Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, May 02, 2011

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Some youngsters used stencils to add details to their painted desks.

A group of third-graders at Harrison Elementary this week take home their very own study desks after a painting project that capped their after-school tutoring club.

Harrison’s Family Resource Center launched the program this spring in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning and Transylvania University. For eight weeks, freshmen from Transy spent an hour on Wednesdays helping the kids with math, reading and other homework.

For a finale, volunteers worked alongside the youngsters to personalize their wooden desks, which the Carnegie Center secured through grants. Having his or her own desk at home can be a motivation for completing schoolwork and a source of pride.

“I can use it when I play because I like to play office,” said 9-year-old My’Kari Slaughter, who decorated her desk with flowers and a row of dots.

My’Kari also included hearts and stars enclosing the names of her parents and brother, and she listed all her former teachers. And since she especially likes math, she tucked in the equation 12x12=144.

Other students, carefully mixing paints and ideas on a recent Friday afternoon, created ladybugs, rainbows and race cars; some added inspirational phrases like “Believe in dreams!”

All the kids had sketched their designs in advance. Together in the cafeteria, with the floor covered in plastic, they busily set to work painting. There to lend a hand were student volunteers from Transy and the University of Kentucky as well as staff from the Carnegie Center.

“This was one of the things we decided to do as a class. I like to interact with children and help out,” said Jacqueline Young, a Spanish major at Transy. “She learns Spanish here so we were talking about numbers,” she added, referring to the girl she tutored.

The Carnegie Center, which runs a huge tutoring program, had sought to reach out into the community and expand the number of children it impacts. Its first satellite tutoring site was at William Wells Brown Elementary last fall. This semester, the Carnegie paired with a service/learning class of Transy freshmen who could easily walk to nearby Harrison Elementary.

In addition, Carnegie staff met with the third-graders’ parents to share educational games and fun learning activities they can do at home. Each child received a canvas backpack with supplies, such as a deck of cards and a beach ball for math games.

Harrison’s Laura Van Epps, director of the Family Resource Center, said the kids always looked forward to seeing the college students, who also played games and shared snacks with them.

“The teachers let us know the kinds of things each individual student needed to work on and sent packets of work to do together,” she said, noting that classroom improvements were evident.

Kara Clifton said thanks to the after-school sessions, one of her students has a better grasp of patterns and number orders. “One little girl has caught up and understands multiplication a lot more than she used to,” she added.

While the one-on-one tutoring was a welcome academic boost, it also bolstered the children’s self-esteem and gave them additional role models in the community.

As Clifton explained, “It made them feel special.”

Resources

Laura Clinton, outreach coordinator at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, (859) 254-4175