Friday, April 30, 2010

An Urban Garden Grows More than Vegetables

“Are there worms in there?”

“Ewwww…did you put them in there?”

“What do I do if I find one?”

“What sort of tools are we using?”

“We have to use our hands?!  But what if I touch a worm?!”

The students and I stood around our newly constructed garden beds preparing to begin planting.  Up to this point the group, consisting of three fourth-grade girls and one fifth-grade boy, only expressed excitement about beginning their urban garden.  The garden is part of our lunchtime mentoring program at the Marshall Elementary School in which fourth and fifth grade students have the opportunity to work on long-term projects that incorporate reading and writing.  For the last several weeks, they had been reading seed packets and writing supply lists in preparation for our planting.  The preparation also involved our AmeriCorps State team braving through a very rainy day of building the beds, shoveling compost and carrying heavy crates of soil.

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Friday, April 9, 2010

Why I Serve

As I’ve been nearing the end of my 2nd year of AmeriCorps service, I’ve been reflecting quite a lot about why I came to Generations Incorporated.  Many people know that I came here from a non-profit job after deciding I wanted the opportunity to do more direct, hands-on work than my current job allowed.  Few people know that I had a very personal reason for serving, as well.  I knew I wanted to do service focused around literacy, as my passion for reading is one I hold near and dear.  What drew me to Generations Incorporated in particular though, is that they encouraged a love for reading in the same way my own had been cultivated.

When I was in kindergarten, I only attended school for half of the day in the morning.  I was fortunate enough to have my grandma living just a block from my home, so she was able to care for me in the afternoons.  We had a very regular routine when I stepped off of the school bus.  We would eat lunch together while I told her about my day.  Then she’d move to her well-worn rocking recliner and I’d happily rummage through the desk drawer filled with my books.  I’d select one or two and contentedly settle into her lap.  If I picked Go, Dog, Go, I’d stumble along through the story on my own with occasional gentle guidance. If Bob the Dinosaur was the chosen story, she’d read this harder book aloud to me.  It was my favorite time of the day.  You would never have guessed by my grandma’s attitude or excitement that we had read these same books countless times.  When I read to her, I was quite certain that I was the most gifted reader to ever recite the words of P.D. Eastman.  It was easy to believe in myself because she acted like everything I did was so darn extraordinary.  Yet, I also knew that I could make a mistake because she’d still think I was exceptional and brave for trying. Read more…

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

MLK Day – Where Did You Serve?

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day–now touted as “A Day On” rather than simply a day off–our AmeriCorps State members, VISTAs, Experience Corps members and staff found multiple ways to take part in the call to service this year.

On Saturday, we served at the annual Martin Luther King Breakfast hosted by the Yawkey Boys & Girls Club.  The volunteers greeted and served breakfast to hundreds of guests at the event which featured Governor Deval Patrick as keynote speaker.  We were also treated to performances by club members, many of whom receive literacy tutoring through Generations’ program at the club.

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Proof of Progress

As part of the AmeriCorps network, our motto is “We’re getting things done for America.” And on a day to day basis, I don’t think this could be truer. Four days a week, we help students improve their reading skills and confidence. Obviously, it would be rather time consuming and difficult to try to quantify our accomplishments on a day-to-day basis. For most of us, it’s the little improvements we see in the students that prove we are, indeed, “getting things done.” It may be something as small as a student begging for an extra five minutes with their coach, reading a basic book with no stumbles or recognizing a new sight word. But every so often, we get big results that truly prove that we’re making a difference; an accomplishment so great that we can’t help but celebrate it with our other Corps members who understand just how big that particular feat is. My big reward came in February and it’s a story I still enjoy sharing.

When I enrolled Lauren back in October, she was essentially a non-reader. Lauren was in first grade and able to read only the most basic of words—a, and, the—and had little confidence. She clearly didn’t enjoy reading and was nervous about having to do it in front of complete strangers. Her teacher knew she was well behind the rest of the class and wanted her in the school’s reading recovery program which offered 45 minutes of intensive literacy tutoring with a specialist four times a week. Unfortunately, the program was full first semester, so Lauren had to wait until February to begin. Until then, her teacher wanted her in Generations so that she was still getting a form of individualized attention twice a week.

I assigned Lauren to one of our most dynamic, consistent and dedicated Reading Coaches, Ms. Tena, in the hopes that she would encourage not only Lauren’s reading skills but also her confidence. Lauren was initially very shy during her sessions and struggled through them. Gradually, she began to trust Tena and before long, I was regularly hearing giggles from their work station and would occasionally have to tell them to keep the volume down. Every session, I would be impressed by some new word she could decipher or how fluently she was reading rather lengthy sentences. Clearly, she was making considerable gains in her skills and appreciation of reading.

I didn’t realize how big those gains were until her teacher approached me in February to talk about Lauren. She informed me that the week prior she and the literacy specialist had started the enrollment process to get Lauren into the reading recovery program. In order to enroll her, she had to be tested to see at which level she would be starting. Her teacher was pleased to report that Lauren had actually tested out of the program. Her skills were now too high for her to qualify for extra help.

Sharing that fantastic news with Tena has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my year of service. Tena was absolutely beaming and was so proud of Lauren’s accomplishment. Certainly, significant feedback like that doesn’t come along every day, so we really have to savor those moments and remember that all of the little signs of improvement are pieces of a much bigger picture of the students developing skills and confidence that will serve them well for life. We’re getting things done.

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Kim Bohling is an Americorps State Program Coordinator. You can email her at KBohling@generationsinc.org.

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Monday, January 5, 2009

Soup from a Stone—Fancy That!

A key piece of our service at Generations Incorporated is engaging the families of our students. Research shows that family involvement—over all other factors, including socioeconomic status and parent’s level of education—is the best indicator of a student’s academic success. As Community Engagement Coordinators, we create simple, but meaningful, opportunities for parents and family members to be involved with and that encourage their student’s educational development. The annual Stone Soup celebration is just one such opportunity for family members to meet the teachers and tutors who help their child to become better readers and citizens.

At the event, Nathan Hale Elementary School students learned how delicious and fun sharing can be when they helped create stone soup to share with classmates, teachers, family and Generations Inc. volunteers. The folktale Stone Soup inspired the event. In the story, a village of hungry peasants refuses to share their food with three starving soldiers. The soldiers tell the villagers they know how to make soup from a stone. The villagers, in disbelief, follow the soldiers’ recipe. But the recipe is a trick. The soldiers tell the villagers that stone soup is tasty, but it could be tastier if they add vegetables. Each villager brings a vegetable to add to the soup. In the end all shared a little and all had plenty to eat.

Our event utilized the Stone Soup story line. Each student brought vegetables for our stew; Generations Inc. volunteers, staff and Americorps members brought bread, fruit and cookies to share, too. Parents, grandparents and siblings came to the feast and had the chance to meet their student’s tutor and see the great work they have done. The party ended with dessert and a fun, interactive read aloud of another version of the tale.

The Stone Soup party is a longstanding and treasured Generations Inc. tradition at the Nathan Hale. It is a real celebration of reading, sharing and connecting all of the people who share in our students’ successes.
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Kim Bohling is an Americorps State Program Coordinator. You can email her at KBohling@generationsinc.org.

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