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“New York Times best-selling author and former NFL player, Tim Green, visited Waseca Intermediate School on Oct. 18. With his presentation entitled, “Reading is Weight Lifting for the Brain,” Tim engaged us all in a powerful event that moved us from laughter to tears. Tim is a realistic sports fiction writer and his newest release, “Left Out,” is the true story of a boy that is singled out and labeled as “different” because of his hearing loss, the use of cochlear implants, and his sometimes garbled speech. This main character is bullied because of these “differences” and his story told through Tim Green’s book was powerfully honest and filled with character-building examples. Tim emphasizes the importance of education and challenged each of us to set goals and work to achieve each of them with a positive attitude and determination.
We read this book as an all school reading project and lively discussions, shared with a roller coaster of emotions, ensued. With the grant funding, each family at Waseca Intermediate School received an autographed copy of this book. Its powerful message will continue to help us remember to treat each person with respect and acknowledge each other’s strengths and limitations.”
-D.V.—Nov. 30, 2016
Excerpt from: WasecaCountyNews.Com
“During his visit to our library, Tim read aloud to students from his new book, Left Out. Tim’s message made a tremendous impact on the Eubanks fifth and sixth graders. Many of the students have called his books “awesome!” and are continuing to read and enjoy his novels every time they visit the library.” For more, read: https://www.follettcommunity.com/p/bl/ar/blogaid=335
A Student Review:
Tim’s books that the student has read: Rivals, Baseball Great, New Kid, Force Out, Homerun, Best of the Best.
“I got interested in Tim Green’s books when I was looking for a sports novel by Mike Lupica, but instead I found a Tim Green book. I found Force Out, so I started reading and it was way better than Lupica’s books! The book doesn’t have a pace; the book’s pace is your pace, and the details he adds get stuck in your head. Once I even had a dream about Tim Green’s book Rivals. I plan to read all of his books, and so far it’s been great.”
“My daughter came home with a copy of your new book and a note from the school. I would like to say how grateful I am that you encourage and teach our children such positive messages! Thank you so much for the book! You, my friend, are a true hero!”
-R.B.—Oct. 4, 2016
“Tim was great this morning! We LOVED his presentation! The kids are all excited as they are coming in the library to talk to me about him! Thank you again!” (Elementary School Librarian)
-C.F.—Sept.30, 2016
“Just wanted to give you a brief update. Since your presentation at our school, your books are flying off the shelves. They were usually checked out before you came, and now the entire Tim Green shelf is totally empty with many requests to be on the wait list. Our reluctant readers are reading and our avid readers are reading even more.
One young lady turned in a copy of Unstoppable and with a big smile on her face exclaimed, “This is the best book ever!” I just wanted to share a little good news with you and encourage to keep up the good work.”
-L.M.—April 19, 2016
“Thanks so much for setting that up for the MS. What a wonderful speaker! 8th graders are beginning their speech unit and his presentation was such a phenomenal example of a great speaker, it will give us a good reference to discuss throughout the unit!”
-A.H.—March 24, 2016
“Thank you Tim, we have never had such a great response to a speaker. Received fantastic feedback from parents and students. Your message was inspiring and moving.”
-Matt.—March 16, 2016
“…I just wanted to make sure that you had a chance to see what an inpact your book has had on my child.
This is my 10 year old son Hunter. He loves football. I wish that he loved reading as much as he did football. Anyway, to make a long story short he stumbled across Football Genius at Barnes and Noble and had to have it. This is what he did his reading fair project on at school, which was just turned in this morning. Let me just say thank you Tim Green. Hunter read this book with ease and never lost interest once… which is odd for him. He reads well but gets board quickly. Hunter said that Troy from the book reminded him of himself (except he has two parents). He was really able to connect and stay focused and that is worth its weight in gold to me. Needless to say, Hunter has now looked up all of your books and made me a list, so we will be buying more. If you look closely on his board he also did a little portion on you as well. Thank you for being an awesome athlete, amazing author and investing in today’s youth. It was so nice seeing my son come home and pick up a book and read without having to be told because for once he actually enjoyed what he was reading. Oh, and by the way we are big Dallas fans, you’ll notice the huge fat head of Micheal Irvin in the background there. At some point in the book T.O. and the guys were mentioned because Hunters face lit up like a Christmas tree and he had to tell us all about it.”
“Thanks so much to you and Tim for sending the package of books to my son Reuben. He is so excited and he can’t wait to start reading the books. Thanks for being so kind and thoughtful. I’m attaching a picture of Reuben so you can see his pure joy. Thanks again!! Tim’s visit meant everything to my school and the kids haven’t stopped talking about it. We are going to do a follow up activity in February and I can’t wait to share some of the results with you in a few weeks.
The librarians were so incredibly impacted with Tim’s message. I wanted to include a few comments from some emails I received after the conference. I bet you collect quotes to use in the future. Here are several:
Tim Green was fantastic! He was inspirational and motivating. It’s so wonderful to have so much support for literacy.
Tim Green was amazing! His address was the best keynote I have ever heard.
It is so nice to know that a champion like Tim Green is a champion for literacy. It’s nice to have someone like Tim promoting reading and the direct impact to success in life.
And last, but not least, is curriculum. On Wednesday, Tim mentioned the idea of teaching his books in classrooms. That idea rattled around in my mind for a few days. On Friday, an English teacher in my buidling came to talk to me about novels she will teach next year. She and I collaborate and write a lot of curriculum. . . .Thanks to Tim, we can pair modern literature with classic literature to help the kids develop greater connections with literature. Thanks to both of you for making such an impact on our school, our teachers, and our community. Thanks so much for everything you do!!”
-A.H.—January 31, 2016
Amy
“Hey I wanted to say that you inspired me so much I started reading your book first team when I was in 7th grade and it just told me that no matter where you are from or who you are you can make a difference it’s not about the past you just have to keep polishing yourself and this book inspired me so much that I started play for football and every day before I go out on that Felix I remind myself about your book and Brock. Even though I’m a girl this book helped me make a difference I played my first year and also made first team as a center and at the end of the year people asked me why I went for football and my response was just this…….Tim Green inspired me to fight for what I knew I had in me wether it be quarterback or any other position, he changed my life. So thank you Tim Green!”
-A.P. —November 2, 2015
“Thanks for visiting our school and delivering a powerful message to our students! I cannot explain the countless number of emails and conversations from students and parents about your visit to our school and the message that our students took away. I always say that I try to make a difference in one child’s life each day, and on Friday you made a difference in the lives of every student at Maryvale Intermediate School and the faculty and staff.
On a personal note, it was an honor to host the professional athlete and author that I grew up watching on television while attending CBA. In this day and age it is difficult to find a person of your character who has the ability to rely the message that you delivered to the students of Maryvale.
Please do not hesitate to have anyone contact me if they have questions about your presentation!
Keep spreading your message! I am sure our paths will cross again!”
-M.V. —October 13, 2015
. . . “We are so blessed by your story, your message and talents.
Everyone is still chatting with excitement over your presentation. You will be happy to hear that there are many many students reading your books today and they are hooked!!!!
I do hope our paths will cross again sometime soon. It was a pleasure to be part of an event that was so meaningful.
Please keep up the wonderful work you do.”
Blessings, K.K. —April 15, 2015
“Thank you, Tim! Our students cannot stop talking about your wonderful message to them yesterday. Your examples, books, and reading to our students really made a STRONG impact on them. I am sure we will be talking about for a long time. Your Facebook page was really quite impressive! Blessings in the work you do for all children / students!”
Sincerely, J.G. —April 15, 2015
“Simply put, <Tim> was AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing him with us:) Students and staff alike were thrilled and will be talking about this day for a long time. I feel confident the impact will last even longer.” L.D. —April 15, 2015
“It was our pleasure having you at E.F. Rittmueller Middle School! Being a principal for 18 years, I’ve experienced terrific guest speakers and some pretty horrific ones. You definitely rank on the terrific side! It is an amazing feeling when you plan an assembly with a guest speaker who the students and staff find inspirational and engaging. Your message and presentation did just that for us. We found your message about reading, sports and life very motivational. Thank you for your donation of books. You truly are a giving person with a very big heart”
“I have been at TJHS for 30 years and Tim’s presentation, in so many ways, was among the best we have ever had (if not the BEST!)”
“I’m a teacher who works with junior high students with dyslexia. I have one student who I just couldn’t connect with. He’s big into football and I don’t know much about it, till now. For Christmas I bought your book Football Hero. He asked me to read it to him, so I was happy to do so. Needless to say we are both hooked! The book is so well written and the story is hypnotizing. We now talk football and about the book. I will be buying him more books in this series. Thank you for helping a teacher connect with a student she cares a great deal about! Keep up the amazing job!”
“Thank you again for coming…I seriously have never gotten such great feedback from an author visit before. I had so many emails from teachers/parents, and students stopping me in the hallway thanking me for organizing! One 8th grade girl even said “Mrs. DuMont can I just give you a hug for having him speak? That was just what I needed right now!” One class wrote thank you cards that I will send your way and they are pretty powerful how it impacted each of them in different ways. One was funny, it said “I can’t wait to read your book Wonder” that made us laugh…at least he got part of the message:) Thanks again for all you do to make a difference! I hope the rest of your visits go well.”
‘Hi Tim, This coming week, you are doing a presentation in St Louis for the Rockwood school district. My son Benjamin, a fifth grader will be in the audience. I just wanted you to know what a huge fan he is of yours. He struggles with reading comprehension, but he loves baseball. At the beginning of the school year he checked out “Pinch Hit.” This book was the thickest book he has ever read. He read it to me every night, and in December he finished the book. It was a huge accomplishment for him and one he is very proud of, as am I.
When the order form came home, that we could purchase your books and that you would autograph them, I told him I would buy one paperback book for him. He selected “Pinch Hit”. He also wanted another book of yours and it only came in hard cover. He decided to spend $17 of his own money to purchase the book.
Thank you for inspiring my soon to read! He can not wait for you to come to St. Louis and to receive his autograph books!!!”
“Tim,
I wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much your books have meant to me. I have one son and I have the privilege to read to every night because of you. I am not sure how long this will let this last, but I know the last 2 years have been filled with incredible memories because of your work. Some nights we get through a paragraph, others several chapters. It doesn’t matter to me, because long after he is a grown man I’ll still remember the connection your books have facilitated . Great Stuff!!
Thank you,
-A Lucky Dad”
“It was truly a pleasure to bring you to Clark Middle School. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from students and staff. You’re presentation and brief conversation with my son Gary (our photographer) has even inspired him to decide to further his education and go on for his Masters degree. He’s decided to pursue Public Relations. You have no idea how many lives you impacted yesterday…isn’t that the coolest thing in life!? All of us were so impressed by your warmth and caring personality. Your wife has taught you well:)
I’m hoping that you’ll have future visits to Clark Middle School and I look forward to reading and sharing your books with our students.”
“I am remiss in not sending this sooner, but I did want to pass on my thanks to Tim (and you) for the gift of the New Kid books. This was a very generous gift. I kept a couple to circulate in the library, but the boys who received a personal copy were thrilled. His books are still flying off the shelves, and the students still talk about his visit in November. Without a doubt this was the most successful author visit we have had.”
“Thanks again for all of your help setting up Tim’s visit this morning. Everything went so well. “Tim Green Fever” has definitely hit Camden Middle School – I wish he was here now to hear all of the positive feedback! In the past few hours I have heard from so many students and staff. Everyone has good things to say – and after 8 years here I know that it is a special (and rare!) thing when we can all agree on something! There is already a waiting list in our media center for the copy of Unstoppable that he read from and signed (so I am so glad he forgot his copy at home!). I even had another teacher come up to me and tell me he wants to go back to college now! CMS was inspired on so many levels this morning. I know there will be more thank you notes coming your way from us, but I just wanted to write a quick note to share all of this joy with both of you. Please let Tim know how thrilled we were to have him here for Read-a-Palooza. (I didn’t even have to give him any orders like you had suggested I could! He was great.) Thank you for all of your work to make today’s visit happen!”
“I wanted to say what a pleasure it was to have you visit Van Buren Elementary school on Wednesday morning. The students were captivated by your energy, and the messages you shared about what’s important in life and how to work hard at whatever you dream to do… I felt fortunate to have two of my three children there in the audience, because both have big aspirations for their futures, and you have given them a glimpse of what could be, plus the reality of how hard it can be!”
“Just wanted to thank you again for the presentation you gave at our middle school year yesterday. The feedback from parents, students, and staff has been incredible! As an administrator, I am always concerned about the quality of enrichment programs brought into my school. Your presentation was exceptional. I have never seen all 500 of my students so attentive for an hour straight and they were disappointed when we ran out of time. Your message was clear and inspiring and we hope to have you back in the future.”
“I wanted to let you know how much our school (staff and students) enjoyed Mr. Green’s visit. I am still getting many positive comments one week later. I have two favorites. One of our long time (30 plus years) teachers said it was Madison’s best author visit ever. This is huge coming from Deb, she is known at school for being a excellent and demanding educator, certainly not someone who gives a superlative complement easily. We also had a sixth grader tell another teacher that he would love to have Tim for a dad! Please let Tim know that his books have been flying off our shelves. Thanks for getting Tim here to Madison, it was a bit of a crazy day. I know you had to walk him through directions because the rental car didn’t have GPS. The students were thrilled to have our picture on Tim’s Facebook page and I am hoping you can forward me a copy so we can add it to the library webpage. It is the photo that Tim took with his iPhone; Tim and I standing together in the gym with the whole school behind us. There was also another photo of the book display, I think Tim and I (maybe more people?) were in that one too.”
“Thank you so much for the awesome visit yesterday with Tim Green. The children were enthralled! Mr. Green was wonderful: so warm and honest and you could see his love for children. The staff was equally impressed with his sincerity and the amazing message he gave to our kids. We will long remember this visit and his motivational messages and are so appreciative of this opportunity. I am in the process of doing a ‘press release’ for the Patch. It should be online by early next week. Thank you again for your generosity and for thinking of us!”
“He was WONDERFUL!! We may have worn him out – but he was great! Today the teachers said that his presentation was everything they’ve been working on all year – importance of education – reading – character! He kept the attention of 1600 students yesterday morning for an hour. It was unbelievable! I’ll be nominating Unstoppable for the Caudill book award for Illinois. Hope it makes the 2015 list of 20 for Illinois!”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! You were absolutely phenomenal and I have gotten numerous emails today from teachers signing your praise. They said that the kids were really moved by your message and that you don’t have to just have one goal in life and the kids all now want to be writers and NFL players! We would love to have you back as you were truly amazing! I’m sure Mary Lou or myself will be in touch in the future. If others ask for author recommendations, we will definitely pass along your name.”
