Belinda George is a first-year principal at Homer Drive Elementary School in Beaumont, Texas. Since December, Dr. George has been sitting down every Tuesday at 7:30 PM and reading bedtime stories in front of her phone, livestreaming the stories on her school’s Facebook page. Any student of the school can have their principal read to them before bedtime. She calls it “Tucked-in Tuesday.”
Dr. George explained to the Beaumont Enterprise that she learned about the idea of streaming to students on a teachers forum. "I want to extend what I do past 4 p.m. I'm not in every child's home, so I don't know if all or any of them have someone to read to them at night. This is just a way to give the children that exposure."
Dr. George hopes that this will foster better reading habits and an interest in reading on the part of the students at her school. She told the Washington Post that about 94 percent of her school’s student body come from economically disadvantaged homes. She herself grew up with two loving parents who didn’t have high school educations and worked long hours to make ends meet. She has gotten a lot of positive feedback from her students, telling the Post that “Kids will come up to me Wednesday and say, ‘Dr. George, I saw you in your PJs reading!”
Dr. George says the kids will tell her about the book she read and what they liked; frequently, kids will check that exact book out of the school’s library.
While Dr. George doesn’t have children herself, she clearly has a lot of love to give. She tells 12 News Now that she probably gets more out of the experience than anyone: ”The kids are thinking ‘(this is) cool,’ but I’m thinking ‘you just don’t know how much you’re blessing my heart.’”