C4T#2 Summary

Cathy Jo Nelson is the teacher that I was assigned to comment on. Her first blog that I commented on was about the Somewhat Virtual Book Club (SWVBC). In the blog, Cathy wrote about the virtual book club that had been started within the last few years and she explained all the things that they had planned for the club. Cathy was inviting anyone who wanted to be in the club to join. The SWVBC is an online book club where students and teachers can chat together about books that they have read. The students could chat with people from all over the country about what they got out of the book that they read. Also, during the online meetings, they had a sessions where they got to meet the author of the book that was read and ask them all the questions that they would like. Each month a different school would host the meetings that they would have. Right now, the club has just started out within the last few years and they are trying to get more students to join the fun.

I told Cathy that I thought that the book club was a wonderful idea for the students. The students are not just reading but they are also getting the chance to chat with other from all over about the book they read. I told her that this type of program actually encourages the students to want to read. Also, people read books all the time but it's not often that they get to meet the person that wrote the book. I let Cathy know that she was doing a great job with the program and to keep up the great work.

The second post that Cathy made was about Celebrating Teen Reading Week. Teen reading week is one week where the students can have fun by taking part in games and contest that are set up in the library of the school. The whole object of the program is to get students to really be interested in reading. One of the games that are played is to guess the number of book that are in the whole library and the closest guess wins a prize. They also have a game called "strip" tease where the student draws from a jar that has a quote from a book on it. If they are able to guess the title of the book, then they win a prize. There are many other games that the students could play to keep them learning as well.

I responded to Cathy's post by letting her know that I thought that the program was a great way to get student interested in reading. The games that they played for the students make it seem like the students are just having fun, but they are actually learning at the same time. I told her that the game that I thought was the most interesting is called "strip" tease because the student had to have read the book to know the title. I also told her that more kids should be interested in reading and this program is a wonderful way for them to get involved. I asked Cathy if this program had been going on for years or if it was new. I explained that I did not have fun programs like this one when I was in grade school and I told her to keep up the great work with teen reading week.