Helping Memphis kids become better readers
Jackie Flaum spends week after week inside Shelby County Schools helping second-grade students become better readers. It is something she has been invested in for seven years.
In 2011, she and members of Germantown United Methodist Church were helping out with special events at Caldwell-Guthrie Elementary School, and they wanted to do more.
Flaum, a former reporter and public relations writer in Connecticut, said she approached the principal and said they wanted to be involved on a deeper level. After months of waiting, the principal called and said he had an idea for further investment. From that desire to serve deeper, “Team Read“was born.
The program is for second-graders, as that time is essential for students to learn sight words — words they do not have to think about and are memorized.
Teachers pick students who are on the cusp of being great readers to spend a half-hour twice a week with a reading coach. The students spend time with their coaches during time they would normally be at their desk doing independent work.
“It’s really a God thing,” Flaum said of how it all came together. “The people I (volunteer) with are not educators.”
She said the coaches each come for an hour and spend 30 minutes with one child, and then 30 minutes with another. Students get an hour of individualized time per week to help improve their reading.
“It’s convenient,” Flaum said, adding there are many options that make it convenient for volunteers. “It’s so rewarding, especially for people who think they aren’t teachers.”
Flaum said the children cause her to return weekly, year after year, but she does not want people to think she does this as a “goody two shoes” or has “selfish” motivations.
“If I’m not there for them now, they won’t be there for me later,” she said. “I’m going to need a heart surgeon and a legal professional and a dryer repairman, and it might be in a second-grade student struggling to read.”
about kids.” Jackie Flaum
Absentee ballots appeared to be the deciding factor in the mayoral race, according to certified results. Certified early, voting day and provisional ballots showed Barzizza ahead by seven votes. However, Palazzolo received 301 votes cast by absentee voters, while Barzizza received 174.
Barzizza, who focused his mayoral campaign on slower growth and government transparency, has served as an alderman since 2014. Scott Sanders won that position in the Nov. 6 election and will fill Barzizza’s seat on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen beginning Dec. 17.
Barzizza is represented by R Christopher Gilreath of Gilreath and Associates.
The election commission tends to not comment on pending litigation, according to Suzanne Thompson, spokeswoman for the commission.