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Students at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School are encouraged to visit the vending machine in the office. It doesn’t take change; there’s no card reader. For that matter, it isn’t stocked with chips or sweets. Instead, the machine’s contents are meant to nourish a child’s mind, not serve up empty calories. C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School first-grade students Nazir Ford, left, Issa Koussoube and Kyzer Piard show off the tokens they will use to “buy” a book from the school’s book vending machine. Credit: Charles County Public Schools Helina Shewakena, second grade, left, Toni Cannon, fifth grader, Nolan Hayes, second grade, and Mahi Sharma, fifth grader were the first students to test out the book vending machine at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School. Students earned tokens via the schoolwide ClassDojo program to redeem for books from the vending machine or items in the school store. Credit: Charles County Public Schools C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School Principal Brain King, Ed.D., does the ribbon-cutting honors on the school’s book vending machine housed in the school’s main office. Credit: Charles County Public Schools Students who collect ClassDojo points can earn tokens to use in the book vending machine. Students can also use ClassDojo points to get items from the school store. Credit: Charles County Public Schools Ronnita Queen, C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School’s parent liaison, restocks the school’s book vending machine. The school purchases books that are earned by students for displaying positive character traits and good behavior. Credit: Charles County Public Schools Issa Koussoube, left, and Kyzer Piard, first graders at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School, peruse the offerings in the school’s book vending machine. Credit: Charles County Public Schools
The vending machine housed in the main office is stocked with books for students in prekindergarten through fifth grade at various reading levels — “We like to provide a choice,” Ronnita Cannon, the school’s parent liaison, said. Earning points for displaying character traits and good behavior that are tracked by teachers using a schoolwide Class Dojo system, students receive one token for the machine for every 30 points gathered.
“It’s kind of motivating for students to earn a book and select one that interests them,” Principal Brian King, Ed.D., said. Students can also use their Dojo points to “purchase” items from the school store.
The school bought the vending machine — which can hold between 200 to 300 titles — with proceeds of last year’s Boosterthon, and it was delivered earlier this month, Cannon said.
The school purchases the books for the machine, and students get to keep the books they have earned. On a recent morning, Cannon was adding more books thanks to a rush of students who recently turned their Dojo points into I Love Books tokens.
As she finished, three first-grade students arrived in the office to select a book. As each student plunked in a coin, the machine whirled to life, lighting up with a recorded voice calling out, “One book, coming right up,” as the book is released from the spiral holders.
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