Training for the Ages

For all of us State Members, team meetings come around once a month like clockwork.  Things that are discussed during these meetings are upcoming events (school and/or Generations Incorporated (GI) events), ways to improve our reading coach model, ideas for activities, operation changes, and a few funny/good living stories.  Usually, these meetings are lead by our various Site Team Leaders and State Members – a recent meeting let one of our Experience Corps Members (ECM) really steal the show (in the best sense of the phrase possible).

At the last John Marshall meeting, a State Member led a training covering how to engage two students simultaneously during a reading coach session.  The training itself was necessary and a great success, but the true gem of the afternoon was the sequel to the training led by an ECM entitled: Reading With 3+. The session was led by Betty Reed.  She serves in a 2^nd grade classroom, a 5^th grade classroom, and also serves as a reading coach.  Before she started volunteering for GI she was a nurse and a minister in the Salvation Army.  A quick side note on Ms. Reed:

Betty Reed took what she had learned while working with the teachers and kids in a classroom setting and brought them to the other ECMs at the John Marshall.  She had two coordinators: one training *VISTA, and one Cluster Supervisor pretend to be students and she showcased what she had learned to all eighteen volunteers present at the meeting in such a way where they could participate in the comical yet informative showcase/skit.

This highlights perfectly why GI has been so successful.  It has an incredibly large range of ages, demographics, past careers, current careers, and life experiences – all with the same goal: to help these children improve their ability to read as much as possible – they do it for the children.  With such an array of people, all working toward the same mission, it gives the organization a constant breath of fresh air as there are constantly new strategies showcased that not necessarily change the culture of GI, but augment it.

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