The elementary media centers celebrated National Children&8217;s Book Week the week of Nov. 12-16 along with libraries all over the United States. The libraries celebrated with new books and titles for students to read in kindergarten through sixth grade. This year&8217;s celebrated illustrator is Edward Koren; and the celebrated author is Pam Mu&110;oz-Ryan.

The theme this year is &8220;Rise Up Reading!&8221;

Local libraries also celebrated the gift of a book titled &8220;A Little Peace&8221; by Barbara Kerley published by National Geographic.

This book is being donated to our libraries by Albert Lea resident Don Chryst. Thank you, Mr. Chryst.

The elementary media centers celebrate another new addition to our media centers written by Albert Lea High School graduate, Darcie Rae Gayken, class of 1997. Darcie has written a children&8217;s &8220;chapter&8221; book titled &8220;Grandma&8217;s Baseball Card: A Braynard Family Story&8221; under the name D. Rae Gayken, published 2007, by iUniverse.

The book is about two of the Braynard children, Marshall and Jane, and their adventure finding their grandmother&8217;s long lost baseball cards. The book is set in Chicago and centers around Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

Each of the elementary media centers have an autographed copy of the book and are hoping to be able to have Gayken come speak with students about how she wrote and published her book.

She is an agricultural educator for Lake Mills, Iowa, public schools. Her mom is a native Chicagoan and teaches sixth grade at Halverson Elementary School in Albert Lea.

Early childhood screening planned

The state of Minnesota requires a developmental screening of all three to four-year-old children. Albert Lea Area Schools will conduct a free screening at Brookside Education Center on Dec. 7 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The screening includes simple checks of vision, hearing, growth, immunization status, language, muscle and social development.

Call Deb at 379-4843 or email

dwenum@albertlea.k12.mn.us to schedule an appointment.

AP courses get approval

Residents of the Albert Lea School District can now be confident that the advanced placement classes offered at the high school meet the requirements of the AP College Board. This spring three instructors from the high school submitted course syllabi to the College Board. All three syllabi and instructors were approved and the school can officially use the designation of AP for these courses. The courses include AP biology, AP calculus and AP U.S. government and politics.

Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, said, &8220;Together, you are raising higher education&8217;s awareness of what actually happens in AP courses, and demonstrating that students who aspire to college-level courses are in the hands of capable, knowledgeable educators.&8221;

Parents who are interested in more information should contact the high school.

TV station employees visit Hawthorne third-graders

Fred Hexom and Shelly Hexom from Channel 6 News visited the third grade at Hawthorne Elementary. Fred talked about clouds, water cycle, and different forms of precipitation. They also took questions about the news station and talked about the TV side of delivering the news. They were invited by the third-grade teachers to give more meaning to the Science curriculum.

Southwest participates in Stuff-A-Truck campaign

Southwest Middle School participated in the Stuff-A-Truck campaign collecting food for the Salvation Army food shelf. It was an effort by all the advisories at Southwest. Karol Hansen&8217;s advisory brought in the most food and won the challenge. The food was picked up on Nov. 16.