By GAIL LABINSKY
For The Beachcomber
It is a privilege to be a teacher, to be witness to and engaged with the development of children.
I recall a moment years back when I was teaching art. A third- grade class happily working away, parent volunteers managing the flow of paints and brushes, everyone on task, then someone noticed the first few flakes drifting down from the sky. Within moments the flakes had multiplied to a white mist and the children collectively gasped, rose from their seats, filed out the art room door and set to spinning, arms wide, eyes open, faces to the sky. No words were spoken, no child asked, no child doubted. I looked at the volunteers and said, “This is why I teach.”
Where else in the working world could I have been witness to that?
There has never been a better time to be a teacher. I am a reading specialist now. In the field of literacy, and for learning behaviors in general, the science has resoundingly caught up with best practices. We know what works for children, and the tools to deliver it are available. Whether instruction is delivered in the general classroom or in a more specialized setting, we know what works.
Being responsible for the more vulnerable learners, having that science and those tools means I can guide the development of literacy skills in the most engaging, targeted and, yes, quantifiable way.
Over the course of years, Partners in Education (PIE) has put those tools — all of them — in my hands.
The LIPS Phoneme Segmenting Program, the Barton Reading and Spelling System, a library of leveled non-fiction texts for partner reading, sets of comprehension skill cards, the list goes on. For reading at Chautauqua Elementary, PIE is building the bridge between what we know can be done and having the tools to do it.
Four years ago PIE purchased The Barton Reading and Spelling System for the Title I reading program. This curriculum, designed to teach reading and spelling to adults and children on the dyslexic spectrum — originally purchased to serve a specific few — has become an effective tool in all primary reading instruction at Chautauqua.
With some coaching, The Barton is delivered individually by parents, grandparents, high school tutors and community members four days a week before and after school.
In the Walk to Read Program, which serves all first through third graders in the straight grades, the Barton multisensory techniques and strategies are used in small groups to establish vowel sounds and spelling rules. The multisensory nature of the program, which will have students chanting, tapping fingers, manipulating tiles, counting sounds on their fingers and writing on white boards, engages young minds and bodies.
Multi-sensory, multi-modal learning is deep learning. Four years ago, there was no pocket in the school system deep enough to purchase this curriculum. PIE stepped forward. Today, this curriculum serves children in every grade level at Chautauqua.
PIE builds bridges. Its mission of supporting innovation empowers teachers to do their very best work, individually and collaboratively. PIE trusts teachers. Receiving a PIE grant is a tangible acknowledgement from the community. Teachers dance little dances by their mailboxes the day the acceptances letters appear. PIE grants are a tangible encouragement to go out there and do your best work for the children of Vashon Island.
The best of what happens at Chautauqua Elementary is supported by PIE. It is a privilege to be a teacher and doubly so to be a teacher on Vashon Island.
— Gail Labinski is a reading specialist at Chautauqua Elementary School.
PIE volunteers will call islanders Oct. 8 to 10 in the organization’s annual phone-a-thon. Donations can also be made online at www.vashonpie.org. For questions, e-mail Ingrid Petersons at Ingrid.M.Petersons@comcast.net.
