Reaching One Classroom at a Time RECAP

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - Now that all 20 REACH grants have been given away to teachers who have found innovative ways to impact their classrooms, it’s time to check in on some of the winners to see how the funds were used and how the students lives have been impacted.

Starting with week six, Adams Middle School teacher Alice Boyer, the seventh-grade teacher, came up with the 30-book challenge, encouraging her students to be more proactive in reading. The students who are able to complete the 30-book challenge have the opportunity to win a grand prize.

“The 30 book challenge inspired me to read more books and be more educational in my book choices,” said Phoenix Brown, Adams Middle School student.

“Every kid can love reading, but a lot of times they pick books based on what the requirement is: how long does it have to be that they’re out there picking bugs instead of once they can actually connect to it?” Boyer said.

Then, in week eight at North Platte High School, theater teacher Brittany McDaniel started the Bring the Stage to the Students Project, which had her students perform a play in front of elementary schools in town. This gave the high school students the opportunity to inspire the lives of the elementary schools they visited.

“In elementary school, it was really rough growing up through it, so it was so good to see the kids smiling, and I wish that I had it when I was in elementary school,” said Elison Gaedke, a North Platte High theater student.

In the next two weeks, NBC Nebraska 2 will revisit some of the classrooms that have had the biggest impact on the classroom.

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