Trey Morgan interviews Taylor Swift for a live webcast at Scholastic, October 24, 2012

Yesterday, we welcomed Taylor Swift to Scholastic headquarters for an inspiring, rockin’ webcast that was delivered directly into classrooms across the world! Taylor Swift: Read Every Day focused on the power of books and reading and featured the award-winning musician and our host, Z100 radio personality Trey Morgan, live in front of hundreds of NYC-area school kids — and, of course, the millions of students who participated across the world.

The webcast replay is now available right here, so if you and your students missed it, we recommend checking it out to hear Taylor’s thoughts on the books she’s loved, where she gets ideas for what to read next, how reading has influenced her writing and her career, and what kinds of stories inspire her. You’ll hear gems like this: “I think it’s important to read as many kinds of books as you possibly can,” Taylor told students, from short to long, easy to difficult, fiction to nonfiction — “so you can find out what your favorites are.” And, “I think it is good to read every day, definitely!…I try to read as much as I can.”

Through social media, we were lucky to see reactions from the live webcast coming right from the teachers and students themselves! We pulled them all together right here; meanwhile, here are some of our favorites:

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  Students at St. Mary Library in Calgary watch the webcast!

  On Facebook, a teacher said, “Just wanted to share that we included the Taylor Swift session yesterday with our whole school. We are working on increasing our attendance and won (tied actually) for best attendance in our district yesterday. At the end of the interview, when Taylor was singing, I wish she could have seen all our students singing every line. Sweet times at Baxterville School!”

• On Twitter, @MarnyMcGee said, “Taylor Swift Scholastic Webinar! Discussing the reading and writing connection. Look where it can take you!”
• Also on Twitter, @kate_conley said, “My students are having a BLAST viewing the LIVE webcast with @Scholastic and Taylor Swift!”
• Another Facebook commenter said, “Taylor was awesome. My students hung on her every word. She was very well spoken and really expressed not only her love for reading, but the importance of reading! Thank you Scholastic for providing this for our students:)”
• And @BrenRoss1 said, “Fifth graders loving Scholastic webcast of Taylor Swift’s message of poetry and reading everyday #mckedtech #taylorswiftrocks”

We were also excited to see articles like this one from PhillyBurbs.com about schools that participated, which begins: “Pop superstar Taylor Swift had a message Wednesday for eighth-graders here and for students around the world: Reading helped get her where she is today.”

Our thanks to Taylor, her team, our amazing host Trey Morgan, and of course to all of you — the teachers, students, and fans who participated! Remember, you can watch the replay right here — and don’t forget to read every day!