Dist. 54 honors teachers with 1,000-book classrooms

• Article

During November, the Dist. 54 School Board visited 17 teachers across the district to praise them for filling their classroom libraries with more than 1,000 books.

A significant body of research states that the more children read, the better readers they become. As part of the district's Literacy Task Force, members learned that experts recommend every classroom should have 1,000 books to meet the wide range of abilities and interests of the children. With this in mind, District 54 embarked on a campaign to fill the bookshelves in each of its rooms.

Although District 54's SuperKids: Powered by Books Committee raises funds to buy books for teachers, many of the teachers being recognized have assembled these large classroom libraries on their own — by purchasing the books themselves, scouring garage sales, purchasing Troll and Scholastic book orders, receiving some as gifts, etc.

The teachers listed below, join 219 other District 54 teachers, who had previously been recognized for achieving this milestone — for a total of 236 teachers:

Aldrin: Erin Falinski; Armstrong: Lorinda Simms and Guen Sliwinski; Dirksen: Karen Rutter; Hale: Eileen Rathe; Hanover Highlands: Theresa Christman; Hoover: Kathy Hellesen, Amy Mueller and Karen White; and Muir: Tracy Griffin-Langlais, Julie Peterson, Janet Pisterzi, Kim Regnier, Alissa Rendall, Kristen Robledo, Mary Roeing and Jennifer Royce.

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