Teacher creates home libraries for kids

To explain why she's so upset about losing Dave Hartzell,  Sterling Elementary Principal Beth Wardy points to The 40 Book Project.

I featured Hartzell,  who teaches fourth- and fifth-graders at Sterling,  in Sunday's story about teacher pay.  He and his wife,  a preschool teacher,  had their first child,  Calvin,  on Easter Sunday.  He's heartbroken to think he can't keep the job he loves and support his wife and child.

Hartzell with donated books

But Hartzell was just as eager to tell me about his quest to collect books so children at the high-poverty school in Pineville will have a collection of books at home. He proudly showed me to a storage room in the school library where shelves are lined with donations that range from picture books to the Harry Potter series.

He tried to match each collection to the child's interests. And he doesn't present the gift as an entitlement or a handout.  Instead,  he makes it a reward for something the child has accomplished  --  even when he has to look pretty hard for something to encourage.

So far Hartzell says he's sent home books with almost 250 students and collected about 15,000 books.  To learn more or donate,  check out his Facebook page or get his contact information from the school web site.

I'm not sure what kind of test scores Hartzell's kids get,  but it's this kind of extra effort that makes teachers the kind who change lives and are remembered for decades.  And I've heard principals and teachers say it's the kind of thing that gets sacrificed if teachers have to get second and third jobs to make ends meet.

In a similar vein,  after Sunday's story I got an email from a CMS elementary teacher who asked that I not print her name,  offering her own set of  "data"  to flesh out the picture:

One CMS teacher: the numbers

Age: 26

Number of years teaching: 2

Grade teaching: 3^rd

Class size: 19

SAT score: 1470 (690 verbal, 780 math)

GRE score: 1350

National Rank of Undergraduate College: 10^th

National Rank of Graduate School in Education: 6^th

Praxis Score: 200/200

Students at school eligible for free and reduced lunch: 84%

Average number of hours spent working per week: 70+

Number of books bought out of pocket: 1500+

Birthday presents purchased: 19

Sick days taken: 0

Reading Data*

	Students above grade level	Students on grade level	Students below grade level	Students more than 1 year below grade level
October	3	3	5	7
April	8	9	1	1

Average reading gains from October to April (6 months): 15.8 months growth

Salary of past profession (given up to teach): $75,000 annually + benefits

Current Salary: $38,955.80 + benefits (70-30 plan)

Number of hugs given (and received!) this year: 2,755+

% of races lost at recess: 100%

% of lunches eaten with students: 100%

Number of times inspired by coworkers: countless

Job Satisfaction: priceless

Number of years I can sustain this: ?