Program brings trucker to the classroom
Pictured at Conewago Valley Elementary School are, from left, front row, Jon Clinton, Connor Rebert, Kaelyn Kennedy, Seth Moklak, Vance Hagarman, Kaitlyn McNew and Josie McIntyre; second row, Avery Gebhart, Morgan Lippy, Samantha Laughman, Noah Doan, Noah Ringrose, Derrick Fore, Cole Forbes and Chelsey Forbes; third row, Zoe Duggin, Morgan Musser, LaDamien Williams, Thomas Haugh, Brandon Rogers, Emma Hafer, Madison Morin, Rahmah Khalil, Garrett Swift and Sam Kalmbach; and back row, teacher Jenn Haugh and professional truck driver Keith Becker.
Keith Becker shows students a map of his routes across the country.
TBI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping educate and mentor schoolchildren through a pen pal relationship. Drivers share news weekly about their travels with their assigned classroom and the students write back once a month. Through the correspondence, students have an opportunity to enhance their skills in reading, writing, geography, mathematics, social studies and history.
Becker, a program participant since 2007, travels from coast to coast delivering and picking up all sorts of products and produce. He is currently assigned to Jenn Haugh’s third-grade class at Conewago Township Elementary, where he sends weekly postcards about places of interest and trivia questions.
By following his routes, the students learned to read maps and used math skills to calculate distances between his points of destination.
The highlight of the program was when he came to their classroom after parking his truck cab in the school parking lot. After a brief meeting, the class went outside to explore Becker’s cab to learn more about his home-away-from-home.
Keith Becker shows damage his rig sustained during tornadoes earlier this year and showed them an inside view of his cab.
