I'm so excited!!! We made the paper!

'Weird' works to get kids to read books

Written by By DEBBIE ROGERS Sentinel Staff Writer

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Kenwood Elementary fifth-grader Rosa Flores knows her favorite story in the book "Weird Ohio." The 11-year-old's just not sure that she can discuss it. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she said, "It's about H-E-double toothpicks. The town." That would be the unusual story of Hell Town, one of hundreds of strange tales that make up "Weird Ohio," which was co-written by James Willis, who also founded The Ghosts of Ohio, a paranormal research organization. With "Weird Ohio" and his fascination with spirits, Willis is charged with proving - or disproving - the real story behind the lore. Take Hell Town. Legend has it that this northern part of Summit County is haunted. In the late 1960s, concern over disappearing forests led to legislation allowing the government to take homes, demolish them and use the land for parks. Almost overnight, Hell Town turned into a ghost town. The area is still filled with vacant houses, roads that go nowhere and overgrown brush - but no ghosts, Willis said. One weird story from Wood County made the book. (All you readers out there who share a "weird eye" with Willis will know exactly where this is heading.) "The pickled fingers," Willis said immediately, when asked about this area. "It's probably the only museum in Ohio, maybe in the United States, that you can say you want to see the fingers and they know what you're talking about." Now, for readers staring blankly at the newspaper, an explanation: In the 1880s, a man, apparently upset with his wife's cleaning skills, hacked her to death. He saved her fingers and turned himself into the sheriff the next day. The fingers and the rope used to hang him are on display at the Wood County Historical Center and Museum. Willis said he often uses the "Three Fingers of Formaldehyde for Mary Bach" story when talking to groups across Ohio. "It's one of those things that brings the house down," he said. Willis was at the Bowling Green elementary school on Monday, speaking to all the grades and eating lunch with a group of 12 students who had turned off the television for a week. They were among 50 students, out of the 480 at Kenwood, who participated in National Turn Off the TV Week from April 20-26, said Tiffany Richter, PTO president. Their names were drawn randomly to eat pizza with Willis and his wife, Stephanie, who live in Columbus with a parrot and three cats. The lunch conversation revolved around the critters, Cedar Point and what the children were reading. Rosa said she loved to read books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and Meg Cabot. Third-grader Gabe Sayer said he enjoyed spending more time with his parents, two brothers and sister the week the TV went dark. "I got to play outside a lot. Sometimes I want to play board games with my siblings and they watch TV, but we played more," said Gabe, who is 9. Willis said "Weird Ohio's" popularity among children shows that sometimes it's not important what they're reading, just that they are picking up a book. "It's kind of a cliché, but it's incredibly touching to me to see something I've written have an impact on a child," he said. History doesn't have to be boring. For example, Willis said a teacher's lesson about President Abraham Lincoln may draw some groans from the class. "But if you start throwing it around that he was on a funeral train and people tried to steal his body É That's the kind of thing that will get kids and adults running to the Lincoln section of the library." Books like his and others about world records and strange things get kids' attention. "They're short stores and they're weird enough where it will get them to read," Willis said. "There's a whole weird world out there. You just have to look out around the corner." Author James Willis with Kenwood Elementary students. 5/11/09 (Photos: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

Pride Awards

As some of you may know Will can be a handful at times. He started off this school year somewhat poorly. He had the first detention of the school year and he was the only one in the detention. Although I disagreed that he should have every had said detention (as well as his teacher) I still made him go to show respect for the staff at the school. His teacher is a wonderful woman. We have worked all year on his behavior. She has been patient with both Will and I. We tried several approaches to rein him in but what seam to work the best was the old red, yellow, and green light system. I made cute little shapes and laminated them and he was to leave them in his desk and bring home the appropriate one every day. This worked for the longest time until the shapes kept getting lost. Now he just tells me what color he is. For the most part he has been on green with the occasional yellows. I have been very proud of his accomplishments!

Last week he came home on Tuesday just beaming! He had been on Green two days in a row. He received two caught being kind awards from his music teacher(who he has many problems with) and a pencil for being good in music class, and ...... drum roll please!....... A PRIDE AWARD!


On Friday he got to go to his first Pride Award Party! They get a button at the beginning of the day to show other students that they have won the pride award. Then at 2:30 they meet in the cafeteria for a Pizza with the Principal Pride Party!
First they line up and get pizza and juice.
He kept letting everyone go so he would be the last to get Pizza. Seamed only fitting!



He then got called to get his bookmark and


shake the principals hand.