“I’m happy to be there with the little
more basic training, and she found a way through a team approach to better train students.”
The program has expanded beyond the Memphis area. Flaum has helped train people in Selmer and Huntsville, Alabama.
In the first year in Selmer, 32 percent of the students in the program were not reading proficiently. By the end of the year, Team Read had reduced that number by 20 percent.
Flaum is now the head coach at Winchester Elementary. While the program was started to help students become better readers, the partnership has gone deeper.
The coaches cannot give gifts to the students, but they meet the needs they see. If they see a child needs a coat or shoes, they give them to the school to give to the student.
“When the student asks where it came from, they are told the coat fairy brought it,” Flaum said. She doesn’t mind that students never know where it came from — she and church members are happy to meet the need.
One year Flaum helped the school with a fifth-grade production. The teachers took a two-hour opera and made it into a 45-minute musical. Flaum was able to write the lines for the musicals and help make the entire production a learning experience.
Students learned about selling tickets to offset the cost of the costumes, and in the process they learned about marketing and sales, although they did not notice.
“It was all about a partnership created through Team Read,” Flaum said.
Team Read has made an impact on the many volunteers who keep coming back, according to Flaum and McDaniel. There has never been a shortage of volunteers, with the coaches becoming advocates for the students.
“When you get Team Read, you get people who care about kids,” Flaum said. “The coaches take real ownership of their students . ... It leaves you all warm and fuzzy.”
McDaniel hopes the program continues to draw many volunteers so it can reach more students.
“My prayer is that it would spread across the country because there are a lot of folks that care,” McDaniel said.
While teachers say that the program has changed their students, Flaum said bright students simply become more confident in their reading ability.
“All we claim is that we teach words,” she said. “That’s all we are contracted for.”
Flaum, McDaniel and other volunteers cannot stand to not get involved.
Flaum said so many problems stem from students being deficient readers at the end of third grade.
“For some it’s a number,” Flaum said. “For me, it’s Angel and Devonte and Nika . ... They are all our kids.”
Abigail Warren covers Germantown for The Commercial Appeal. Reach her at abigail.warren @commercialappeal.com or follow her on Twitter @aewarren3.