Guest reading at my old elementary school: Year 6 March 4, 2022

Other guest reading posts: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020

I returned to Leo F. Giblyn School in Freeport on Wednesday for Guest Reader Day, what they call National Read Across America Day. It was my sixth appearance as a guest reader (and photographer) and my first time inside Giblyn in exactly two years, a week and a half before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down anything and everything, taking education virtual. I had an opportunity to read virtually last year, a hybrid learning year (half a classroom’s students in person, half online), but I couldn’t get the pass code to log in.

It was so great to be back, and the faculty and students were glad I was back. This was the first year with Amy Lederer as principal, moving up from assistant principal following Amanda Muldowney’s retirement.

After photographing one guest reader, Ms. Lederer had me photograph the Freeport High School students who read to classrooms before I arrived at 11AM. I then mingled with my mother Lisa, a teaching assistant at Giblyn since I was in 4th grade there, and other faculty. Before photographing three more readers, Stephanie Huggard informed me which classrooms I would be reading to and when: 1:00, 1:55, and 3:00. I ended up reading to one more class after the third. The books I read were (teachers in parentheses):

• I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff (Suehanne Sueffront, Wendy Connelly)
• Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss (Meghan Carney)
• No Lie, I Acted Like a Beast! by Nancy Loewen (Emmy Nicholas)
• What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz (Francie Jonza)

Mrs. Connelly prompted me to tell Mrs. Souffront’s class about my WCWP radio show, which led me to promote that night’s 100th Instrumental Invasion, to share that I will be inducted into the WCWP Hall of Fame on June 11 in the Great Hall at LIU Post, and to view my website and YouTube channel. We listened to part of the aircheck from last Wednesday’s show and watched some of the video of my live Homecoming Weekend show in 2019. It was a lot of fun, especially using the large touchscreen monitor to scroll up or push buttons. I felt like a weatherman.

Reading Horton to Mrs. Carney’s class was quite a workout, as I did the voices from the 1970 TV special while reading. My radio show and accomplishments came up again, and we talked about animation and voice-overs. The kids in all classes loved my performances and had many questions that I was happily answered. It was challenging to read the non-Dr. Seuss books cold (site unseen), but still fun. Before I read to Mrs. Nicholas’s class, I stopped in Mrs. Jonza’s room, and we agreed I’d read to her kindergartners when I was finished upstairs. The only class where we didn’t visit my website and listen to last Wednesday’s aircheck was in Mrs. Carney’s. Mrs. Jonza’s students loved the sound of “Feel It Comin’” by Grover Washington, Jr. when I played part of last Wednesday’s full aircheck. (Unedited airchecks for every week of Instrumental Invasion are available for download here.)

As I was talking to Mrs. Carney’s students about myself, Lori Downing came in to read Clovis Keeps His Cool by Katelyn Aronson. Mrs. Downing was a reading teacher at Giblyn until her retirement in 2020. I was pleasantly surprised to learn earlier in the day that she would be a guest reader, but this was the only room I was able to watch her read in.

Thank you, again, to everyone I interacted with on Wednesday. Special thanks to Anita Stevenson. Mrs. Stevenson has been highly supportive me through the years and yesterday was no exception. My photo with her is included in this year’s collage of select photos from the classes I read to:

I don’t want to limit our photo to the collage. Here it is in full:

Thanks again.