The Big Chill: Students meet reading challenge, teachers spend chilly night in teepee

ST. IGNATIUS — Mission Elementary teachers, as well as Superintendent Bob Lewandowski, are crazy about getting children to read more, but last week they proved just how extreme they were willing to be.

On the freezing night of Thursday, Jan. 26, six teachers and Lewandowski spent the night huddled around a small campfire inside a teepee as part of a deal with Mission Elementary students.

Lewandowski talked with educators about reading goals for students and thought that spending a night outdoors in a teepee might motivate students to read more. He asked around, looking for volunteers to join him for a bone-chilling evening and found six others just as crazy as he is about putting books into the hands of students.

“Elementary counselor Susan Weaselhead helped spearhead the project from there,” Lewandowski said. “She worked with our Native American Studies teachers, Geraldine Felix and Aileen Plant, to have the teepees put up. At that point, we identified the reading goals. We didn’t want to let the students think it would be easy, so we set up a three-tiered process for reading educators into the teepee.”

The objective was simple. If each student averaged two books apiece, with a small report based on the grade of the student to go with them, between the end of November and Jan. 6, Mr. Krantz, Mr. Durglo and Mr. Phillips would spend a wintery night in the teepee.

If the students kept plugging away and averaged four books read and reported on in that span, Mrs. Stobie, Mrs. Plant and Mrs. Weaselhead would join the other three teachers. And if the kids really set their minds to this project and read an average of six stories each, Lewandowski would live up to his word and cram into the teepee himself.

Well, to get the faculty into the cold, the students warmed up to the idea. Led by the second-grade class, which averaged about nine books finished apiece in reading 403 stories, the students reached all three goals, tearing through an amazing 1,443 books.

First graders read 224 books, an average of seven per pupil, while kindergartners went through 318 stories, or six per child. Fifth, fourth and third graders combined for 498 books, or nearly four and a half books each.

“It was an overall success,” Stobie said. “It definitely motivated kids to read more than they normally do.”

At an assembly on that Thursday afternoon, students went berserk, learning they had accomplished their objective and that the seven grown-ups would have to brave the arctic, Montana night.

“Just as reading can be fun, our kids had a lot of fun with this initiative,” Lewandowski said. “This event not only helped our students understand the importance of reading, but it created a lifelong memory. They will always be able to recall the night they made their teachers and administrators stay in a teepee in the cold of January.”

Around 8 p.m., the staff members packed into the teepee, enjoying a campfire while reading the students’ book reports.

“It was fun, kind of like camping,” Stobie said. “Nobody got too cold or did too much sleeping. There was lots of storytelling and we were all pretty tired the next morning. The best part was around 7 a.m. the next morning, students visited, came in the teepee and stood around the fire with us.”

Lewandowski echoed Stobie’s sentiments about the fun they had, as well as the lack of sleep.

“Despite the campfire and conversation, I fell asleep around 1 a.m. and woke as it got a little cold around 4:30 a.m.,” Lewandowski said. “You could see your breath.”

This was the first time Mission had done the Reading Teepee, though the school is very active in getting children to read, thanks to activities such as Bingo for Books, Bikes for Books and reading challenges each classroom holds. Nevertheless, the already-established promotions wouldn’t stop Lewandowski from adding this to the list and going back out there next year.

“I would do it again,” Lewandowski said. “It is a small price to pay for something so important.”

A small price, yes, but what Mission Elementary is doing for its children with events and ideas such as this is a big deal for the kids and their future.