HELPING TIER TWO KIDS

THREE PROGRAMS WE HAVE IMPLEMENTED. 1.Eagle’s Nest 2.KUDOS 3. Mentor Program

1. EAGLES NEST- an intervention program designed to help students succeed in the classroom. Students are invited to the Eagle’s Nest room in the morning from 8:45-9:15 to work on grade level standards. Teachers contact the Eagle’s Nest teacher via stating which students need assistance with a particular skill.

These second graders are brushing up on their grammar skills using marker boards and discussion.

These two third graders are working on Spelling concepts to improve their spelling test scores.

These supplies are kept in the Eagle’s Nest room for Mrs. Vore to use with the students. The school provided many of these supplies, while Mrs. Vore contributed other needed items.

The files regarding students’ progress are kept up to date, primarily through communication between The Eagle’s Nest teacher and the classroom teachers.

Mrs. Vore, the Eagle’s Nest teacher, has ongoing communication with the teachers about students’ progress. If a student still needs additional help on a specific skill, they will come back to Eagle’s Nest for additional help. If the student is still not understanding a concept, Mrs. Vore will seek help from other resource teachers.

2.KUDOS - An afterschool intervention program. Students in grades three through five are invited to the KUDOS program based on their reading level and ISTEP scores. Criteria to be invited to KUDOS: ISTEP scores on the bubble (just barely passing, or close to passing), reading levels at or just below grade level. KUDOS: Kokomo Uniting to Develop Opportunities for Students

First semester, students were divided into groups of 6- 7 students by grade level. They spent 25 minutes on Leap Tracks, 25 minutes of computer instruction (Study Island, Education City, Waterford), and 25 minutes in a small guided reading group with their teacher. Second semester, students were again divided into small groups of 6-7 students, this time according to reading level. However, instead of spending their time with the same teacher for 75 minutes, they are rotating between 3 different stations for 25 minutes at each station.

Stations for KUDOS: guided reading two groups of writing writing to a prompt literary responses two math groups – focusing on problem solving what question is asking how to organize information Leap Tracks Raz Kids – computer program that reads books to students at their level

The children are working on a program called Raz Kids. It reads stories to the kids.

This is a student working on Leap Track. It reinforces reading skills.

This is a small guided reading group.

3.Mentor Program- This is a city wide program utilized by Kokomo Center Schools and a couple of area county schools. Citizens from the community come and volunteer 30 minutes a week to help a student with academic or social areas. The students are selected by their teachers based on needs of that student.

The teachers provide materials for the student and the mentor to work on. There is also a designated classroom in our school for the mentors to take the students. In this room there are plenty of supplies and books to read. In addition to the supplies there are also games for the mentor and the students to play if they just want to have fun.

This program has been very successful at our school. The students are aware what days their mentors come and they look forward to their time with the mentor. There is a mentor coordinator who keeps in constant contact with the mentors to make sure everything is going as planned.

This mentor is working with a kindergarten student. He is making cookies and practicing sight words.

ONE-ON-ONE: Kindergartner Jesse Valadez, 6, gets helps from mentor Jocena Schaffer at Haynes Elementary School on Wednesday. Michelle Daubenmire, programs director for Bridges Outreach, said Howard County has a shortage of adult mentors willing to work with area elementary school students.

Outreach needs mentors for elementary students By Danielle Rush Tribune staff writer Nate Vent and Jhordan Lee were both in the first Bridges Outreach group, as eighth-graders at Central Middle School. Now, as freshmen at Ivy Tech Community College, they are giving back to the program, as mentors for middle and high school students. Bridges Outreach has expanded its original after-school program at Central Middle School, working with middle and high school students in the Kokomo-Center Schools and offering one- on-one mentoring to elementary students in Kokomo and Taylor schools through Project 30. Travis Taflinger, co-founder of Bridges Outreach, said after Big Brothers Big Sisters closed last year, this is the only large-scale mentoring program available in the Kokomo area. Michelle Daubenmire, programs director for Bridges Outreach, said right now about 175 mentors are working with elementary school students. In 2008, she said, principals told her they could use mentors for 350 children.

She said Bridges staff want to encourage people to be mentors this month, because January is National Mentoring Month. The next training sessions for Project 30 mentors are from noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 2 and March 2 at Central Middle School. Prospective mentors need only attend one session. Once volunteers attend training and pass a background check, each one picks his or her student’s age and gender, and what time he or she is available to work with the student for 30 minutes each week during school hours. Taflinger said Bridges Outreach staff hope volunteers continue with their students until they finish fifth grade and can enter the Bridges Outreach after-school and summer programs. He said mentoring is important because studies have shown students who have a mentor are 46 percent less likely to use drugs, 27 percent less likely to try alcohol and 52 percent less likely to skip school. Lee, who is studying professional communications at Ivy Tech, said she probably would not have enrolled in college without the mentoring from Taflinger and Casey Cline, the other program co-founder.

They just do a lot of things for the kids they probably wouldn’t get to do,” Lee said. “To some of these kids, a lot of them don’t get attention outside the program. It makes them feel like somebody cares about them.” She said her brother is in Bridges and his grades have improved since being involved. She works as a mentor for the Bridges to College program, which meets after school at the YMCA. She feels a responsibility as a mentor to set the right example, particularly for her brother. “Casey and Travis set a model for us, and I try to follow that so [her brother] will.” Vent, who is studying visual communications at Ivy Tech, is a mentor for the Central Middle School after-school program. He felt called to help in return for the mentoring he received, he said. He said any young person, not just those with social or academic problems, can benefit from a relationship with a mentor. “I think every kid at that age is at risk. They could go down a wrong path,” he said, adding that having a mentor gives the child someone to be accountable to and an example to follow. He said as a mentor, he is still benefiting, even as he gives back. “It’s like a whole lifestyle. It reminds me of the standards I set for myself. I represent Bridges, and I take a lot of pride in that.”

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