Bryan Martell pushes buttons to select a book from the book vending machine at Brookfield Elementary School. With him are Amanda O’Neill and Vincent Avery.
Bryan Martell walks up to a vending machine, but he’s not looking to get a can of pop or a bag of chips.
With a little help from first-grade teacher Amanda O’Neill, Bryan places a token in the machine and pushes a few buttons. Down falls one of Aaron Blabey’s “Bad Guys” graphic novels.
“It looked cool,” Bryan, a third-grade student at Brookfield Elementary School, said of why he chose the book.
The vending machine was the brainchild of O’Neill.
“My daughter’s school (Hubbard) had one, and when I saw it I was like, ‘We need one,’” she said.
Brookfield Elementary staff members hand out FIELD cards to students based on their showing a tenet of the concept school officials call “the FIELD,” which includes family, innovation, engagement, leadership or dedication, said Principal Stacey Filicky.
Every Friday, five names are drawn from the students who receive FIELD cards that week and one of the prizes a student can receive is a book from the vending machine, she said.
On Dec. 15, the second week the machine had been in operation, Bryan and second-grader Vincent Avery selected books.
“They love it,” Filicky said. “So excited when I first explained it to them.”
The kids who receive books show them off in their classrooms, and that gets other students wanting to earn the chance to get one, O’Neill said.
This novel way of rewarding kids is an attempt to stay relevant with the students, O’Neill said.
“They always go to the library, but how often can kids go to a vending machine and get something educational,” O’Neill said. “Cool books, brand new books, just for them.”
Brookfield Parents Association donated money for the machine, with the school district making up the rest through federal Title I funds. The BPA and the school district’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports team donated books.
While the school has enough books to last a while, officials hope community members and organizations will be willing to donate for new book purchases, O’Neill said.
