Puckett Serves dedicated nearly 40 hours over three days this past weekend to completely renovate the restrooms and brighten the environment for our Project KIDS students here on Bailey Avenue. We are so grateful for their talent, their time and their commitment to the children we serve. The kids’ reaction to the new rooms was priceless! To see more images, visit us on facebook (www.facebook.com/OperationShoestring
As we seek support for Operation Shoestring, we’re sometimes asked, “What difference are you making in the lives of the children and families you serve?” It’s an important question, and we asked Kim Luckett, Project KIDS Coordinator, to give us her take. She oversees the daily afterschool programming, so we knew she’d have great insight.
“Certainly, we reinforce the lessons that children are learning in school and we ensure that they complete their homework and that they understand it. By simply doing this, we make a difference in their lives – only at Shoestring can these children receive personalized and extensive tutoring,” Kim explained.
“It’s also fun to see second-graders speaking to each other in Spanish. Sometimes I have to pretend that I know what they’re saying! Without Shoestring, these children wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn another language. And we know from research that children who learn a second language do better in school.”
“But we make a difference in other ways. Children feel safe here. We help them understand that some of the realities of their neighborhood – like poverty, callousness or violence – do not have to be their reality. I am so encouraged when I see a six-year-old child take off his coat to offer it to a child without one. When I see the courtesy these children show to one another and to our staff, I realize that our “character enhancement” lessons really work,” Kim said.
“Probably the most meaningful difference I’ve seen recently is the difference these young children make in their very own families. For example, through the Family Reading Bonds program, families are learning to make time to read together. One mother told me two weeks ago that her child came home and said, ‘Turn off the TV. We’re reading!’ When the father came home from work and asked why the TV wasn’t on as usual, his daughter sat him down to read to him for 30 minutes. Because of that young child, the family is now bonding around reading. I don’t know that they would have without Shoestring.”
Operation Shoestring is fortunate to have such committed staff members like Kim Luckett. We’re also fortunate to have the support of the community and of people like you. Thank you for your interest in seeing that this work is possible!
Operation Shoestring was proud to receive a $1250 contribution from Sam’s Club of Jackson on Tuesday. This generous gift was made possible by the volunteer hours of several Sam’s Club associates. We’re so grateful.
This brief New York Times article affirms Operation Shoestring’s efforts to get rid of a one-size-fits-all approach to education and adopting the more personalized/individualized style. We’re pleased to see this approach receive recognition!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/education/01schools.html?hpw
On April 16, 2010, Operation Shoestring will host “Spring Fling: A Benefit for Operation Shoestring.” We’re thrilled to showcase two outstanding bands:
Wiley and The Checkmates and Horse Trailer
Horse Trailer will take the stage at 7 p.m.
This event will not only celebrate Shoestring’s success in recent years, but also raise funds to expand its reach to even more children and families. The party will be held at the beautiful Mississippi Museum of Art and – as in years past – we will have some of the best music and best atmosphere you’ll find in the Southeast.
Tickets are $25 and will go on sale soon.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Cynthia Tucker, wrote this week about the challenges of closing the achievement gap between middle and upper-class children and those children who live in poverty. Operation Shoestring is in the business of closing this gap, so we read her op-ed with interest.
In the essay, Tucker writes, “Educating all of our children, including those from poor and dysfunctional homes, is clearly in the national interest. In a globally competitive market and with nations like China and India emphasizing high-quality education, we simply cannot afford not to educate everybody. And it does no good to point fingers at parents — some of them busy trying to make ends meet, some of them functionally illiterate, some of them simply irresponsible. No child chooses to be born into a home without the obvious advantages. But children from poor households can succeed, as innovative schools around the country have already shown. What do those schools have in common? Teachers and administrators are convinced the children can learn.”
Dr. Martha Alexander, pictured below, is the Deputy Director of Operation Shoestring, and she shares the conviction that all children – regardless of their socio-economic background – can learn if they are properly engaged.
“There really is no mystery to effective teaching,” Martha says. “Effective teachers are those who understand each of their students’ learning styles, who know each child’s basic aptitudes, who build a strong relationship with their students that is based on high-expectations and who have a real mastery of the subject they teach.”
Some of the children we serve each afternoon at Operation Shoestring, unfortunately, do not enjoy this type of teaching. As a result, says Martha, “our job every day is to provide intervention and to bring these children up to the levels we know they can achieve. And time is short. From pre-k to 3rd grade, children are learning to read. From 3rd grade and beyond, children read to learn. If our children don’t have a solid foundation of reading by 3rd grade, we know that they will fall farther and farther behind, they will eventually lose interest in school and – worst of all – will drop out.”
The stakes are high and the news too often grim, but Martha Alexander’s outlook is optimistic. “The research shows that our approach works! We assess every child in our program to determine the best teaching strategy to making that student successful. Once we’ve determined that strategy, we are rigorous – but we make learning fun. Education is the surest way to better the prospects of the children in our neighborhood. My hope is that we can continue to expand our efforts across Jackson.”
By Teaching Children and Inspiring Families, Operation Shoestring Ensures We All Rise Together. This is our tagline and this is what we’re about every school day on Bailey Avenue. Come see us.
Dr. Martha Alexander, Deputy Director
Just recently Operation Shoestring became a partner in Family Reading Bonds, a program developed by the Mississippi Humanities Council. Family Reading Bonds is a six-week program of reading, discussion and storytelling. A discussion leader and storyteller conduct weekly sessions for families with low-literacy skills. With award-winning children’s books, the program introduces fairy tales and folk tales from around the world, stories about problems children encounter and tales from history told for children.
Family Reading Bonds was designed to:
– reinforce the role of the family as a major social unit
- train parents and children to bond around the act of reading
- teach children the joy of reading
- encourage low-literacy, low-income parents to enter or continue their own educational programs, whether that is the GED or other training
Ten families participated in our first session this week! The feedback was very positive. ”Our parents and students are already seeing an impact in their child or children’s enthusiasm for reading,” said Kim Luckett, Operation Shoestring’s program coordinator. One parent stopped me today to say that since receiving
the weekly set of books and coming to meetings, her child reads instead of turning on the television in the afternoons.
The child responded that she has even read one of the books given just last night, and it was a chapter book! I am excited about the impact this program is having on both our students and their parents.”
Thanks to the support of people like you, Operation Shoestring is able to provide programs such as Family Reading Bonds to our neighborhood’s families. Through our collected efforts, we can ensure that all
of Jackson will rise!
The 2010 Winter edition of the Operations Shoestring Newsletter is availble in PDF format by clicking here.
Happy new year! I hope you’ve enjoyed the early days of 2010. It’s a busy time here at Operation Shoestring as we welcome back our students – both elementary and high school – and prepare for an active summer.
One of our signature summer programs is the Youth Employment Program, which will again provide summer jobs to qualified honor students at Lanier High School. You may recall from previous emails that these honor students learn the importance of financial and time management, they learn the appropriate attire for a professional workplace and the expectations an employer has for employees. After their training this past summer, students worked at numerous Jackson-area organizations and businesses, including University Medical Center, Barksdale Cadillac and The Clarion-Ledger.
We were so proud that a program participant, Tegi Jenkins, was one of several people profiled in the New Year’s Day edition of The Clarion-Ledger. Please take a moment to read the story here.
Our staff held an informal Christmas luncheon late last week, and we were reflecting on the past year and the good things happening at Operation Shoestring. One of our program directors told us a great story that we wanted to share with you.
An elementary school student named Sentriz was part of our Project KIDS after-school program last academic year. Because of some transition in his home life, Sentriz didn’t officially register for Project KIDS when this 2009-2010 school year began last August. But he didn’t want to miss a day at Shoestring, so he walked to our building after the first day of school at Galloway Elementary School. When our project coordinator noticed that we had one child too many, she approached Sentriz and said that she’d love to have him join us, but that his parents had to register him.
To her surprise, nine-year-old Sentriz was back at Shoestring that same afternoon! He had walked home just around the corner, gotten his mother and walked her right back to our Project KIDS after-school classrooms so that he could immediately get back to his school work and to the learning opportunities that we offer! He obviously wanted to be a part of the Spanish classes, arts instruction, academic reinforcement and character education that Shoestring’s Project KIDS ministry provides every school day and most of the summer.
I think Sentriz’s story illustrates perfectly the drive that so many of our children display and the value that they place on the nurturing and support they receive at Operation Shoestring. We can’t thank you enough for helping us provide this to them.
