Students at Matoaka Elementary School got an additional Christmas present this year thanks to their school library.
From Dec. 24 through Jan. 5, students at Matoaka have free access to more than 500 ebooks through the Winter PopUp Library.
Sponsored by StarWalk Kids Media, a company geared toward boosting students’ access to digital library technology, the Winter PopUp Library opens the company’s full 520 ebook collection to students at partner schools.
Using a tablet, smartphone or traditional computer, students can read a variety of children’s titles, from narrated picture books for younger students to novels and non-fiction works for older students.
Nealon said some of the more popular titles among students last year were “10 Bears in My Bed,” “Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words,” and “Down, Down, Down in the Ocean.”
This is the second year StarWalk has sponsored the Winter PopUp Library. It also sponsors a Summer PopUp Library throughout the month of July.
StarWalk Kids Media publisher and CEO Liz Nealon said winter break was a good time to introduce children to ebooks, since many students receive electronics and computers as gifts during the holidays.
But the holidays also provide students with many other entertainment options to fill their winter break from school. Nealon said giving students access to ebooks would occupy their time with a constructive activity in reading, which, hopefully, turns into a long-term habit.
“We love doing this right after the holidays,” she said. “As a parent, you don’t want to see [children] playing games on them all the time. We want to give them access to a book instead.”
Through its partnerships, Nealon said nearly 7.1 million students, teachers and parents at 2,715 schools and 250 public libraries had access to the ebooks during the Winter PopUp Library.
Nealon said opening up the ebook collection would offer access to literature for students who might not normally have it, she said encouraging general reading habits was the most important objective.
While students may develop preferences for fiction or non-fiction, Nealon said research studies have not found that students have strong preferences for either electronic or printed books.
Instead, Nealon said students prefer one format over the other based on what they read and when they read. They prefer printed books at bedtime or for stories they want to keep and revisit. Students prefer ebooks when they are on-the-go or want to keep their reading habits more private.
“We’re just all about getting kids excited about reading,” she said.
Grafton High Students Named National Merit Commended Scholars
Four Grafton High School students in York County were honored as commended scholars in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Jon Bednarek, Rachel Bloxom, Ruth Kornegay and Hyeon-U Kang were among 34,000 high school students nationwide to be named commended scholars this school year.
They received the honor by scoring in the top 5 percent of the more than 1.5 million students taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMS QT) for the 2014-15 school year.
WJCC, YCSD School Boards to Hold Organizational Meetings
The school boards for Williamsburg-James City County and York County schools have announced the dates for their organizational meetings.
The WJCC School Board will convene Jan. 6, while the YCSD School Board will meet Jan. 12 for their organizational meetings. Both boards will select their officers for the coming year during the meetings.
Ruth Larson (Berkeley) presided over the WJCC School Board for 2014, and Mark Medford did so for YCSD. Neither school division prohibits board members from serving consecutive terms as an officer.
Both organizational meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. and are open to the public.
