The Michael Aymar Foundation’s free tutoring sessions were a success!
In a previous article, you learned about the free tutoring opportunities available for middle schoolers at the West Orange Public Library on the behalf of the Michael Aymar Foundation. It occurred every Saturday starting July 9 from 10-11 a.m. It served to support families during the months away from school, in hopes of motivating and maintaining exceptional reading habits for children.
Since it’s almost that time for students to head back to school, the free tutoring sessions will come to an end. Luckily, I had the chance to visit the last session and get an understanding what it was like for staff members, volunteers, parents and, most importantly, the students who attended.
For Amanda Aymar, “the program was received with enthusiasm by families and kids. This is something we would like to continue to do, and offer in other libraries as well. Union City is our next goal and we have a teacher who will lead this effort for our education. Families [have told us] this is a great resource to keep kids engaged over the summer.”
“The librarians have gotten terrific feedback from the parents. Many of them expressed that what we offered went beyond academics and centered more on life lessons which is priceless for middle school kids. We attracted several teachers, whose experience and ideas have shaped the program and included interactive participation and the kids have responded beautifully to this. We covered issues related to student accountability, creating ways to be an independent student, identifying tools, understanding time management, learning styles, but most every workshop reminded them about the basics: finding a way to love reading, practice writing and find ways to communicate thoughts effectively,” said Aymar. “Basic tools that when practiced make high school a less stressful experience. We have connected with a middle school teacher in West Orange that attended one of the workshops and wants to connect us with the school because we would be a terrific resource to them. We also connected with the West Orange Hispanic Foundation, which is very interested in what we offer and the fact that we can deliver a program in spanish. The parents guided us to think of ways we can continue to be available for other families when school starts. Once the summer workshops end, we will coordinate with the West Orange Library a program that we can do independently, or in collaboration with them.”
Overall, the Michael Aymar Foundation learned a lot. They learned that children love the storytelling aspect of the workshops as they responded by coming back and inviting their own friends.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login