Jerrod 和 his family moved to Rochester from the Twin Cities area in late 2022 for his wife Rachel’s new job. 作为全职妈妈, Jerrod was looking for ways to become part of the family’s new community; his 阅读队 service has started him thinking about more ways he might be able to serve.
We hear that you have a history with 阅读队! 背后的故事是什么?
I was a 阅读队 tutor up in the Twin Cities area 11 years ago, when I was in college! I had a great experience 和 worked with kids from all walks of life — I have always remembered one student from South Korea who didn’t speak much when we started working together but really opened up as an English speaker while we were working together.
After our move, I happened to see a flyer for 阅读队 和 thought, “hey, I loved doing that.”
所以我在2023年秋天申请了, got to meet the staff at Churchill Elementary, 我觉得那是一所很棒的学校. (I’ve always had a love of Winston Churchill, so that kind of sealed it.)
Why did you choose to become a tutor for a second time?
My oldest is in online school 和 thriving, 和 my wife works from home so we have some flexibility. And I was also very aware that COVID had had a big impact on learning, 所以孩子们可能需要一些额外的帮助.
我想回馈社会, knew I could be a good tutor 和 liked that I could help out a little more financially without putting too much of a burden on our family’s schedule. I like to get up early 和 have that built-in accountability factor, too.
It’s kind of like a homecoming, even though you’re in a new city! 到目前为止进展如何?
Seeing the students’ progress 和 their enthusiasm, getting to know their parents a little bit, 这一切都很棒. When I get home after tutoring, I’m energized.
There’s a kindergarten student who’s the first one I work with, early in the morning. The first five or six weeks she was up 和 down 和 I was a little worried. And then one day it was like a plant shooting up. She went from knowing two or three letter wounds to more than 50, 懂得混词, 记住她学过的单词了吗. If we have a couple of extra minutes at the end of our session I let her try out a few sentences from a first-grade story — she can read those, 她很自豪! 她喜欢挑战.
Another pair of students have become best friends, 和 they can never do enough — they want more words, 快, 计时器开着. It’s fascinating to see which interventions stick 和 which don’t. 有些孩子喜欢二重唱, some don’t; some love newscaster reading, 你的声音听起来像个主持人. 每个人都是独一无二的.
每一天, you’re tracking 和 benchmarking what your students learn … what have you learned this year?
这么多事情! For example, that it’s important to create a safe space for making mistakes. I’m thinking of one second grader in particular who has tended to be so hard on herself. I’m big on sports metaphors: If you’re a great shooter in the NBA, you’re still only making 30% of your shots! I want students to know it’s OK to make mistakes, 和 my help isn’t to judge, it’s just to assist.
阅读老师, 谢娜-木, 谁也是我的内部教练, was super helpful in showing me how to say what I want firmly 和 right up front. Communicating clear boundaries right away creates a positive environment 和 lets us have more fun in our sessions over the long run. 我的导师同事, 史蒂夫, 是一个退休的人, 和 we make a good team — I help him with tech support, 和 he can give me some really good lateral feedback.
What’s it been like to be a part of a school community?
I’ve really enjoyed observing the functions of the school administration, 教师工会和学校董事会, just learning how that all works together as a system. 事实上, I recently attended a c和idate training session that the Chamber of Commerce put on, to learn more about what it could take to run for a position on the school board or city council somewhere down the line.
Is it meaningful to you to be part of the larger organization of AmeriCorps?
In high school, I was in an ROTC program. In the end, I didn’t see myself joining the military — but I did learn that I was drawn to serving. When I first learned about AmeriCorps in college, it was super appealing to hear it described as “the domestic Peace Corps.” So it’s a good way for me to feel like I’m contributing. We represent our country 和 we’re serving our country.
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