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April 30, 2013

Local company provides technological tutoring

By Steven Ryzewski, Seminole Chronicle, originally published 3/14/13

Jason Ampel, the creator of Learning Liaisons, an online tutoring service in Central Florida.

An A student can benefit from tutoring just as much as a student who is struggling to pass.

That’s the message of Jason Ampel, the man behind Learning Liaisons, an online tutoring service based in Central Florida that utilizes technology and one-on-one instruction to engage students. In an age of standardized testing, exit exams, growing classroom sizes and ever-increasing competition for an edge among students, Ampel, who has 10 years of experience teaching for Orange and Lake counties, said tutoring could be more valuable today than ever.

“As a classroom teacher, what I learned over the years is that sometimes you’re bogged down with standards and accountability,” said Ampel, who received his master’s and doctoral degrees from UCF. “Sometimes you don’t have that time to work one on one with students – all students learn differently and you have kids that get lost and they get frustrated and they’re not motivated.

“[Through tutoring], you’re building confidence in students by giving them the one-on-one support that they might not [be getting].” The idea that that same tutoring can benefit a good student just as much as one who is struggling is something Karen Jones, who has two students working with Learning Liaisons, said she can attest to.

To read more click here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Filed under: Community,Technology

April 16, 2013

SFU expands tutoring program

By Marelle Reid, originally published in Burnaby Now on 1/30/13

A Simon Fraser University student-tutoring program recently expanded its scope to help more students in the Lower Mainland with literacy skills.

The Friends of Simon program connects university students with immigrant students at 200 elementary schools – and, new for this year, at 65 high schools – in Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey. The majority of students are from immigrant families who have recently settled in the Lower Mainland, said coordinator Angela Flumerfelt.

“Immigrant students often come both having to catch up on their literacy skills and their basic academic skills and, at the same time, have to learn English, so it’s a huge challenge for them,” she said. “Sometimes the schools aren’t able to address all of that within the school day.”

More than 80 students from different departments at SFU – about half from the Faculty of Education – spend an average of twice a week with groups of two or three students. Cariboo Hill students in grades 8 and 9 signed up in the fall for the Friends of Simon: Rogers group, sponsored by the Rogers Youth Fund, to get help during after-school hours. Tutors help them with homework and incorporate reading and thinking games that promote English-speaking skills. At Hillside Gardens, a government-subsidized housing complex in Edmonds, tutor Sherry Lin works with elementary school students who need a boost with their English language skills.

The fourth-year human geography major is planning to become a teacher and said the opportunity to gain experience in the community is priceless.

To read more click here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Filed under: Academic Learning Centers,College,Community

January 31, 2013

Adult literacy tutoring program in Camarillo brings together unlikely pair

by Mark Storer in vcstar.com, originally published on 12/4/12

PHOTO BY CHUCK KIRMAN, VENTURA COUNTY STAR - Bashar Shajrawi (left) and Saul Lessler, in the Camarillo library adult tutoring and learning center, have developed a friendship since Lessler became Shajrawi's tutor at the library.

Bashar Shajrawi left his native Jordan to come to the United States at the start of this year.

“Believe it or not, my only reason to come to America is marriage — no more, no less,” said Shajrawi, 26, of Camarillo. “My reason for doing that is that you can work anywhere, but you can’t find the girl you seek anywhere.” He and his wife, Inas Alshurafa, are expecting a son in the coming months. “I’m lucky to have her,” he said.

Shajrawi received a degree in accounting in Jordan, but his English skills needed work, and he couldn’t work as an accountant without learning to speak and write English. He volunteered to work in the Camarillo library upon his arrival in the U.S., and there he found the Adult Literacy Center.  “They told me it was a place where I could learn to make my English better,” he said.

Meanwhile, Saul Lessler, a retired lawyer who volunteers as a tutor at the center, had been asking the center’s coordinator, Lee Weiss, for a new student. “He’s such a strong tutor, and I wanted to be sure that Bashar had someone like him. Saul has worked with a lot of students and has brought them along not only in English but in their progress in this country,” Weiss said. “He helps them develop their confidence and their self-awareness.”

She also knew Shajrawi was an observant Muslim and Lessler a religious Jew.

To read more click here.

 

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed under: Community

January 22, 2013

826Michigan Expands To Detroit With $100,000 DTE Energy Grant For Tutoring And Writing Programs

by Kate Abbey-Lambertz, Huffington Post, originally published 11/13/12

826Michigan, the Ann Arbor offshoot of the writing and tutoring centers across the U.S., received a $100,000 grant from DTE Energy to expand their programs to Detroit in 2013. The organization plans to hire one individual and recruit 100 volunteers over the year.

When the group that runs a robot supply store announced plans to expand to Detroit next year, it had nothing to do with the upcoming “Robocop” remake, or even the city’s growing tech scene. Instead, it’s the writing and tutoring nonprofit tucked behind that Ann Arbor shop that will bring its services to Detroit students.

826Michigan, the local offshoot of a network of nonprofit tutoring centers founded 10 years ago in San Francisco by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius), will expand with help from a $100,000 DTE Energy grant. They’ve long wanted to bring the student-focused programs to the city, said Amanda Uhle, executive director of the Michigan chapter.

“From the outset, certainly since I started in 2006, we have aspired to do more in Detroit and serve students in a really significant way,” Uhle said. “In the meantime, the economy has been challenging and we’ve had enough to do to stabilize our organization.”

826 Michigan has run some programs for Detroit students and schools, but Uhle said the challenge has been that their volunteers are primarily Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti-based. “That’s really not our model … we recruit volunteers who are from a certain community and allow students to be inspired by and learn from adult members of their community,” she explained.

To read more click here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Filed under: Academic Learning Centers,Community

November 21, 2012

Community Tutoring Program Gives Penn State Students Opportunity to Help Local Youth

by Amy King, StateCollege.com, originally published 9/6/12

When it comes to State College (town) and Penn State (gown) coming together, the Friendship Tutoring Program is one example of the good that’s possible. For a few hours on Sunday afternoons during the academic calendar year, dozens of elementary school-aged children meet individually with volunteers — mostly Penn State students — who instruct and aid, coach and mentor.

But their time together is much more than that. As the children improve their scholastic abilities by playing board and computer games, drawing pictures, writing poems, and just plain working hard, trust is bridged and relationships are formed. One of the best lessons the kids end up learning is that, above all, school can be fun.   

The secular program, sponsored and hosted by Faith United Church of Christ, was founded by Maureen Dunham, a retired schoolteacher, in 1999. This fall marks the 14th year for the program. From the onset, the core of the Friendship Tutoring Program (FTP) was designed to support students after they left the Park Forest Day Nursery and entered the school system. What began with eight students doubled halfway through the first year — now, the program has about 40 to 45 kids participating.

The program has steadily grown and now consists of students referred not only by the Park Forest Day Nursery but also by Head Start and the State College Area School District. In addition, children not referred by one of these institutions will be considered on a space-available basis. “The involved students are typically below grade level in reading and/or math or may be struggling to keep up with their peers in other various areas,” FTP director Laura Griffin says. “Once referred, I contact each student’s individual classroom teacher so I can better help direct the tutor to be the most efficient we, as a group, can be.”

To read more click here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Filed under: Blog,Community

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