Entering the UCF Curriculum Materials Center, hopeful shoppers saw the room filled with fiction and non-fiction books, as well as manipulatives used to teach primary grade students.
The fourth Big Book Giveaway is a partnership between UCF CMC and Orange County Public Schools’ Surplus to rehome unused and gently used classroom materials and resources. At the Sept. 21 giveaway, 422 attendees obtained high-quality, educationally appropriate materials they can use to provide meaningful instruction to their current or future students.
Valued at more than $340,000 in materials, UCF students preparing their first classroom or completing an internship received them for free. Shoppers received four bags they could fill with as many items as they could fit and then provided bins to tote items home.
Martha, a UCF student majoring in elementary education, said the event is “Every teacher's dream.”
The prior three events distributed approximately $270,000 worth of free materials, bringing the overall estimated value to $612,000 worth of valuable instructional materials being distributed to UCF future educators, homeschoolers, preschools, Boys and Girls Club, UCF Reading Clinic and a bookmobile. Across the four events, 1,080 people attended.