Third graders reading and BYOT

I spent the last three days preaching to our third graders about reading.   Reading is a skill that has to be mastered no matter what! Everything I'm doing as a 21st learner requires a high level of reading and writing skills.  I believe our biggest problem is not can our students read but can they evaluate what they are reading.  However, our students aren't ever going to be able to participate in the 21st if they do not develop better reading skills at an early age.
Only  44% of my third graders read at grade level by mid-year this year.  Amazing we had only two students not pass our state test, something seems wrong.  I, myself completely understand this false sense of security.  I made great grades in high school and thought I was very prepared for college only to find out I was way off the mark.  That is what our state standardized test is doing to our students.  Ok, back to my preaching this week.  Each third grade class was visited by me in the library with a quick speech and a review of the accelerated reader goal setting system we have in place.  Every student is suppose to understand their goal and reach their goal and this is a huge priority of mind. The media specialist, classroom teacher, and myself sat down with each third grader and double checked their understanding of the system and reminded them of their responsibilities to reach their goal.  I had several students in tears because the truth is they are under performing and they need to be told and that's my job. AR will get 90% of your readers on grade level if you use it properly, my belief.  I've had great success as a teacher, parent, and administrator with the program.  However, our third graders this year just aren't up to the task.  I'm not sure why, so I'm helping to attack the problem by constant reminders and checking up on the students.  Another great use of your smart phone and lunch room duty - monitor goals.
Today, I had a short conversation with one of our teachers about their doctoral program and she had to write her first scholarly paper. I have never been a very good writer because of have a tendency to go off topic, change tenses too much, not want to edit, and be too editorial.  It's the main reason I haven't started a doctoral program yet.   What caused me to think about her question was the content and her textbook.  Is a textbook really a credible tool for the social political environment in education today?  If it's a book it's probably slanted one way or the other because no one in the field of politics today is writing anything with just the facts or ideas in the middle.

BYOT:
Wifi is starting to work better for fourth graders.
Next step:  Develop ideas to integrate technology into the school day for our teachers.
Get third graders on grade level in reading according to Star Reading.
Get someone to develop a digital storytelling project with me.