Elissa Brent Weissman and Authors 4 Earth Day

Author Elissa Weissman playing Jeopardy

We had a wonderful visit with author Elissa Brent Weissman today. She is the author of several popular books in our library. Most notably The Trouble With Mark Hopper, Nerd Camp, Nerd Camp 2.0, and The Short Seller.

She played Author Jeopardy with the boys rewarding correct answers with bookmarks. The Jeopardy game took the boys through the entire publishing process. It was creative and engaging. Our boys ate it up.

4th graders presenting to the 5th grade

She was here as a part of the Authors 4 Earth Day program. Authors for Earth Day (A4ED) is a coalition of children's authors and illustrators who mentor young readers by giving them "an authentic research project with real-world impact."  Each participant visits one school designated as the A4ED school and the author donates at least 30% of that day's speaking fee to a non-profit conservation organization as directed by a student vote. Ms. Weissman will be donating 70% of her honorarium.

Students research a list of five conservation nominees selected by the author and then vote for where they would like the donation to be directed.  The author writes a check to the winning organization in the school's name. The lower school technology coordinator and I had the 4th graders research the conservation nominees as a part of their Research and Digital Literacy class.  This year's nominees were: National Aquarium, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, and Wildlife Conservation Society. 

Winning organization presenters with author Elissa Brent Weissman

They presented their research to the 3rd and 5th graders and all 3rd-5th graders voted on where the money should go.  All of the presentations were informative, interesting, and compelling.  The organization that received the most votes and which will be receiving our donation is the Wildlife Conservation Society.

As a part of her visit Ms. Weissman had lunch with the boys whose presentations had the most votes.  She was able to see and hear the compelling presentations for herself.  It was a wonderful experience for all of us.

A special thanks to our Parents' Association for providing a grant that provided the financial support for this author visit, and making this learning experience possible.