CABOT, Ark. — There's nothing like rocking out to good a song. But, what about a good book?
That's the message one Cabot principal is using to get her students excited about reading!
Carol Skiba is the principal at Stagecoach Elementary School in Cabot.
Once upon a time, standing on a table in the school cafeteria, dressed in rock and roll costumes and lip-synching, would get you sent to the principal's office.
But, it's a little different here at Stagecoach. That's because it is the principal standing on the cafeteria table, and she's even backed up by her assistant principal.
"I believe that schools should be fun number one," Skiba said.
Principal Skiba makes it a point to wear these wigs and she wants you to notice them because they're more than just a costume-- it also symbolizes an acronym.
Wildly Important Goals, or WIGS, that's the motto that Skiba has set for herself and her students.
While that's a statement that the school lives by, this wildly impromptu assembly was actually for WIL, which stands for Wildly Improving Literacy.
"All teachers, all educators, [we] are constantly asking ourselves what can we do to improve reading scores. How can we get kids motivated to read," Skiba said.
Hence a party that the school sets up where a challenge is issued to each class in the school to collectively read 500 books by the end of the year.
"We want it to be collective, all of the kids doing it together," she said.
There's a competition and there are even prizes for every 100 books. The rewards range from popcorn parties to free recess to bicycle parties and a scoreboard keeps track of it all throughout the year.