What is This Thing Called L.O.V.E.?

Project L.O.V.E. stands for Let Older Volunteers Educate. More than 140 very committed, (mainly retired) older volunteers help students in Prince Edward Island schools with their school work, usually in that most important area, reading.

Volunteers go to their school once a week, spending between an hour and a whole morning (or afternoon) in the school. They usually help one student at a time, listening and coaching them with words, reading aloud to model good pronunciation and expression for them, helping with classroom projects or to get caught up on missed assignments.

Teachers whose students work with the Project L.O.V.E. volunteers all agree: Their students benefit greatly from this help, gaining self-confidence through the interest shown in them by the volunteers.

To volunteers who are returning to school this fall, Welcome Back! And best wishes for a successful year, helping Island students achieve success.

Evaluation Project Update

One of the projects carried out by the L.O.V.E. Committee was an evaluation. Volunteers, classroom teachers and principals were interviewed to determine the impact of the project on the participants.

This evaluation is being carried out with the financial assistance of the National Literacy Secretariat, for which the Committee is very grateful.

Committee members would also like to thank all those who participated in the interviews and gave us their insights into the project, and suggestions for improvement.

At present, our Chair, Bernice Bell, is analysing the data collected, and will be writing a report encompassing her findings from the data. In the meantime, your valuable suggestions will be implemented, where possible, to improve the project this year.

Let's Spread Some of That L.O.V.E. Around!

In the interviews conducted at the end of last year, one single need seemed to be identified in school after school: We Need More Volunteers! In some schools, only one or two volunteers are working, and many children could use the individualized attention and support that volunteers provide.

In other schools, there are many volunteers - and some schools even report having ENOUGH volunteers! In those cases, more volunteers could provide substitutes for emergencies, or they could go to other schools.

While all volunteers are helping to recruit their friends and acquaintances, still more volunteers are needed. A promotional campaign is underway which will include radio and television advertisements explaining about the project and showing how to become involved.

A toll-free number will be set up so those living outside Charlottetown may call for information on projects in their area for free. In this way, we hope to strengthen projects in schools which need more volunteers, re-start the project in schools where it once was, and even open new projects in schools which are not now participating.

If anyone knows of others who would like to become involved, please call the number at the top of the newsletter (902-675-4791) or bring them in to the school to talk with the coordinating teacher. If there is no project in their community's school, it would be best to call our coordinator, Mary Burke, at the above number to begin a new project.

June Gathering: Report on Findings.

Those who attended know that the gathering at the Carrefour in June is not just a chance to get together for a meal and to celebrate the end of another L.O.V.E. year: Volunteers are expected to work!

This year, volunteers and teachers present at the gathering were asked to share their insights into six "Case Studies". These were actual situations which have arisen in the project. Discussions on the situations were held in small groups, and policies were developed to help volunteers deal with these and similar situations which may arise.

These policies will be incorporated into the Captain's Manual and will also reproduced here in the newsletter so that all volunteers may benefit from them. Because there is not room for all case studies and responses in this newsletter, the remaining ones will be included in the next newsletter.

Case Study #1:

When you praise your student, you tell him to be sure to tell his mother how well he did with his reading. He tells you that she probably won't care, she doesn't want to be bothered with things like this, and most days she still isn't out of bed when he gets home from school.

Questions:

1. What should you do with this information?
2. What should you say to the child?
3. What should you NOT do?

Volunteers Responses:

1. Tell the Resource Teacher or Teacher Co-ordinator in the school. This is confidential information. The teacher may well already know this but you should tell him/her anyway. Tell nobody else!
2. "Well, I think you're wonderful" would be a good comment.
3. You may want to give the student a note to take home to the child's parent or guardian if you have good comments to make. This will show your interest and your praise would be good for the child's self-esteem.

Case Study # 2:

You have been working closely with the classroom teacher of all of your students. You offer to help with anything that she might need. She thinks for a minute, then asks you to mark a set of test papers for her.

Questions:

1. Should you agree to do this, or not?
2. If you don't believe that you should be doing this, how would you tell the teacher?
3. What could you do in this situation?

Volunteers' Responses:

1. You should not agree to do this. Perhaps you should not offer to volunteer to help with just anything, as you are there to concentrate on the children.
2. Be polite, but suggest that this is not our function. Suggest that the teacher talk to the teacher coordinator, and you talk to him/her too.
3. It is important that you not be seen to be taking over the teacher role. However, in the case of a test which is simple right/wrong answers (for example, math) you MAY wish to help. It depends on your relationship with the teacher. However, you should be there to work with the students when they are there. What you do on your own time (after the children are gone, or at recess, for example) is your business.

The remaining case studies will appear in the next issue of the LOVE Letter. If you can't wait to know what the rest of the studies were, see your School Captain (the volunteer who manages the project at your school). She will have them in her manual.

Computer Challenge

If there are volunteers out there who are comfortable with computers OR have good editing skills, and are willing to work with high school students, we have a challenge for you. A Charlottetown high school teacher would like to have some retired volunteers work with a group of students to produce a school magazine which would be published on the Internet. It is not necessary to have Internet experience - the teacher (and the students) will provide that.

This would be an opportunity for volunteers to help some older students get experience in producing writing for publication, and the volunteers involved could learn a lot of new skills as well.

If you are interested in taking up this challenge, please contact the Project L.O.V.E. coordinator at the number on the header.

For a copy of "The L.O.V.E. Letter" send an e-mail to burkhorn@isn.net, or write to P.O. Box 325 CORNWALL PEI C0A 1H0.