Second graders enjoy high school mentors
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Second grade teacher Alisa Self is always looking for ways to increase the opportunities for individualized instruction and small group interaction. But those times are limited in a classroom of 20 students with a teacher and one or two special education paraeducators. So drawing on her ideas from other districts and looking at the resources in Eudora, she and fellow teacher Jamee Mason came up with a plan: high school mentors.
“The program was created when we were looking at how we mix older kids with younger ones throughout our building,” she said. “The younger kids love it, and the older kids enjoy being the teacher. So we decided that the second grade needed to mix with older kids so that they could learn from them, also.”
Self contacted EHS counselor Paul Walrod, who suggested approaching the high school seniors who take Johnson County Community College classes at EHS. Because the college classes don't meet every day, the seniors had blocks of free time on some mornings. Self and Walrod thought that, if any students would want to give up their free time, they could come by Nottingham.
“I wasn't sure what to expect,” Walrod said, “if anyone would take us up on the idea. But we had a lot of students wanting to get involved.”
But since the fall, all the second grade teachers have benefited from nearly two dozen high school seniors who volunteer each week to work with the younger students. Self emphasized that the seniors work with students at all achievement levels, and their involvement depends on the needs of the students and priorities of the teachers.
“A student one day got here and took five students and they played CRASH, a phonics game. Then she took a group and worked on addition flashcards in a game called Math Sparkle. After that she took my last group and worked on multiplication with my highest math group. While she did that, the ones I had in my room worked on centers of vocabulary, reading out loud and math.”
Chastity Johnson, one of the mentors in Self’s class, said she enjoys going in and working with the second graders.
“I like to play the games with them,” she said. “They get really competitive, which can be pretty funny. And they're learning, so that makes it fun.”
Self added that her second graders love their high school heroes, as well.
“My students love it when my seniors get here, she said. “The high school students are seen as positive role models and their experience will only make the students they work with strong and better young people. It has been wonderful and the kids are able to work in smaller groups with their ‘heroes.’”
