On January 13th, 2021, Mr. Maley went for a cold swim into a dunk tank, but for a good cause. The students at John S. Clark were challenged to read as many books as possible. Each teacher’s class would compete to see who could read more. That teacher would then get a chance to throw balls at the dunk tank and try and knock Mr. Maley in. 

According to Mr. Maley (acting principal of John S. Clark elementary school), “Every year the reading center has a reading challenge to keep kids reading over the winter break.  I was told that they have a decent turn-out, but we really wanted to get more kids reading.   We are also trying to keep the virtual students engaged.”

Students can compete in a virtual way and gain knowledge through literature too. The class who reads the most received the chance to have their teacher try and knock Mr. Maley into a dunk tank for a prize. This happened outside the elementary school near the bus garage.

“We started an initiative called, Virtual Family Challenges. I thought this would be good for our December Virtual Family Challenge.  Use the dunk tank as an incentive to get kids reading.   The challenge was to read at least 15 minutes a day for 5 days.  Additionally, if they finished the book it would go towards the Grinch goal of getting me in a dunk tank,” stated Mr. Maley.

The challenge did prove to be effective since many students participated. Reading is a very important part of the elementary schools curriculum, so this challenge did help the students. 

“We doubled the amount of kids who participated in the reading challenge and they read a total of 187 books!  That is quite a feat for a challenge that only lasted 3 weeks,” said Maley.