Teachers, volunteers worked to keep ‘summer slide’ at bay

Programbrought help to the students’ community.

While many students are thrilled when schools close for the summer, they often lose touchwith the resources that keep their reading on track. The dreaded “summer slide,” as educators call it, can take amonth ormore to combat once the kids are back in the classroom.

For young students at Jackson Elementary in Lawrenceville, the effffffffffffect of the “slide” has been lessened thanks to thee ff ff ff ff ff ff or ts of teachers, staff ff members and volunteers who took a reading classroom into the community this summer.

“I had teachers who were really worried about our Spanish population because many of our parents speak only Spanish,” said principal KaraDutton.“We have about 1,450 students in kindergarten through fififth, with a 33 percent ESL population.”

Dutton green-lighted the idea of two teachers to go into one of the school’s predominately non- English speaking neighborhoods once a week. The community off ff ff ff ff ff er ed a meeting spot and chairs, and the teachers brought blankets, books and games eachWednesday morning for seven weeks through the heat of summer.

Kindergarten teachers ToniBerger andKathy Julian spearheaded the effffffffffffort by sending a letter to parents in the targeted area and laying out their plan. The response was positive from both parents and other teachers.

“We put five volunteer slots down for each week, and they filled up within two days,” Berger said. “But we welcomed anyone who wanted to come, sowe averaged about 10 teachers each week. The kidswere excited to seewhich teachers would show, and they loved that we made the effffffffffffort to come see themover the summer.”

“Even some of the teachers’ kids came along,” Dutton said.

About 25 to 30 youngsters showed up for the morning program that had kids reading to kids, volunteers leading small groups and teachers playing literacy games. Berger and Julian also arranged for MUST Ministries to bring lunch, and several teachers showed up with ice pops, brownies and other treats.

“The teachers were from di ff ff ff ff ff ff e rent grades, and some middle schoolers we had taught came and worked as helpers,” Julian said. “Some high schoolers even showed up. A wide variety of activities and skills were covered with no money spent.”

While no data was kept to track the impact of the program, both Berger and Julian are enthusiastic about the results.

“I noticed kids I haven’t taught are waving at me in the hallways,” Julian said. “A connection is there from workingwith them over the summer.”

Berger has one of the summer students in her classroomnow. “He’sdoing really well,” she said. “The main thing was to keep the information fresh in their minds .”

Dutton hopes to host the program again next summer. “I’m never going to say no to an idea like this that gives back and brings together students, parents and teachers .”

CONTRIBUTED Jackson Elementary School teacherNancy Fitzgerald works with student Christopher Pizarro-Santiesteban as part of a summer project that took volunteer teachers and staffffinto one of the school’s predominately nonEnglish speaking neighborhoods once aweek.