EDUC 386 Documentation: Extra-Curricular Event

Name of event: Preston Reads

Date of event: February 22, 2017
Time you were there: 6-8PM

Summery:
Preston Reads is a community involved event set up by Tracy Winey at
Preston Middle School. The main idea behind the event was to
introduce students, parents, and family members to extra-curricular
reading. For this event students and parents involved in the event were
invited to be the first readers of Marlin and Percy: Beginnings by Caleb
Bollenbacker and Tyler Ellis. The author and illustrator were students at
Baylor University when the characters came to fruition. Their story is
very unique as the heros, Marlin and Percy, who are apes, started out
as a revival for a comic book. The participants in Preston reads were
invited to be the first readers of the initial release of the book.
Unfortunately I was not given a copy of the book until after the event,
but was still able to participate in the discussions. Author and
Illustrator Caleb and Tyler were at Preston and both discussed their
backgrounds and approach to writing and illustrating. They ended with
a Q and A for the kids. It was really nice to see how engaged all of the
students were. This encouraged the students to be creative, have
goals, and work hard for what you what to achieve in life.

What did you learn?

It was a very unique event as I have never been apart of an initially
beta test for a book. I sat with a teacher from Preston who also teaches
EDUC 350 at CSU, her son, as well as, another student of Preston and
his mom. It was nice to discuss interests in books as well with complete
strangers. I really enjoyed and found the use of tech in the
presentation engaging. The speakers used the smartboard in the
media center and did interactive live drawing. I could relate more with
the Illustrator because I am an Art major. It was a learning experience
in a sense that you can really turn side work hobby into something that
hopefully will pay the bills. I learned that unique events could be set up
for students like this one. This was the only Preston Reads for the year
and felt privileged to be apart of the discussion. I also got a free copy
of the book.