What is the Free Little Library?
Bob Miller has a Free Little Library that is available to every student at Bob Miller.
By: Lauren Park
The Free Little Library is located right in front of Bob Miller’s library. Miller added the Free Little Library at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. The Free Little Library was made so that students at Miller could checkout books without having to worry about fees. The idea to make the Free Little Library an addition to Miller came from Ms. Meyers, an ELA teacher at Bob Miller.
The Little Library is different than the school’s library, it’s accessible to all students and you don’t have to check the books out. “The concept behind it is take a book, share a book. So, if you take a book you are expected to read the book and then at some point in time if you have a book you would like to share with somebody else, you donate it,” said Ms. Meyers, ELA teacher. Students don’t have to pay fees to access books from the Free Little Library.
The idea for the Free Little Library was brought to Bob Miller by one of its very own ELA teachers, Ms. Meyers. “I got the idea when I went to Detroit to visit my daughter… she pointed it out to me and she said, ‘look, this is what they’re doing in this city,’ and I was like wow, I could take that back to Miller,” said Ms. Meyers. The original person who came up with the idea of the Free Little Library was Todd Bol. He created it because his mother was a teacher and he did it to honor her, he was also a teacher.
Not too many other schools in Clark County have used the idea of the Free Little Library. When asked if other schools had used this idea Ms. Meyers said, “I’ve heard of one or two other schools that are doing it, but no, I don’t think there’s that many.”
The physical Free Little Library box was built by one of Bob Miller’s history teachers, Ms. Krueger. “Over the summer some teachers from Miller got together and I proposed the idea to them,” said Ms. Meyers, “Ms. Tingey did a lot of research on it for me and then Ms. Krueger offered to construct it.”
The Free Little Library is open to all students around Bob Miller. When asked if she thought the Little Library was a good idea for the students at Miller, Ms. Huggins, an ELA teacher at Miller, replied, “Oh, I love it! I think it gives kids more access to books that are available and [that] don’t always have time to go into the library.”
Photo by: Lauren Park
The free little library was made by Ms. Krueger and is located in front of the library.
Painting the Walls of Miller
By: Marley Fifita
Miller’s very own art class upholds an annual event, decorating our walls with flying colors. It is tradition to always start the year by honoring famous artists by complimenting their pieces by recreating them for everyone to see.
The idea was born when Miller’s very own Mrs. Seitz came to our school. Growing up in a big family she babysat constantly while taking art classes. From there, her two loves of art and children combined.
Kenzie Stockwell, voiced her opinion about her participation in the class, “My experience so far is really fun especially because we weren’t able to do art at my old school,” said Kenzie 8th grade.
Photo By: Kenzie Stockwell
The results after completing a day's worth of painting.
“This is an artistic tradition that has happened for hundreds of years. People/artist have always learned from a master artist. So whether it’s actually learning with an artist like Leonardo da Vinci's apprentice learned with him, by painting beside him or recreating or copying a master artist’s piece it is still creating art,” said Mrs. Seitz, art teacher.
At the beginning of the year, the students were given their groups and had a lot of volition when it came to choosing their pieces. The process started by first creating grids and sketching everything out to insure students were placing definition in all the correct places. Soon the painting began and groups worked toward their goal of completing the artwork.
Picture By: Marley Fifita
A recreation of Rene Magritte's "Man in a Bowler Hat"
Kenzie was assiduous in completing the task at hand. While viewing pieces, one in particular stood out.
Photo By: Marley Fifita
Kenzie Stockwell, Reagan Evendan, and Izabella Burdette's recreation of Frank Stella's "Concentric Squares."
A piece created by Frank Stella, a famous American artist known for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.
Creating the art gallery has also been beneficial to the groups. It furnished a pathway to make connections with each other. “This was a really fun experience and I got to know two more people and now we are friends so it’s pretty cool that we could do this project,'' said Kenzie 8th grade.
Photo By: Marley Fifita
A recreation of Gary Grayson's "Pop" piece.
While this year's artists were able to recreate professional pieces, Miller holds its breath for what next year's art students have in store for us. May the walls of Miller always be filled, and the possibilities and imagination of its students flow freely like a never ending river.