What People Are Saying
I Have the Time and the Patience
In the beginning, Bob was a little hesitant about the idea of mentoring. He worried that his academic skills were a little rusty.
"I had a boy who was not interested in math because he couldn't read the instructions," said Experience Corps member Mr. Payne. "I went over the instructions with him word by word, explaining each problem. The teacher doesn't always have the time. I have the time and the patience to do that. When I was able to give that time to him, he was able to get it."
"They know who I am," he says. "They see me coming and shout, Mr. Payne! Mr. Payne! They noticed I shaved off my goatee before anyone else did!"
A Chance to Open Up
The teacher asked me to work with a second grader one-on-one because the little girl was very quiet.
The students share about their weekends every Monday morning, but this little girl never spoke up. Her teacher thought that being with me one-on-one might help her share.
I introduced myself and told her a little about me. Then I asked her a couple of questions, and the minute I hit on, "Do you have any siblings?" she began to tell me how her mom is going to have a baby and she is looking forward to having a little brother, how her mother moved her into another room and she got to say what color she wanted this room to be (purple.) We talked and talked about this gift of a baby brother until time was up.
When I brought her back, the teacher asked how things went. She said, "She didn't talk at all, did she?"
"She talked a lot," I said "She told me all about her baby brother and her favorite color!" Now the teacher has more insight into something that she could talk about with her.
An Impact That Could be Everlasting
Que Payne, Experience Corps member
It's really been a two-way street. I feel like I get a whole lot more than I could give out. I don't know how many times in my life I've heard a successful individual say that a neighborhood person, or a teacher, or a mentor, said something or did something that made a change in them. You're not just working with a child today. You're making an impact that could be everlasting.
I Can Already See the Improvement
Carole Landers, retired elementary school teacher
"I am retired teacher who taught 33 years in New Haven, CT. This is my first year with Experience Corps. in the students I work with in K - 3 classrooms. As a teacher, I was most worried about the students who were falling through the cracks of educational progress due to lack of time to spend with them individually or in smaller groups. That is where the Experience Corps tutoring program comes in."