The Riverdale Literacy Festival
Since improving literacy is such an important priority at my school this year, the TIF team has been working closely with our assistant principal for curriculum to plan a festival to celebrate reading. The festival will take place during school hours on Friday, March 7, 2014. Eight recently-published young adult authors will be on campus to conduct book talks and sign books. Other features will include food, games, art displays and a poetry slam. We are raising money to give away as many novels by our featured authors as possible. The ultimate goal is to motivate students to read more and to put books in the hands of all students. I have taken on many responsibilities related to the festival, including preparing author cares packets, writing letters to local businesses asking for support, writing grants and creating a promotional video to inform students about the event.
Author Care Packets
Since the authors are donating their time to our cause for no cost, we are making every effort to communicate our gratitude and make their stay as comfortable as possible. We recently sent care packets to each author containing the following items:
Letter to Local Businesses
Obtaining support from the local community is a critical component for the success of the festival. I composed a letter that will be distributed to businesses in the area asking for financial contributions, volunteers and other donations that would make the event run smoothly. A copy of the letter is provided below.
Author Care Packets
Since the authors are donating their time to our cause for no cost, we are making every effort to communicate our gratitude and make their stay as comfortable as possible. We recently sent care packets to each author containing the following items:
- Riverdale High School t-shirts, cups, pens and bumper stickers
- Contracts
- Pamphlets with information about local hotels, restaurants and things to do
- Vouchers for a free meal at a local restaurant
Letter to Local Businesses
Obtaining support from the local community is a critical component for the success of the festival. I composed a letter that will be distributed to businesses in the area asking for financial contributions, volunteers and other donations that would make the event run smoothly. A copy of the letter is provided below.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Promotional Video
Since I have become familiar with so many Web 2.0 resources in recent years, I volunteered to make a video to promote the festival using Animoto. Animoto is a web tool that allows users to make videos using picture files. The website is free and extremely easy to use. Afterwards I was able to upload the video to Youtube and to share it with the teacher who manages our school's televised news program. The video was aired every day for a week to inform students about this exciting upcoming event. See the video below.
Since I have become familiar with so many Web 2.0 resources in recent years, I volunteered to make a video to promote the festival using Animoto. Animoto is a web tool that allows users to make videos using picture files. The website is free and extremely easy to use. Afterwards I was able to upload the video to Youtube and to share it with the teacher who manages our school's televised news program. The video was aired every day for a week to inform students about this exciting upcoming event. See the video below.
Grant Writing
Although I have never written a grant before, I have been wanting to learn more about this process for a long time. The literacy festival provided the perfect opportunity to gain some experience in this area. Since several teachers would be attempting to write grants for the festival for the first time, the TIF team invited the district's director of grants and special projects to conduct a grant-writing training at our school. I participated in the training and learned that writing persuasively is the key to a successful grant application. I chose to focus on obtaining a grant from the RGK Foundation, an organization that supports innovative projects related to health, education, human services and community affairs. They require that a letter of inquiry be submitted first. The letter of inquiry is actually a four page form that includes a project description and information about our school, our students and our community. I am still waiting for a response from the letter of inquiry, which could take months, but I received very positive feedback from our district's grant director when I sent her a draft to review. She called my assistant principal to tell her what a talented grant writer I am and to recommend that I assist others at our school that are also working on grants. I am now assisting two other teachers with their grant applications.
Although I have never written a grant before, I have been wanting to learn more about this process for a long time. The literacy festival provided the perfect opportunity to gain some experience in this area. Since several teachers would be attempting to write grants for the festival for the first time, the TIF team invited the district's director of grants and special projects to conduct a grant-writing training at our school. I participated in the training and learned that writing persuasively is the key to a successful grant application. I chose to focus on obtaining a grant from the RGK Foundation, an organization that supports innovative projects related to health, education, human services and community affairs. They require that a letter of inquiry be submitted first. The letter of inquiry is actually a four page form that includes a project description and information about our school, our students and our community. I am still waiting for a response from the letter of inquiry, which could take months, but I received very positive feedback from our district's grant director when I sent her a draft to review. She called my assistant principal to tell her what a talented grant writer I am and to recommend that I assist others at our school that are also working on grants. I am now assisting two other teachers with their grant applications.