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Partnership provides new teachers with free classroom libraries

Grade School Classroom
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Grade School Classroom

Stocking a classroom with books is no small task. One local organization is partnering with new teachers, creating starter libraries for free, by volunteering their time

“Just having access to a starter library is an amazing first step for starting teachers.”

Kathryn Zucker is one of the more than 150 student teacher interns and apprentices who spent a couple of hours sorting books at Grand Rapids nonprofit Storehouse of Community Resources.

It connects donated products to schools and organizations.

Zucker says it’s very expensive for new teachers to start a classroom from scratch.

“For brand new teachers to be able to have that first step of a nice solid base library for our classrooms is a huge support.”

That cost is the number one thing Megan Freudigmann hears about from new graduates. Freudigmann is a senior affiliate professor of education at Grand Valley State University and a co-founder of the Michigan Literacy Project which helps new teachers stock classrooms with books, particularly in undersupplied districts.

The Project partnered with Storehouse after hearing the group needed help sorting hundreds of thousands of books donated by publishing company Scholastic.

“It was about two hours of volunteering and sorting, then they had about an hour to shop, where they could take up to 240 books to keep for their very own.”

Both Zucker and Freudigmann hope the partnership will continue for more GVSU teaching graduates.

“We serve a lot of classrooms in the area and there are a lot of classrooms that are lacking in access to books, and I think this is just one of those things that is responding to that.”

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