Episode Transcript
Marlena Jackson-Retondo: Welcome to Mind Shift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our children. I am Marlena Jackson Rotondo. It’s almost time for winter break at Bellevue Elementary in Santa Rosa, California, and the teaching sessions for the school year have just begun. Schools that host AmeriCorps instructors have conducted crash courses to prepare for the literacy support they will provide throughout the year.
Jackson-Retondo: AmeriCorps is a private government agency whose volunteer members provide educational support and services to schools across the country.
Jackson-Retondo: This morning, a group of fourth graders casually enter the room.
Jackson-Retondo: They were taken out of their classroom to spend 30 minutes with the teachers, nurse Maya and Elena Zeoli.
Maya tells the students to go straight to work and read the story aloud in the workbook In One Word.
Mya Nurse: We will start with our choral reading style today.
Mya Nurse: Are you ready? Go!
All readings: My mother says to me, I choose a beautiful paper fan with a picture of leaves and ants. I will keep my fan forever. When I grow up, I will watch it and remember this night.
Jackson-Retondo: Teachers stop students every few sentences to ask about vocabulary in the text.
Elena Zeoli: So what happened?
Elena Zeoli: What happened unexpectedly? Wet… they were warned about the weather. How tall did they think the waves would be? Do you remember the first page? Student: Mmmm….
Jackson-Retondo: The students seem shy, and when they do speak, it is very quiet. And sometimes the students don’t answer the questions at all, but Maya and Elena, not bothered by the silence, move on.
Jackson-Retondo: This is normal behavior for students in the first week of classes at Bellevue Elementary, but what is unusual is that the first week of classes was delayed this year by more than two months. Teaching was supposed to start in early fall. Last April, all funding for AmeriCorps was terminated by the Trump administration.
Jackson-Retondo: This ended a nearly decade long partnership between Bellevue Elementary and AmeriCorps.
These cuts happen quickly and without explanation.
Nina Craig: It was shocking how quickly it happened. Um, uh, I felt like all night.
Nina Craig: so it was as if the cloth had been pulled from us.
Jackson-Retondo: That’s Nina Craig Bellevue, principal of 10 years. Before that, she was a fifth grade teacher and remembers working with AmeriCorps members during that time.
Nina Craig: As a classroom teacher I remember them coming into my room and working with some of my students and having that partnership as a teacher
Jackson-Retondo: And because AmeriCorps members have been an integral part of the school community, the cuts have been hard on Bellevue students as well.
Nina Craig: The relationships that were established with the children and with the children are suddenly gone these people who are such an important part of our school.
Nina Craig: it was really sad and really hard to explain, because they really became a part of our school’s culture.
Jackson-Retondo: For cases. AmeriCorps funding cuts were reversed in June of last year, but by then, schools like Bellevue Elementary were already behind in the next school year’s instructional cycle. Some schools across the state have chosen not to continue teaching and training assistance from AmeriCorps members for the next school year.
Jackson-Retondo: This is because they had to make decisions about their funding and without the assurance of AmeriCorps services, they had to go outside. And because the program was delayed, Bellevue students didn’t start teaching until December instead of October.
Nina Craig: there has been no tutoring offered to our third through sixth graders until now.
Nina Craig: So without AmeriCorps, those students don’t get any kind of instruction or intervention. And unless the teacher can carve out time in their day to provide that,
Jackson-Retondo: AmeriCorps members provide one of Bellevue’s first forms of second-tier support. That’s targeted support in a small group setting. In this case, it helps students with learning difficulties.
Nina Craig: In previous years, we had literacy specialists who could support our second division. Um, however, with budget cuts, this is our first year without them.
Nina Craig: So, we have one teaching assistant. For the whole school
Nina Craig: But yes, we are very limited.
Jackson-Retondo: Two AmeriCorps instructors are making a big contribution to Bellevue’s second division, but it’s still not enough. The school has shortened the kindergarten day by one and a half hours so that kindergarten teachers can provide additional support to Bellevue’s first and second grade classrooms. With short notice, and no wiggle room in their budget.
Jackson-Retondo: Bellevue Elementary had to make some tough decisions. We’ll find out how they do after this break.
***Midroll Break***
Jackson-Retondo: When I visited Bellevue Elementary back in December, I spoke with Fonzi, a fourth grader, who receives small group literacy instruction for 30 minutes a day, four days a week.
Fonzi: Dog Man and I survived.
Fonzi tells me about the books he likes to read at home.,
Jackson-Retondo: What was that?
Fonzi: I survived.
Jackson-Retondo: What is that about?
Fonzi: It’s like different books.
Fonzi: There’s, um, a book about the Titanic, um, that sank at sea.
Jackson-Retondo: So you learn about different survival stories? Wow, that’s great.
Jackson-Retondo: He feels that there is less time to study when he is in his class.
Fonzi: The different things are, um, we don’t like to read a lot of books,
Jackson-Retondo: But when he is in his teaching programs, the time to study, one of his favorite things to do, is extended
Fonzi: During AR, we study, we read books for 15 minutes.
Jackson-Retondo: Fonzi is part of a small group of fourth graders who have been identified as needing extra learning support. In a typical year, there is enough time for two student groups to rotate to support teaching from AmeriCorps members. But this year, with classes at Bellevue starting late, AmeriCorps members have time to help half the students they used to.
Jackson-Retondo: In areas like Bellevue, AmeriCorps teachers have become a pillar of the school community.
Nina Craig: There are so many ways to impact AmeriCorps through mentoring, play time, and mentoring. There are many connections. You probably know the names of the children better than I do, uh, by now. And you’re just getting started
Jackson-Retondo: And for Maya and Elena who have just started their careers, the program gives them a glimpse of their professional future.
Maya Nurse: I know that I want to do a job where I help people so I thought this was a good opportunity to, yeah, like, get real life experience where I’m like working for others and I think maybe I can do something with social work.
Jackson-Retondo: The opportunity to work with students at school gave Maya something new.
Maya Nurse: I’ve never worked with kids, so I was like, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Of course, I don’t know if I..
Maya Nurse: …If I could do this, at first, you know, I was shy, but then you just jump in, um, you start interacting with the kids.
Jackson-Retondo: When I spoke with the two teachers in December, Elena was already optimistic about her future.
Elena Zeoli: So far I feel that I like this job very much, that is, it’s really nice to wake up in the morning and I, when I wake up in the morning, like I wake up before my alarm clock because I’m excited to come to school.
Jackson-Retondo: A few months later, Maya and Elena feel comfortable in their roles,
Maya Nurse: I just want to know what I’m doing a little bit. I feel that, we have a daily routine. I like a good relationship with the students now, so I am very happy to see them every day and they are happy to see me and yes, it is good. It’s really good.
Jackson-Retondo: And AmeriCorps instructors have also seen improvement in their students.
Maya Nurse: One of my sixth graders, on one of his tests, was like 26 percent reading in November. And now he’s like the 42nd percentile and I’m like, wow, that’s like rewarding and exciting that he likes to do so much better and he’s able to do that on his own now, like do it yourself a lot.
Jackson-Retondo: But the fact that I have to work with the limited resources of the school has also found Maya’s strength.
Maya Nurse: Sometimes it’s also hard to see how much other students struggle in school or like, you know, and I can do a lot and help them a lot in those 30 minutes.
Maya Nurse: yes, do your best every day with what you have.
two: A cat would wait for a cat, and this could turn into hundreds of bugs in one place.
two: He called for his keys and…
Jackson-Retondo: I joined the tutoring class in February.
Jackson-Retondo: It felt like a transformed environment with students who were relaxed and eager to learn.
Jackson-Retondo: Elena had also noticed a difference in her students.
Elena Zeoli: I feel like they have a lot of confidence in answering questions and what to write down. So that’s how I feel. That’s like the biggest difference I’ve seen is in their writing confidence.
two: So the door, what is the door? Who do you know? What is a door? By D, OOR. Yes. I thought it was EDOOORH. What? That’s right.
Jackson-Retondo: Fonzi has regained confidence in his reading skills since December. He told me that he reads three to four books a day and also reads some chapters.
Fonzi: When I started going in and reading groups, um, we started reading books and stuff and I kind of got into it and I started reading books every day.
Jackson-Retondo: The benefits of extracurricular support provided by AmeriCorps tutors at school extended to Fonzie’s home life. He and his siblings make a learning game that they like to play at home.
Fonzi: We guess, like the book they have. They don’t show covers. And we, guess, and then if we get it right, the people who have the book that people say, they are eliminated.
Jackson-Retondo: Although we will not have enough time to bring in another group of fourth graders to teach this school year, Elena and Maya look forward to all their time with the students they can help.
Jackson-Retondo: Thank you to the Bellevue Elementary faculty and staff who volunteered their time to make this episode possible.
Jackson-Retondo: The MindShift team includes myself, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, Nimah Gobir, and Ki Sung. Our editor is Chris Hamrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer. Jen Chien is the head of podcasts and Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED, editor-in-chief. We are getting more support from Maha Sanad.
Jackson-Retondo: Mindshift is supported in part by the generosity of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED, other members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco, Northern California Local.
Jackson-Retondo: Thanks for listening.
