2012 - National Year of Reading

Next year, 2012, has been declared the National Year of Reading. Isn’t that awesome? No? Do I hear some student voices grumbling about ‘how boring, what do we need that for?’ ‘How does that help my football career?’ ‘Who cares?’

Well, you may be surprised. One of the ambassadors for the National Year of Reading is Jarred Ilet – who is the CEO of the NT Thunder AFL team and the guy who is the director of the Intensity Sports magazine. Jarred used to attend Tennant Creek Primary School, so he was one of ours. Jarred says: “Reading is an essential skill that I utilise everyday in training as a Fire Fighter, editing as part of my duties with Intensity Sports Magazine and knowing the game plan for the Territory Thunder Football Club.The knowledge, skills and confidence I have gained through reading has led to amazing opportunities in my life. Get involved in the National Year of Reading as it will give you the power and control of what you want to do in your life.”

Another ambassador for the Year of Reading is the Melbourne Football Club. These guys are already football heroes – maybe they know something you haven’t learnt yet??
Check out the website: http://www.love2read.org.au/ambassadors.cfm  and see what they all say.

Staff - given that 2012 is the National Year of Reading, one suggestion that has come up on various Library online forums is to set the staff and students a challenge to read for 2012 seconds each day, or at least once or twice a week, as a block session. You could have them work out how long 2012 seconds is (its 33.5 minutes) and chart the number of times they are able to do this.
Maybe do it for a month, or a term, and those who can show they made it 75% of the time get a certificate or other acknowledgement. Or schedule the last Friday afternoon of every month (or similar) to be a school-wide read-in of 2012 seconds.....or....any other suggestions? What do you think? Anyone interested in giving this idea a go?