CES books a vending machine

BY: Gracie Stains COntributing Writer

At Chance Elementary School,  principal Tiffani Shuman, has placed a book vending machine for the halls.

This machine can hold 200-300 books. Shuman presented this idea to the PTO group, (Parent-Teacher Organization). Shuman presented the idea to the PTO at a meeting this school year. “They were in overwhelming favor of using PTO funds to purchase it for our school,” Shuman said.
Shuman also mentioned the school has been donated some books as well. She plans to label the inside of the book with who it was donated by. 
CES has a PBS (Positive Behavior Support) committee. This committee focuses on school safety and teaching desired student behaviors and procedures. The committee is currently discussing ideas on how the vending machine can be incorporated into rewards across the building. 
Primarily, kids will earn a book through forms of positive reinforcement. They utilize Class DOJO, which is a program where students earn points throughout the school day. With their points, they are able to ‘cash out’ for certain rewards. The book vending machine comes with gold tokens. The students will have the option to use their Class DOJO points to receive a gold token and choose a book to take home. 
Other ideas being discussed for students to earn a book are positive office referrals, attendance incentives and drawings to support special days or assemblies.
Shuman explains that she reached out to the Global Vending Company and they followed up with her. She had the option to customize the shelves inside to fit the books. So she thought thoroughly about which books and sizes she would want in the machine then customized the shelves. The outside of the machine was available to be customized as well.  However, they decided they preferred the, Inchy the Bookworm, for the age of students and chose the standard vending wrap. 
The intention is for the machine to be here as long as it continues to work. It is set up similarly to a typical food vending machine. It sits up close to the wall and is plugged in, however, it can be moved to different locations.
The idea was to bring continued excitement around literacy for the students in a way that engages and connects with them. “Receiving a book is a reward that they are able to take home and use many times,” Shuman explains.