Happy Thanksgiving
As we move into the Thanksgiving break, I can not believe the school year is passing so quickly. At this point, we have more students on our waiting list then we are currently serving, so next week, with the break, I will be spending most of my time seeking out new venues to find volunteers. If you know of websites, schools and/or community/retirement centers that may be helpful in this area, please email me: kvellenga@listhelps.org.Last week I posed about the first grade student I am working with. I mentioned that we made great progress as he was able to read four letter words, with some consistency. This week, his progress was

Progress
Last school year in my blog, I wrote most often about two students. This was not my intent, and I, of course blogged about other students, but these two students showed the most progress and, at times, took the most energy. If I look back at those blogs, it is amazing to see how far they came.This year, again, not by intent, but for the same reasons as last year, it seems that three different students are beginning to emerge as my “highlighted” students. I have mentioned them several times already this school year; one is a first grader with some learning disabilities and the other two are brothers (twins) in second grade, working at a kindergarten level.This

We have doubled our capacity!
We have nearly doubled the number of tutoring sessions we have completed this year as compared to last year at this time. Last year at this time, we had completed just over 100 sessions; this year, we have already completed over 200 tutoring sessions! This is wholly due to the many volunteers we have coming to help tutor students each week. Without them, this would not be possible! I am indebted to each of you for the sacrifice of your time and for the support you show us each week. Last year, we completed over 500 sessions for the whole year, if we continue the pattern of doubling this number, we hope to complete 1000 tutoring sessions this year! If we combine the number of sessions w

One Step at a Time
As I began the story last week, teaching can take many attempts that often fail before you find the method that works for each student. Here is another story of success I have found with one of the students that attends LIST.The student I am sharing about is a first grader that has been coming to LIST since the summer. He has a learning disability and a short attention span. When he started coming during the summer, I was pleased to find out he had many basic tools needed to learn to read; his foundation is firm. He came in knowing most, if not all of the letters and their sounds. The challenge has been to help him be able to blend, or sound out, these sounds and form them

A Little Competition, With a Prize Will Do
Through the years, I have found that it sometimes takes a little manipulation or cajoling, if you will, to move kids into the enjoyment that is reading and learning. As much as we teachers would love to assume that the love of learning is easily inspired, it does not always happen that way. That is one reason teaching can be such a struggle; trying to find the best way to teach each student so that they will gain the love of learning and/or reading. When you are able to tap into a child’s world and pull out that interest, it is totally fulfilling; but the road to get there can often be a difficult one filled with many failed attempts on your part. Sometimes the progress is made with one s