Some may race on tracks or in cars, but two schools from the North Gwinnett Cluster are hosting a race through reading. North Gwinnett Middle School and Riverside Elementary School have been using a platform called Beanstack to encourage the spirit of competition among their students and also help them develop a love and appreciation for reading.

     “Beanstack is so easy for our students to use,” says North Gwinnett Middle Media Specialist Jenny H. Stark. “With links posted on Google Classroom and the Library Catalog, students can quickly access our school's site. They can log minutes in under a minute. I create Beanstack flyers, bulletin boards, slides, and other visuals to constantly remind students about the importance of tracking their reading. Various reporting features make it easy to see reading stats by Language Arts teacher, which leads to friendly competition between the adults, too.”

     North Gwinnett Middle started using Beanstack in 2022, and Riverside Elementary began using the platform in 2023. Both schools have read more than 1,000,000 minutes since students began logging reading minutes.

North Gwinnett Middle: August 2022 - November 2025: 5,200,752 minutes and counting

Riverside Elementary: August 2023 – November 2025: 1,683,349 minutes and counting

Kristin Bartholomew, Library Specialist at Riverside Elementary, says that literacy is the foundation of all academic success.

     “[Our goals are to] foster curiosity and a love for lifelong learning,” Bartholomew says. “[We want to] create a welcoming environment where students feel comfortable asking for book recommendations, enjoy the books they check out, and have fun reading!”

     Through the platform, the schools use Beanstack bulletin boards, slides, and other visual reminders to encourage students to track their reading. There are also smaller challenges within Beanstack that Stark has helped build through templates, such as the Great Middle School Reading Race, which involved eight GCPS middle schools during the 2024-25 school year.

Students share that they enjoy the reading challenges and the Beanstack platform.

     “I like that it helps me record and track how much time I’m actually reading, so I can stay focused,” says Nina, a 6th-grader at North Gwinnett Middle.

     “I like how Benny the Bean [a character on the Beanstack platform] gives us book suggestions and helps us select books,” says Logan, a 5th-grader at Riverside Elementary.

Learn more about the district’s commitment to literacy and language arts.