Competition is fun, eh?

We (Buckeyes) have a long-standing feud with the folks up north… y’know.. Mmmm(cough)ichigan! Ah, but it isn’t all football – we also use that competitive urge when we have blood drive challenges with the Red Cross to see which university can bleed the most – and save lives while they do it.

Competition CAN be fun and it CAN be productive.

So… drumroll please… This semester, my activity of choice is a book drive. In our text (The Second Shift by Hochschild and Machung) we learn that not all families are created equal. In class, we view a video (Nigel Marsh’s tedtalk about balancing family and work),  in which the speaker relates how he read to his son from Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach.  We discuss how some families have no books on hand.

This semester (AU16), students in my two 2367 classes will have an opportunity to help children in their community WHILE scratching that itch to compete.

I’ve worked with a staff member from a local middle school to gather a list of these students’ favorite books, authors, and topics. My students will collect books and other supplies that these students (in “inclusive” programs) can use in their classroom. Those students will be encouraged to fall in love with some of those books and be permitted to take them home – to keep – as their own.

I’ll pop in from time-to-time to post updates as we will not be taking one load of donations (as we did with our clothing drive in Sp16), but delivering books and items as we collect them… in order to get them into the hands of those who need them as quickly as possible!

Let the games begin…