By Jeff Stapleton
Thursday night, while conference college basketball tournaments were in full swing, a different kind of March Madness was going on in the Caroline Middle School gym. Students and teachers from Bowling Green Elementary School laced up their sneakers to show off their basketball skills in a Students vs. Teachers basketball game. But, the big winner was the American Heart Association.
Proceeds from admission prices and from concessions went to the American Heart Association. Much of the gym was full as spectators came to witness the epic battle that was about to take place.
The Bowling Green Elementary teachers were the defending champions and they were considered the home team for the event. The game was played in six 8 minute segments with time out at the 4 minute mark of each quarter so each team could make substitutions. The teachers fielded 16 players in all while the students had 36 players suiting up. The game followed the rules of basketball by having 5 players on the court for each team at one time.
The game started with the opening tip, which featured student De’Andre against teacher Mr. Young. Though, Mr. Young had the decided height advantage, the students ended up winning the tip. That ended up being the theme for most of the game: For what the students lacked in height, they more than made up for in aggressiveness, quickness Buttons,” Litwin instructed the kids to put their hands in the air and move their heads back and forth, “These are basic Metallica skills,” Litwin told the kids. “We’re sharing the joys of Metallica with children. And don’t forget to bite your lower lip,” instructed Litwin to everybody in the room. Soon, the kids and teachers were singing along.
Litwin is a proponent of early literacy and he believes it’s more joyful and successful when the child is fully engaged with the book. He calls that interactive reading. He also stressed policy change during his show. “There is no reason to focus exclusively on sight words and phonetics. We can have music and movement, call and response, and repetition.” That’s why he left teaching 20 years ago to pursue writing books and writing music.
In addition to Bowling Green Elementary School, Litwin also appeared at Madison Elementary on Wednesday afternoon and then went to Lewis & Clark Elementary on Friday. “The schools contact myself and my assistant and then I go and share interactive literacy,” Litwin said after the show. Litwin also said that a new Groovy Joe book is coming out soon. It’s called “If You’re Groovy And You Know It.”
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