Spring 2007
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We are very pleased to welcome ten new tutors to our program. Our group this spring was an especially terrific bunch! We began with an orientation on February 27 at the LVA office, led by Bob McIntire, then Jenny Small took the lead for the 2-day, intensive course at the beautiful, new Cony High School in Augusta on March 3 and 10.
We were very grateful to have a few experienced tutors on hand to answer questions and share stories – special thanks to Beverly Shaw, Sandy Hunter and Joan Lessard for their wonderful support! One of our new tutors is already matched and we hope to gain some new students soon to keep the rest of our tutors busy too. Congratulations to everyone for doing a great job in the workshop and for getting involved in Literacy Volunteers of Greater Augusta!
Omission - We also wish to welcome Susan Cottle as a new tutor of the fall tutor training class
We ate cake, listened to music, heard a reading by Paul Betit, held an auction and just enjoyed the elegant afternoon.
See more pictures of the Event.
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See more pictures of the 2007 Dessert Party
Lori Gray, Jenny Small, Tala and Gail attended LV Maine’s annual meeting on May 2 in Portland.
Each year LV Me recognizes tutor and student pair from each affiliate for their outstanding work, presenting them with a lovely plaque after sharing their story. This year LV-Augusta chose Jenny Small and her student Tala for the good work they have done together. Read their story below. All of the stories were inspiring and a highlight of the celebration.
Stella Hernandez will be stepping down as LV-ME Director at the end of May. We will all miss her support and enthusiasm and wish her all the best as she focuses on her family and family business. Stella was very pleased to receive an award from her board of two new literacy grants to be given in her name. Sarah Clayton Robinson has been appointed as LV-ME’s new director.
We were also treated to a reading by Storyteller Michael Parent, what a lovely way to end the evening.
Jenny Small and Tala Deerfield have enjoyed working together for nearly two years, making so much progress and developing a wonderful friendship.
Jenny joined LV-A’s board of directors in 2004, took the tutor training that fall and has been very busy working on behalf of LV-A ever since.
Along with working with Tala, Jenny is now a ProLiteracy Certified Tutor Trainer whose workshops receive very favorable compliments. Last year Jenny developed a new Tutor Handbook which is a great resource for tutors. She is always there to help the affiliate in any way she can.
Jenny reports that she receives great joy working with Tala and watching her make such great strides in her life.
Tala ran her own business, a boarding home for the disabled, when she suffered a severe head injury in September 1999. After a critical delay in receiving treatment and many other complications, she began working with a Literacy Volunteer tutor in Rockland.
When she moved to the Augusta area, she sought to continue her tutoring with Literacy Volunteers here. Jenny & Tala have been working together since July 2005.
When she began working with Jenny, Tala could only count from one to nine and had little understanding of money or basic math. One of her short term goals was to be able to read recipes and cook on her own once again. She hoped to eventually be able to return to work running a boarding home.
After much hard work and persistence, Tala has a very good sense of basic math skills and since learning about place values, can count as high as anyone.
She now tries new recipes and is much better at following directions and understanding measurements. Tala has recently returned to having a boarder in her home and was awarded the highest compliment when told that the report she had done for the Residential Resources agency was the best they had ever seen!
Tala loves to read and has gained much self confidence as a result of her diligence and drive to regain her new life.
LV-A congratulates this team on their many achievements together. They are a wonderful example of the accomplishments being made in the Augusta affiliate.
Someone once said, “There are situations where there are winners and losers; rare is the happenstance where everyone wins.” This is not always true-I think “George” * is a true champion.
George tells me that he has always had a “bad temper”. When frustrated or provoked, his response was most often verbal, but occasionally it was physical and it was his physical reaction to a stressful event that landed him in legal hot water. George was given a choice between either jail time or a program of mandatory weekly conflict-management counseling. He opted for the counseling and committed himself to make positive changes in his life. Recognizing that being able to read fluently would be a real benefit for him, he contacted Augusta Adult Literacy to get help.
At thirty-three years old, George had never read a book to his children. He regretted that he never had the skill or confidence read to 4 year old “Randy”, 2 year old “Solomon” and 1 year old “Emily. (Stepdaughter “Josephine” is eight and is already a good reader.)
Our first goal, then, was to read and rehearse a short children’s book. George can decode reasonably well but needed help with automaticity and meter. We practiced reading The Cat in The Hat during our sessions and he rehearsed the book at home with his wife and Josephine at home. When he felt confident enough, he read the book to the younger children who were thrilled! He has since mastered several other books and his children now look forward to having special time with Daddy.
The skill and confidence George learned from storybooks has developed into fledgling interest in reading the newspaper and short passages in “Readers Digest”. The life story component of the tutoring program uncovered his penchant for writing so that a journal is now a daily part of his life. He is even about to try using a computer for the first time to type a formal letter he needs to send!
How has George won? Counseling has given him tools to manage his anger improving his communication with his family and with fellow employees at work. His reading has strengthened bonds with stepdaughter Emily and has promoted a new relationship with the younger children. Appreciating how hard he is trying, his wife has given him a lot of support and has helped him over some rough patches. He enjoys writing which offers him a whole new way to express himself. Best of all, George knows he is a winner because he is proud of his progress and realizes how different his life can be because of the changes he is making.
*All names have been changed
On April 11, we had the pleasure of having Eileen Lynch lead a workshop on measuring readability for all our trained tutors. Eileen is a special education teacher at Readfield Elementary School and completed the tutor training class with Bob McIntire last fall. We were thankful that she was able to share her knowledge of reading levels as it pertains to our students. Bob supplied laptops for everyone and Eileen brought a number of books for us to use as we experimented with websites for some interesting findings on reading levels. All those attending also got a chance to check out some great new material in our LVA library. If you were not able to attend the workshop, we hope you will stop by sometime and check out the new books too!
For more information on this topic, try one of these great sites!
www.lexile.comThanks again to Eileen Lynch for a great workshop!!
Book ReviewBoard member Ray Moinester was pleased to meet Paul Betit, author of Phu Bai, at our annual Dessert Party in March. Ray enjoys reading books about Vietnam and his brother was actually stationed in Phu Bai during the Vietnam era.
Ray reports that although the book is fiction, it is grounded in reality. The story concerns two main characters, John Murphy and Charles Van Dyck, who are with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and are in Phu Bai to investigate the murder of an American soldier.
Ray says that the book has many twists and turns and the ending is a tremendous surprise. He also says that the book is smooth, very easy to follow and holds your interest. He strongly recommends this reading!