It’s amazing how peaceful the ride home from school can be using a little old-fashioned ingenuity. They are called books.
That’s what school bus driver Charlene Fales and others have learned since an on-board reading club was implemented last fall for the students of Mount Vernon Elementary School located in the aptly named Readville, Maine. School staff began the “Books on the Bus” program at the start of this school year to keep rambunctious kindergarten boys in their bus seats.
The program not only helps bridge student achievement from the classroom to the bus but, undoubtedly, also calms drivers’ nerves. Local high school students were recruited to help read to the children, especially those who might suffer from motion sickness. And of course other students can read quietly to themselves.
Students can receive prizes for submitting the most bookmarks, indicators of books they’ve completed. Mount Vernon Elementary’s lead teach, Sarah Caban, told KJonline.com that the program has quelled behavior problems during bus rides that can last 40 minutes or longer.
