representatives. I mean, but even we've got um our superintendent attends our meetings, our assistant superintendent attends our meetings, our tech department attends our meetings and a board member on our committee. Yeah. So not everybody, every time every time, right when when they're available, they're all invited. When they're available, we we invite and encourage them to come. But then, like, you know, as far as partners, so when we have an ask of our entire school district, typically that request comes from our superintendent because he is a part of our committee, he helped plan it, and then he says, Hey, on this date, this is what we are doing as a district, and so then we've got support from that level, and it comes down and that joy is spread. You know, he's excited about it, and it's it's not ever met with difficulty because everybody is sharing it in a wonderful way with their own, you know, when we need a when we need a flyer designed or something to go out on social media, the tech department is a part of it, you know. Right need to reach the entire district. That typically comes from our superintendent when we want to reach the business community that goes out through our chamber of commerce in their weekly email blast and they can send it out that way. So um leveraging the partners, I think, is just understanding what they can bring to the table and engaging them and then just letting them do their thing because they all kind of know where their where their expertise lies.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I love that. So the all that communication isn't falling on you. You're not um graphic designers, but we have somebody who is, right? You know, we have people who are really good at wordsmithing and getting us down to 380 characters or less, depending where it's going, you know, and having them as part of it. Can you talk to me a little bit about one of the things that I have learned too when I think about your community partners is everywhere kids go, there's there are books available. So if they're waiting or sitting or their families are, and that's a Spencer Reads thing, and how sometimes they'll call you and say, We're out of books. Could you could you guys talk a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one of the very first things we did as a committee um after our first book drive was put together some identifiable book bins, purple book bins that are in, we've reached out to most every restaurant. Those purple bins are full of books, nobody polices them. If people want to take them home, they can take them home. But the idea is that while waiting in a restaurant and maybe as a deterrent to electronics, get out a book and read and then a picture and hashtag Spencer Reads. But we've got them in restaurants, waiting rooms, and doctor's office and dentist's office, hair salons, um, anywhere that we think that it a child or any student might be waiting for a while. We've reached out or they've contacted us for a book bin. Actually, at one of our community healthcare buildings, they're going through books very quickly and they'll call and say, Oh, we we need a refill. Um so encouraging, you know, if you need a book or want a book, take a book. So that's been fun. And all those businesses also get um like a window cling for their door that say that they support Spencer Reads and kind of just building awareness everywhere you look.
Book Bins Across Town
SPEAKER_00One of the really um neat ideas that we that came about actually was one of our local physicians reached out and and wanted to have reading material in their waiting room, in their patient rooms. And we like uh logistically, we tried to figure out how do we do that. That's multiple waiting rooms, that's multiple. How do we how do we keep it filled? How do we do it? So using our resources, we had some really techie, cool people that came on board. And so what we did was record video of people reading stories, so you can actually that we had a camera down on the book, so you can see the pages as they're flipped, you can hear the audio of it, and then those are available with a QR code in the doctor's office waiting room and in the rooms. So we don't love that they're on devices, but this is one way that we did kind of marry those two, where if you're gonna be sitting waiting anyway, scan the QR code and you can pull up and it will say this age range of book or this age, you know. So there are a few options, and then they can pull those up. And that was that was a fun project because we brought in people from the community to be the guest readers, and so we said, Oh, will you come in one day and we set all the equipment up? We had the tech people help us set it up, and then we lined up people and they came in and and were the readers, and so that was a request from the physician to us, and then again utilizing some different partners, and other than the time to make it happen, and you know, printing out those uh papers and putting them up in the waiting room, right? Again, very little cost to that, but it was a fun, and and it that was another opportunity for like it was an easy ask. Every person that we reached out to and said, Hey, we've got this really neat project we want to do. Would you be willing to come in and read a story and have us record you? And it was not difficult to find people to do that.
SPEAKER_02That's so great. I just keep hearing welcoming, joyful, and pressure free literacy is welcoming, joyful, and pressure free. Like you guys are doing that really well. Is there anything that you think people would need to know that we haven't touched on regarding like creating these welcoming, joyful, pressure-free kind of literacy things for families?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, one thing as far as you know, a committee getting things like this started. I we've talked about mindset and being frustrated when people don't show up and the whole you know, engagement. I think something that we do is just like it, it's it doesn't have to be this big event that you're disappointed in attendance. I think it's more of just like a constant thing that takes that pressure off of um wanting good attendance. Yeah. Spencer Reads has just become like embedded in the community and people just see us there. And it's not really about how many people attended anymore. Right.
SPEAKER_00I mean it's not a thing, it's just a constant presence, yeah, more so.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so so don't do like huge events that take lots of time. Just try to do that. We did that.
QR Storytime In Clinics
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we did that, we tried that in the beginning, and we were frustrated, and we thought we had this great idea, and sometimes they were great ideas, but we learned really quickly that they may not show up, and then you are frustrated, and so we had to debrief that and figure out why maybe that wasn't a good use of our time, and that's where we've realized we had to change our mindset, we had to change our focus and like, okay, let's just be there then at the things that are going on rather than a thing that they have to come to.
SPEAKER_01And it it shifts thinking engagement like school-wise, like we've even been talking as a committee, you know, you spoke to how when kids arrive to us in preschool, um, you know, speaking to the vocabulary gap that we're seeing a lot of students come to us with. It's even like, okay, how how do we um put some some energy and resources towards birth to four or five? You know, um how do we reach those families? How can we connect with the hospital for like new babies? How do we educate, get books on the hands like as soon as they leave the hospital? What are some ideas that we could engage in?
SPEAKER_00home daycares on um just some education on um what conversations could look like between um you and your daycare child or even parents and their children like what what is what happens in communication that you should be aware of can your child respond to you in a two-way conversation um just some education how can we do that for families before they even get to Spencer school it's kind of a new focus i mean we've been doing this this has all been growing over the last five years right our most recent meeting was really the first time we talked about could we provide a book to new babies at the hospital? Could we provide a book on their birthday up until they come to preschool? And then we also say hey did you know this is the time that you should start thinking about what preschool you'd like to go you know and how what's our first contact and how do we get make that j just part of their everyday life even earlier than what we had done. And so I think that and I'm not even sure exactly how that idea had come up.
SPEAKER_01I, you know, a lot of our actually um one of our teachers went to a graduation party and they had gotten a book from their doctor and had it out. Yes. And so that was kind of our like hey I think we could could figure out some ways to make this happen.
SPEAKER_00So that's gonna happen. So we found that there are certain things that are really successful and people are excited about and we continue those every year. Some things that didn't have quite the response or we didn't it wasn't it didn't work for whatever reason to be a part of that event and so things have fallen off. This is a good example of something new that we hadn't really tackled and here we are five years in and thinking well that's neat. Let's let's focus on that we haven't really we haven't really expanded to that point yet. And so the um it it's evolving all the time as we had as new needs are identified.
Joyful, Pressure‑Free Literacy Culture
SPEAKER_02Well I just I was writing that down so here's some things that I've heard from you again and again that we're five years in so what you're hearing right now that Spencer Reeds is doing, it's taken five years to get here. And through that they have evolved they've changed their mindset so they went in with an idea and then have reflected after each and every event and then gathering feedback I heard from teachers because they're with kids I heard from community meeting people where they are and through that reflection that's how you've created this shared literacy desire and this shared literacy experience to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to be part of it. So it's all inclusive. So you're making sure that you're you know you may not be where you want to be yet with some populations but you're you're starting somewhere and being able to meet them where they are and where you can be right now knowing that you're going to be maybe beefing up some of those additional experiences like birth to three extra community members before they get to us at Spencer and the EL population and making sure that they have access to lots and lots of books. When I think about what you all have done already there are lots of possibilities people can start seeing like I think from you I hear don't try to do everything just try to do a couple of things it's not like every single day we're doing Spencer Reads no and actually our committee we're we kind of try to do two things a month.
SPEAKER_01So we'll we'll meet monthly and decide on two things two goals.
SPEAKER_02Okay that's really helpful I think that's really helpful for people to understand too like you don't try to do it all the time it's it's like two things.
Shifting From Big Events To Constant Presence
SPEAKER_00So if a district's just like beginning right now what would you tell them to do like to get started with right now I mean my first thought would be identify a couple of champions and reach out to them. Like our most successful thing was getting the right people at the table. It was you know we had to figure out who had connections to people in town who would maybe be passionate and interested in what we're doing here either because it just was something they're interested in personally it supports their profession you know whatever whatever their connection was um we got the right people at the table and then we listened to them and we engage them you know we reached out and said here's something that you have to offer that we don't have and we need you please come and share your thoughts and tell us and then you know once you get those people at the table then you can kind of delegate and it really becomes a team. It's not nobody's got free time to take on a thing on their own that's overwhelming and exhausting and nobody can do it. But if you get partners who are also invested and then listen to them and then let them do you know then it's just then it's more of a coalition of people that are having a shared interest than you know an individual or two feeling like they need to do everything. That's exhausting. So I would say get a couple of people at your table would be a start.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what you think and then I think give yourself a name and let people know um what it is and why you're doing it and start showing up places.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah kind of social media places yeah social media is powerful.
SPEAKER_00I think showing up at a basketball game for the first time was unexpected and brought a lot of a lot of attention um people were like what are we gonna we're gonna read during the game like I don't you know they didn't really understand and we weren't encouraging that but it was a fun way to say these two things that might seem unrelated but really are part of our school's culture. And so for the athletes and the kids involved in activities and their parents and the people who are supporting the the people at this event to also say oh reading is important. We're we also make this a part of our life was um impactful I think it was a collaboration that was out of the box a little bit but it was fun.
SPEAKER_02So fun. So fun I love this topic I love this talk bit so let's we'll finish up with our last thing where we're gonna talk about like normalizing barriers that there are going to be a lot of things that are as school districts that are going to be obstacles that we're trying to overcome right like um we have all the reasons why kids can't read and why people don't want to engage we have all the reasons we're really good at that first thing we do is we look at the data and we can tell you all the reasons why we can't hit this data, right? But really how can we overcome those obstacles in fun and joyful ways? So what are some mind shifts that you think are really necessary when engagement doesn't look traditional like we think of schools.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I think just what you said like don't think traditionally in the past we would consider a successful event like when it's well attended inside the school building I think we have shifted into um being present places um not really taken attendance but just being an offering and an expectation that books are a lot of places in our community and that um people are noticing readers and even you know the expectation like on the back of our Spencer Reed shirts like, hey what are you reading? Making that sort of like a common question that we ask not just kids. I was going to say kids, but it's happening with adults too just kind of a common conversation amongst all of us.
New Focus: Birth To Preschool
SPEAKER_00Yeah we I wear Spencer Reed shirts a lot and we have that printed on the back and I have teenagers and their friends think it's so hilarious every time they see me to say Amy what are you reading? Because it says ask me what I'm reading and they and it's a joke. However I always answer it and it's and it's so you know and it's like they think they're being funny and kind of annoying which maybe it is a little bit but nonetheless it still leads to the conversation you know that it's just kind of become a part of and and I guarantee you those kids would have never in their lives said Amy what are you reading? You know that wouldn't have been a part of our interaction otherwise and so um yeah finding ways for it to be uh yeah just participation is measured differently than the traditional I think you know that it's just seen as a part of um you know a part of everyday life rather than check attendance you know so there's that work that's why it's working people are busy they're really busy busier than ever or seemingly and I think that's why it's working is it's your culture now and in five years it's becoming part of your culture.
SPEAKER_02Um so that's why I want to think about like what advice would you give districts that feel discouraged or burned out by the past attempts because like I mentioned um in private we were talking before like in education people are discouraged and in and feeling like there's an apathy and we want to re-energize and get excited again about this.
SPEAKER_01So what advice do you have for them I would say like think about the things that are well attended. If if you're gonna think about your school parent teacher conferences well attended um what could you do then so it's not a missed opportunity um we've even talked a little bit we have not tried this this will a new new idea but um you know engaging parents in some sort of literacy when they come to their their their child's winter concert or spring concert those are well attended what what how could we educate or provide at those types of things that are well attended events. And then I think you know separate events just don't really stand alone anymore. And we found that out through some Spencer Reed's things we tried um try stop trying to do it on your own like joint join join forces with someone else so it's not a a one-stop literacy night or a one-stop math night um what could you do to embed it somewhere else?
SPEAKER_00My other thought too that one of the ways we've had some success is engaging students in planning and carrying out what we're doing they are powerful. They if you get if you get leaders um that will say this is something fun that we should do um and they show up and they help set it up and we say hey put that on your Snapchat and and tell tell your friends to come stop by because you're here and you know whatever number one they kind of know what students might be interested in. We we think we know we don't know what we think is cool is not what especially when you're talking middle school high school um but if you engage those students in the planning of some of the things you're doing and say you know where are students at like what are you guys doing on the weekend if we wanted to do a Spencer Reed something there, what could that look like? Where what what could we do and sort of jump in where you're at and then get their feedback and then if whenever possible engage them with it um you know we've had a couple of events that we had um students help us plan and organize and they set it up and they were there and they were well attended. I'll tell you they if the kids are engaged things happen in a way differently than adults do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So smart. So our goal is uh get kids engaged, get families engaged get them a public library card get books out in the community and and and get people talking about their literacy lives and what they're reading and showcase that to the world and let the fire go. Yeah like let it let it begin.
SPEAKER_00And if you're frustrated that's okay. We have in there if you're feeling burnt out and frustrated and disappointed totally normal anybody that plans a thing for families has felt that at times and is there and I think just honoring that and realizing your frustration and and you know it's okay. It's okay because we have all felt that too so I think for those that are feeling a little bit disheartened but we're heading into the new year. You've got half a school year left maybe to shift your focus a little bit and you know start and this we didn't are I'm trying to recall when was our very first because we started at the start of a school year. Yeah it was probably about halfway through the year when we actually had our first kickoff and then moved things through it took a little time to get some painting. So you're certainly there still is time this year still time.
Five Years Of Iteration And Learning
SPEAKER_02Personally I think I would just start with the name and the hashtag and just start doing that like just real simple okay let's try this and then when you feel really brave and you get it I I'm going to give you all like a little uh insider tip because I happen to be there when they were talking about getting the the winter break kicked off and it's like hey I'm going to on Saturday tag you with a picture of me reading something and you guys need with the Spencer Reeds you know tag and you guys need to start getting that going so people see it. So that's that's what we're gonna ask you to do. Maybe that's your first step right now when you're getting started and just be excited about it. Like I'm reading this and this is for fun. This is not even for work you know so or I recommend this book or whatnot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and then you bring the joy you bring the excitement but also it goes back to the really happy positive peer pressure that's a good way where if you're seeing oh Brooke did that and Amy did that and Carrie did that oh I should participate too I want to do that. Yes. And so then it makes not makes but encourages people and you know makes you want to do something maybe that you wouldn't have otherwise where if you wouldn't have posted a photo of what you're reading before why would you now within this little photo challenge that we've started and you see others doing it you realize that you're not alone in what you're doing. There's this bigger piece of the community all doing the same thing you're doing. You just weren't talking about it.
Start Small: Champions, Name, Hashtag
SPEAKER_02So great. Don't you find that you say okay I'm this is gonna be last thought on this thing but don't you find if you see a couple people too they're reading the same book and they're you're like oh that helps me with my to be red stack that helps me grow that I'm like oh that must be good. You know if they like it and they recommend it. I need to check that out I want to revisit one thing. You all mentioned maybe you didn't feel like you had as much for secondary but here's some things that I heard from you. One thing is that you're having students help you plan events and then they're sharing that on social media. So there is that peer pressure that desire so that's highlighting what you value that you value literacy. So that's something that stuck out to me. Another thing is that the book swap is happening at high school events likely at their sporting events and so kids in high school are seeing that another thing that you're doing is that you're having high school kids read to elementary students on those times that they're doing in the sports so that's another time it's being highlighted might not just be students in sports but different clubs as well so it can be art, uh student council, whatever whatever the club is we want you banned all of it. Another thing that I thought was really cute and I'm not sure if you remember saying this but in early on you were talking about um kids taking pictures of each other like at a coffee shop and reading and hashtagging the Spencer reads. And then the scholarship so that's really for secondary students so they provide um a a nice scholarship for kids that that reading has impacted their lives and they have a library card and so kids apply for this and um want to get a chance at this scholarship. So they have an outside funding source that helps them provide that um through the Spencer Reads program. So as we wrap up we've covered a lot of content today a lot of content today um in a beautiful way I hope that people walk away feeling really inspired and excited that um it's taken them five years to get here so that's one thing you can't do at all so and they're not asking you to they're just giving you ideas.
SPEAKER_00Is there anything that we that you want to say that maybe we haven't I don't know well you know what here's one thing I will say we talked about this a little bit off camera before we started um find someone that you like and try to work together. You know it really makes a huge difference if you uh we we are friends outside of Spencer Reed's as well and I understand sometimes you have colleagues that maybe wouldn't be necessarily the person you would choose to associate with outside of everybody has wonderful people and people that you're different. But if at all possible bring people to the table that share your passion and you get along well with and are easy to balance ideas off of and you you know sometimes we have Brooke tends to be like big ideas and I think tend tend to bring it down to a manageable level and vice versa. So we balance each other um but it's really fun and if you can find somebody that you enjoy you know you spoke about colleagues too that you just really connected well with it's it's so easy and it's fun when you're doing fun work and you're doing it with people that you enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I I think that this kind of initiative is like one of the most fun pressure free committees that I've been a part of just like thinking of new ideas with little expectation like I said you're not taking attendance you're not measuring any sort of like engagement other than we're a constant presence in our community and where else can we embed ourselves? So I think that that just makes it like a a fun way to get everybody reading or at least being aware that Spencer reads. So um it's been fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh I love this I love this I want to say thank you so much Amy and Brooke for this time because I do believe that you're going to inspire some people and that we together can change lives and literacy for all kids. And that's really what we want. We want our communities to be filled with kids that can pick up a book and read anything they want to read and as adults that you can read whatever you want to read and be able to write whatever you want to write. So it doesn't have to look the same but you the but we believe in opportunity and want to inspire everyone for that. So as we wrap up today I want to say thank you to everyone for joining us on the Compass PD podcast. Remember at Compass PD we believe that every educator and community member has the power to inspire change and transform student learning. Stay focused stay inspired and keep making a difference.