The Phyllis B.
Brodhead Library Media Technology Fund has helped Ithaca City School District
(ICSD) media centers invest in technology, making it possible to engage a new
generation of tech-savvy students and help them develop a love of reading. Charles W. Brodhead (aka Chuck) created an
Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) special fund to provide grants in
memory of his late wife Phyllis to honor her 33 year career as teacher and
librarian at Boynton Middle School. She was
keenly aware of the educational value of technology in school settings, and the
$1,000 annual grant assists in maintaining her legacy.
Since creating
this fund, Chuck died in fall, 2011. Through
his generous bequest, his estate added funding for this important endeavor, as
well as for two IPEI Red and Gold Grants each year in his memory through the
Charles W. and Phyllis B. Brodhead Memorial Fund.
For the third year in a row, ICSD Teacher
Librarians requested funds to purchase downloadable digital audiobooks which
offer readers an opportunity to hear a book professionally read aloud while following
the text. Listening to text while seeing the book helps to develop fluency,
vocabulary, story sense, and comprehension, and can be a valuable tool to help
challenged students.
These
audiobooks are a timely complement to the Chromebook initiative begun this year
in the Ithaca school district. Boynton Librarian
Annarose Foley commented, “With the 1:1 Chromebook initiative, we thought it prudent
to continue building our digital collection with titles in a format students
can use on their new devices… The titles were selected to support the
curriculum here at Boynton Middle School, are specific requests from the other
Teacher-Librarians, and came highly recommended by reviewers.” Foley mentions that she promotes the digital
collection during her library orientations for students and that the students
are able to download the digital items for future enjoyment.
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