Kevin Youkilis Delivers "Batting for Books" Donation to the Edison K-8

On Monday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined Boston Red Sox All-Star Kevin Youkilis to celebrate the delivery of new books to the Thomas A. Edison K-8 School's library in Brighton. Last July at Fenway Park, Mayor Menino and Kevin Youkilis launched the “Batting for Books” program, a new initiative run through the Red Sox first baseman's foundation Hits for Kids that collects books for the libraries throughout the Boston Public Schools system. The program surpassed its goal of collecting 100,000 books.

The “Batting for Books” campaign benefits Boston Public Schools libraries at no cost to the City of Boston. The program was originally conceived by Youk’s Kids during a visit to one of the public school libraries in 2007 and the resulting realization that a little help from the community could vastly improve the quality and amount of books available for children to read.

hile all children’s books titles are welcome in the book drive, Boston Public Schools has compiled a recommended list of titles for the libraries. Each of these titles is available at a 20 percent discount at the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, and online at www.ecookbooks.com/battingforbooks.

In addition to the City of Boston and the Red Sox, Youk’s Kids has also partnered with the following organizations to ensure that the drive runs smoothly and successfully: Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt, Mark’s Movers, New England Mobile Book Fair, Rounder Records, and Lesley University.

To read more about Monday's event, visit the BPS website. For more information, please visit http://www.youkskids.org/index.html.

"Extreme Makeover" Transforms Mather Library

In October, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, students, families and staff from the Mather Elementary School, along with The Heart of America Foundation® and Target Volunteers gathered to celebrate the unveiling of the school’s newly renovated library.

As part of the Target Volunteers School Library Makeover program, the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester, North America’s first public elementary school, received a complete transformation this summer, including 2,000 new books, technology, paint, lighting, carpet, shelving, customized wall art and murals, as well as reading corners – all just in time for the new school year. In addition, every student walked away with seven new books to add to their own at-home reading collection.

To read more about the library makeover and to watch a video on the event produced by BPS-TV, visit the BPS website.

BPS Internet Safety Campaign Presents at MassCue Conference

On Wednesday, October 28, Eric Esteves and Joe Kidd presented a session about the BPS Cyber Safety Campaign at the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators Conference. The Conference took place at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and drew teachers, principals and tech directors from districts all across the state. During the session Eric and Joe shared information with other educators on what the Boston Public Schools is doing to educate the community about internet safety. They spoke about how the campaign was started, how TST's in the system became iSAFE certified and were asked to do internet safety activities in their schools. They also spoke about the very important partnerships that have been created between the BPS and other outside agencies over the past few years. These partnerships include Microsoft, Bunker Hill Community College, the Boston Police Department, the Boston District Attorney's Office, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and the Mayor's Office. It would be impossible to put on this campaign without their help and support. Joe shared what the Office of Instructional and Information Technology's outreach to schools has been during the campaign. He gave a sample of the different types of presentations and workshops OIIT has done for elementary, middle and high schools as well as community centers and parent groups.

A lot of the educators in the session were already performing internet safety related activities within their schools, but wanted to know how they could take it further, especially with high school age students. Eric did a great job sharing with the group how he engages BPS high school students through the Cyber Safety Mentor Program. He also explained how the summer intern program draws on students' creative design talents and presentation skills. All of the student interns receive internet safety and presentation skills training. They then develop internet safety lessons that they bring out to educate the community. Last summer, they gave over 90 cyber safety presentations to over 5,000 children! The students also created new cyber safety materials that are available for download from the BPS cyber safety website. During the presentation at MassCue, Eric shared those materials with the teachers who were in attendance. They left the session with posters, buttons, bookmarks and the BPS cyber safety comic book. Below is a presentation of the materials that were shared with the participants during the MassCue conference.

BPS Internet Safety Campaign

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