Audubon's Free Book Night

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About It!

Audubon Elementary tries a free book night asking kids to invite their parents to school. The result: the gym and library full of families and a success beyond anyone's imagination.

Video by Gary Olsen, Sheena Strouf and
the Clarke College Multimedia Lab

January 2003

hat were they thinking? Let's have a night where kids invite their parents to school, and we read stories and give away free books? With a little help from some grant money from the North End Neighborhood Association, private donations, the Parent Teachers Association at Audubon worked with teachers to give it a go. Would parents support something like this? Could we get families to come to school on a weeknight during prime time television to partake in a little light reading? The answer to these questions surprised everyone.

The crowd that showed up was way larger than anyone expected. The scramble was on for more chairs and tables for the gym, and the library was so full it looked less like a library and more like a party was going on. Don't believe us. Look at the video clip we provided on this page.

Video Control Panel
For connections on anything but a high-speed network, like a phone modem. This is for DSL or higher-speed networks. Larger video, better audio. This is for cable modems and high-speed networks (like Mediacom).

Instructions For Those Outside of Our School Network (The General Public)

We are now providing a choice of RealPlayer applications for you to download and install on your computer to enable you to view the video and audio files. One is RealPlayer8 and the other is RealOne Player, which is an excellent player with many new features. It's easy to install, so just follow the on-screen steps. You will be required to register with Real.com, but these are free software applications (there are versions you can pay for if you choose, but they are not necessary for basic viewing and listening).

Which Player is Best for Me?

Of the two types of free players available, RealPlayer 8 is the traditional player that is free and will work beautifully to access Web based multimedia files from our site. There is also a new player available, which is also free, called RealONE. Either player will probably work for your operating system. If your system is older (Windows 95, NT), however, you may want to use the RealPlayer 8 software. If you are running a newer, faster system like Windows 98, ME, XP, or 2000, go for the RealOne player.

Macintosh Owners:

You can get a RealPlayer for Macintosh, Visit Real.com to download their free player options. Remember, look for the FREE players. They are sometimes difficult to find on their Web site.

Oh, and one more thing... sometimes when you click on a sound or video file in our Web site with the RealPlayer installed, you get a little commercial window that pops up on your desktop. It's annoying, but a small price to pay for the privilege of having the free RealPlayer on your system. Just click it off, and it will disappear.
Instructions For Machines on our School Network (Teachers and Staff)
We are recommending (and IT is supporting) RealPlayer8. This is for ALL computers on our network (in all school and administration buildings throughout the District). This includes all Windows 2000 machines. Click here to get the free player from our network server. If you do not have administrative priveleges, please call your building media specialist to help you.

 

 

 

Click on the photos on this page to view larger more printable images.

 

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