APRIL-MAY 2000

FACULTY TUTORS, MENTORS

D'ALEMBERTE

By Dana Peck
Special to the Florida State Times

Granted Sandy D'Alemberte, president of Florida State University, and Bill Montford, Leon County school superintendent, are busy men.
Granted faculty, staff and students are busy, too.

Nevertheless, D'Alemberte, Montford and a group of FSU employees and students made time in February to be trained as tutors for elementary pupils.

"I can't encourage other people to do it and not do it myself," D'Alemberte said. "I'll learn something. It may even help me be a better grandfather."

Florida State's volunteer experiment involves the efforts of many:
· Seasoned student volunteers from Florida State's Center for Civic Education and Service help train Florida State faculty and staff volunteers.
· School personnel in the Leon County schools arrange places and times for the volunteer lessons, and Florida State's Laura Hassler oversees the faculty and staff involvement.

In February, the seasoned and fledgling volunteers gathered around a massive table in the wood-paneled president's conference room to be trained for their work.

The volunteers include professors of psychology, engineering and education, administrators, staff and students.

The trainees were quick with correct responses in their mock volunteer-tutor setting.

"Say m, mmmmmh," said tutor Karen Carver, a graduate student in special education.

"Mmmmmmh," said the new volunteers, mimicking the hypothetical pupils.

"Good job," Carver praised.

"Now say fuh," she said, pointing to the letter f. "Fuh."
"Fuh," the class responded.

"Good job," Carver repeated.

After practicing the lesson of letter sounds, based on the America Reads program, Greg Sieman, also a special education graduate student, prepped the class on ways to reward and correct young children.
Sieman instructed his class to give sunshine stickers to students when they reach 100-percent mastery of a skill.

If the students fail to give the right answers, Sieman recommended: "Say 'my turn. Let me have a crack at it.'"

Some of the volunteers indicated they were apprehensive about making the first trip to Caroline Brevard, the Tallahassee elementary school where they will work about one hour a week.

"Will one of you be sitting with us when we first start this?" asked Montford, "I feel a little cold."
"You'll be an expert in no time," assured Lisha Crider, a seasoned volunteer student.

Then Crider added, "I feel kind of funny telling the superintendent not to worry."
The Florida State volunteers will be part of America Reads, a program that has shown incredible success, Sieman said.

Among those who signed up was Jim Melton, president of the FSU Alumni Association. Melton said his volunteer work was prompted by work with Seminole clubs.

"Seminole clubs do these types of things," he said.

For more information, call Florida State's Center for Civic Education and Service at 644-3342, or your local school district.

Send a letter to the Editor:fstimes@unicomm.fsu.edu

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