“Reading is foundational to all children’s success and that’s why I think the Jacket 2 Jacket Reading Program is one of the best programs I’ve that ever been associated with,” said Mark Baker, Professional School Counselor, an educator in Georgia for 23 years — 18 in Cobb County — and currently K-5 Counselor at Argyle Elementary in Smyrna. “I think that it’s an unbelievable program. It’s so well put together. It’s ingenious, actually. I think it would be great for all the schools to be involved in it, because, again, reading is just so important.”
Some 51 schools from Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb and Atlanta participated. That was up from 34 in 2017. Students are required to read and keep track of the pages they’ve read during the month of October. More than 1.5 million pages were read in this year’s J2J. The only criteria is that students must read on their own.
Baker found motivation wasn’t an issue. The students were enthusiastic with a great support system.
“The students deserve all the credit and the teachers, and, of course, the administration,” said Baker, who is in his first year at Argyle, which won overall winner and top fourth grade, and was at Hollydale Elementary in Marietta, when the school won J2J overall elementary five consecutive years. “It’s really a team effort and everyone working together for a common goal — our awesome and highly supportive administration team, Principal Mrs. Georgette Clinton, Assistant Principal Malcolm Cobb, our fabulous hard working K-5 teachers who work so well as a team to get this J2J victory. Lisa Westmoreland, fourth grade teacher, was just phenomenal in motivating her students to read for success, as well as her entire grade level teammates. We’re looking forward to the future and next year’s reading competition.”
Other multiple winners included Morris Brandon Elementary (individual first grade, tie, Maxwell & Harrison O’Boyle and kindergarten, Ms. Estrada), Deerwood Academy (individual second grade, Anaya Wilkerson, and classroom, first and second, Jolita King and Wanda Smith), The Main Street (individual, fourth grade, Joseph Stephenson — also overall individual winner, third grade, Ms. C. Graves), Harper Elementary (individual fifth grade, Taryn Sanders, fifth grade, Ms. Allen), MLK Junior (individual seventh grade, Travanti Lipson — also middle school overall winner — and seventh grade, Kandy Wilkinson), and Willis Sutton (sixth grade, Courtney Casso, overall middle school).
All the winning schools got to participate in a pregame pizza party prior to the game against Syracuse and will enjoy a visit from the team on a day to be determined during the spring.
Of course, the Jackets players also win, as they’ll get to visit the winning schools.
“We enjoy it. The minute you walk into the school the students are SO excited,” said Brittni Oliver, who is in her second year on the MaChelle Joseph’s staff and who serves as the J2J point person at Tech, tallying up the school sheets through a database she created. “They definitely enjoy having the players come out. It’s a big thing for them, to see players.
“We have the players introduce themselves and let them know what year they are and their major and how reading has helped them from a young age to now,” she added. “We’ll read three or four stories and then at the end, the players will interact and ask the students, ‘What was your favorite book?’ Then they all choose and we’ll have them tell us why. So it’s a good interaction with the players and the students.”
Baker believes that while the pizza party, the free tickets, the ceremony, and even the school visit are great, the kids have received an even bigger and longer-lasting reward from the competition.
“I think it gives them a lot more confidence,” he said. “We’re an at-risk school, a Title One School. Winning a competition like this really does a lot for them. It helps them believe that they can accomplish anything. At the outset, I personally told them that they could win this competition. I kept talking about how they could win. So they bought into it. They’re just so excited. They are really thrilled about it.”
