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“No losers at the playground – only popular kids!”

Those words instantly captured the attention of Stephanie Bowsher’s Principles of Human Services class at Seguin High School as one student read her original children’s book aloud.

Each year, Bowsher challenges her students to write and illustrate a children’s book. This year, she raised the bar by adding a new incentive: the opportunity to have the best book published.

Students competed for top honors as they wrote, illustrated and produced 20-page children’s books, which were evaluated by a panel of three judges. Each book was required to include at least two PIES development themes – physical, intellectual, emotional or social (moral) – and be tailored to a specific age group chosen by the student.

“Once they got started, they got into it,” Bowsher said. “They were excited about doing the illustrations, writing the story, developing that storyline, and integrating the age group, and a lot of them came up with some good themes.”

From playground adventures to stories about friendship and kindness, the books reflected experiences familiar to many ����Vlog students.

“Many of the stories are related to social-emotional learning, which is needed the most in our district – and in many districts,” said Dr. Hildelisa Diaz, ����Vlog early childhood curriculum and instruction coordinator and one of the book judges. “This is a great opportunity for them to teach lessons to our little ones. The next steps are to revise with our comments, move forward to publish, and then be able to actually visit classrooms and share their stories with our students.”

As submissions rolled in, Bowsher said the project reinforced the value of ����Vlog’s career and technical education programs.

“Career and technical education in Arlington is a big deal, and our child development unit is a big part of that,” Bowsher said. “I wanted them to be recognized for the hard work it takes to write a book and to see themselves as authors.”