Leaders Readers Network celebrates its education partners

The Leaders Readers Network hosted its annual Teacher Appreciation event May 9 at the Amarillo Area Foundation to celebrate remarkable teachers who are an integral part of their program, which aims to get quality books into children’s hands.

Chris McGilvery, founder and executive director of the Leaders Readers Network, spoke about his organization's mission.

“Tonight, we were celebrating educators in Amarillo who work hard every day to support children in the community,” he said. “With our literacy fellowship, we partner with these educators to provide free cluster libraries for their new books and resources. We do this event to show our gratitude for all that they do to educate our children.”

McGilvery talked about giving out awards for remarkable teachers who ensure their students have access to books. These books share a story with the whole class and can be kept by students.

“The unique factor is that we support our educators with high quality, diverse books which can be handed out to every student in the class to read together,” he said. “Our books teach literacy, social-emotional, leadership, and character development. When students read together, it helps them follow along and maybe overcome their reluctance to read aloud in class. It provides equity for all children in the class, and all get access to the book."

The Leaders Readers Network (TLRN) was founded in 2012 and has been in the Texas Panhandle since 2019, supporting over 200 educators' classrooms.

McGilvery says that we are living in a time when choices must be made to ensure that students have access to books.

“It's really critical that we stand with our educators and our public schools,” he said. “The most important thing to take away from this event is that we have so many educators ready to help children and share the love of reading.”

The event featured a special educators panel to talk about their experiences with the program. TLRN Board of Director Melodie Graves moderated the panel discussion with educators Adrienne Mims, Rachel Chandler, Traci Prather and Rachel Aragon for sharing stories about the impact they are making from the book giveaways to service projects.

Mims, a fourth-grade teacher at Hamlet Elementary who was part of the four-person educator panel, spoke about the importance of the Leaders Readers Network in being able to supplement learning in the classroom.

“Our classroom library is very diverse because of this program, and it reaches every student and culture,” Mims said. “It is beautiful to see how these books touch on the aspects of life that all children can relate to. These are part of the teachable moments that we get to experience every single day, being able to have a book that relates to that so students can visualize it.”

Mims says that diverse books help children to see their emotional skills grow as well as increasing self-confidence and esteem.

“It makes the children better communicators, more willing to help, and more respectful to others,” she said. “These are important life skills to have for growing minds. With this program, the beauty is that we can research the books to use for our classroom as a team. Every book that talks about cultural diversity or a background is always positive in nature as presented.”

Chandler, a member of the educator's forum from Bivins Elementary, said that the network has helped her save money on providing for her classroom.

“It has definitely helped my wallet as I try to get books into the hands of my students,” Chandler said. “I would usually spend and provide books myself, so this really helps to get my students more comfortable with reading. These are the ages where they learn most of their phonic and literacy skills.”

When she started teaching fourth grade, she became aware of the Leaders Readers Network and saw the difference it made with her students.

“I saw the impact of this program and took every opportunity I could to help the students,” she said. It was about getting books into children's hands and hearing parents talk about these moments of sharing reading time with their kids, which was amazing. There is so much more for children to learn about empathy and get a window into other children’s lives. These books change lives,” Chandler said.

Lakeview Elementary teacher Aragon says this program gives her students access to new books, which they would normally not have.

“These quality books are not just hand-me-down books or ones that can be found everywhere,” she said. “The students love to be able to see themselves in these stories and have the same book as all their peers in class. With these books, they can talk about them with their classmates and share their impressions."

The Leaders Readers Network is accepting applications for literacy fellowships until May 31. For more information, go to https://theleadersreadersnetwork.org/  .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Leaders Readers Network holds Teacher Appreciation event