Washington students, library get free books

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Students at Washington Elementary School will soon be reading their own gift book as well as taking advantage of 500 new books in the school library.

The books were received by sixth-grade teacher Tammy Yackley as a prize for winning the America's Kids Connect 2000 Contest over the Internet.

Yackley tried to get her class involved in the contest through a program known as Webcast, but the district technology coordinator said they couldn't access Webcast through the school.

However, she decided to enter the contest anyway.

"One day I had the entire class in the computer lab, and thought I would give it a try," Yackley said. "When I finished, I received an error message and didn't think it had gone through."

A few weeks later, she learned that she had won.

"The questions focused on presidential trivia, and some of the questions were beyond what a sixth-grade student would know," Yackley said. "The winning question we were chosen for, was 'Which president's books formed the basis for the Library of Congress?' The answer is 'Thomas Jefferson.'"

The award was one free grade-appropriate book for each student in the school and 500 books for the library from Troll Communications.

"Her persistence really paid off for us in this effort," Washington Media Center Director Charlie Hurd said. "We are always thankful for new books."

The majority of the books are paperbacks valued at approximately $5 each.

The books will be covered in plastic and barcoded before being placed in the library.

"This is the first time we have won something like this," Hurd said. "This is fairly new for us."

Some of the books might be sent to individual classrooms.

"We will probably let the special ed teachers choose from the kindergarten and first-grade books, and send the rest to Jefferson (Elementary School)," Hurd said.

Fourth-graders will each receive a copy of "The Cat Who Wished to be a Man," each fifth-grader will receive a copy of "Dork in Disguise," and each sixth-grader will receive a copy of "Treasure Island."

"I had hoped we would get a variety and the students could select their book," Yackley said. "This is probably the better way of handling this, though, because then there won't be any fighting, or hard feelings."

The program, sponsored by Eagan High School, began during the 1999-2000 school year. It was aired as a game show on Channel 9 News. The contest contained questions relating to the 13 mid-central states, and focused on such things as flowers, birds and other information about specific states.

In 2000, the contest was expanded to the entire United States, and 25 states participated as well as England and Australia. There were $3.2 million worth of prizes given away, Yackley said.

"I plan to do this contest with the whole class again next year and see if we can win a new computer lab for the school," Yackley said.