{"id":11779,"date":"2021-10-08T09:52:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T13:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=11779"},"modified":"2021-10-08T09:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T13:53:51","slug":"problem-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=11779","title":{"rendered":"Problem solved"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a warm morning in July, Olivia <\/span>Williams \u201923 is huddled at a table under a pavilion at the Boys & Girls Club of Mercer County. She is flanked on either side by Cameron and Derek, two rising third-graders from Trenton. But the agenda today isn\u2019t bound to the table. One moment Williams is going through lessons in a textbook, the next she\u2019s sitting on the concrete floor, chalk in hand, drawing a number line to help her explain math problems.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there\u2019s a learning curve for both Williams and her students. An art education major, Williams took a course last spring titled \u201cCurriculum in Art Education,\u201d which in any other year would have provided her some days to observe a classroom inside a local public school. But the COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from having that valuable experience last school year. So when she heard about the School of Education\u2019s ambitious new summer tutoring program, aimed at helping K\u20135 students make up for lessons they might have missed during the pandemic, Williams jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n

She is one of 35 TCNJ students who joined what is known as the New Jersey Summer Tutoring Corps. \u201cI thought it was a great opportunity to get my feet wet with teaching,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n

When asked what she\u2019s learned about teaching this summer \u2014 her first working directly with students \u2014 Williams cracks a smile. \u201cWhat haven\u2019t I learned?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The $2.4 million tutoring program <\/span>took place over July and August, with 100 educators working with 2,000 students preparing to enter kindergarten through sixth grade. The program\u2019s 23 sites \u2014 YMCAs, YWCAs, and Boys & Girls Clubs \u2014 stretched across 18 of New Jersey\u2019s 21 counties. Funding came from a $2 million grant from the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, a private initiative co-led by First Lady Tammy Murphy, and a $400,000 grant from the Overdeck Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

The idea for the tutoring corps originated with Laura Overdeck, who, with her husband, John, created the family foundation 10 years ago. Overdeck is well versed in how kids learn. She is the founder and president of Bedtime Math, a nonprofit organization that provides parents of kids from 3 to 9 years old with a daily math problem.<\/p>\n

Overdeck, well aware of TCNJ\u2019s stellar reputation for training tomorrow\u2019s teachers, approached President Kathryn Foster about her idea for a summer tutoring program for students who might have struggled to keep up with their studies during the pandemic. Foster then approached Suzanne McCotter, the dean of TCNJ\u2019s School of Education, who took the idea and, with help from across the campus and around the state, molded it into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to choose where we were going to focus,\u201d McCotter says of planning for the summer tutoring corps. Ultimately, they settled on mathematics instruction for two reasons. One, it\u2019s the subject most students had trouble keeping up with during the pandemic. And second, state math scores were already concerning pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n

In 2019, only 48% of the state\u2019s fourth graders were at or above proficient levels in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Those shortcomings were exacerbated during the pandemic, when students spent months at a time learning remotely, many struggling to grasp the virtual lessons. \u201cThe idea of a tutoring program really resonated with me,\u201d McCotter says. \u201cIt is a proven strategy to reach young learners, and I also knew our students at the college could help.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps McCotter’s most pivotal <\/span>decision was hiring Katherine Bassett as the program\u2019s director. Bassett, a former New Jersey Teacher of the Year \u2014 she won the award in 1980 while a media specialist and librarian in Ocean City \u2014 has served as CEO of an organization that trains education leaders and develops model standards for teachers.<\/p>\n

It was Bassett\u2019s idea to refer to the young learners in the program not as students<\/em> but as scholars<\/em>. \u201cIt sends a strong message that the students are valued,\u201d Bassett says, \u201cand that they have strong aptitudes to engage in learning and that we have expectations of them and they have responsibilities when it comes to learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bassett worked closely with the site coordinators \u2014 the liaisons between TCNJ and the 23 teaching locations \u2014 including Joan Tucker, who oversaw Williams and the other tutors at the Trenton site. Tucker, a Trenton public school teacher for 21 years, saw firsthand the value of the tutoring corps, as she watched students who had declared themselves \u201cmath dumb\u201d begin to grasp concepts that had eluded them during the school year. \u201cI noticed that as children interacted with the tutors,\u201d she says, \u201cthey started to comprehend what they misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the tutoring corps was <\/span>designed with young students in mind, it had the secondary benefit of giving future teachers like Williams the experience of working with students in small-group or one-on-one settings \u2014 something these soon-to-be educators were deprived of during the pandemic. \u201cWe wanted them to get more experience working with actual kids in person,\u201d McCotter says.<\/p>\n

The tutors \u2014 students and recent graduates from colleges across New Jersey \u2014 spent the first week of July learning about the curriculum they would be teaching from TCNJ math professors. They also received general classroom instruction from Bassett. For Williams, one of the most enjoyable lessons learned was being reassured of her decision to become a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been ridiculously helpful,\u201d Williams says of her training, \u201cjust in learning how to hold myself as a teacher, how to conduct a classroom, and affirming that teaching is something I want to do and am capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, she says she\u2019s learned to recognize that all students learn in different ways and at different paces. The key to connecting with them, she says, is to identify and highlight their strengths. \u201cEvery student is capable of learning,\u201d she says. \u201cYou just have to meet them halfway.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Boys & Girls Club, Williams normally tutored two students at a time, and she\u2019s learned to pair students according to how well each one motivates the other, a sometimes incongruous calculus that might move her to pair an overactive student with one who is more serene. She\u2019s learned which students do better while seated and stationary and which do better when moving from spot to spot. These are lessons Williams will carry into her career as a teacher.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McCotter hopes to extend the program <\/span>into the foreseeable future. \u201cWe don\u2019t see these problems going away,\u201d she says. \u201cThe differences in achievement were illuminated by the pandemic, but there are always going to be kids who will benefit from one-on-one or small-group tutoring. And now we have a way to address that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Williams, she has enjoyed watching her students make connections with the curriculum over the course of the summer, gradually evolving toward their own \u201caha\u201d moments. \u201cJust being with them, seeing their eyes light up when they understand something, knowing I was able to communicate that to them, it\u2019s been very rewarding,\u201d she says. \u201cBut they\u2019re also having fun with what they\u2019re doing, and that\u2019s made me feel fulfilled with what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in her tutoring session with Cameron and Derek, Cameron asks if he can use a piece of chalk to draw something on the pavilion floor. Williams gives her blessing, and a moment later an excited Cameron squeals, \u201cMs. Olivia, look what I drew!\u201d Williams turns to glimpse a message that would surely affirm for any aspiring young teacher the soundness of her career choice. In green chalk, Cameron has written: \u201cMath Rocks!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Picture: Peter Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey\u2019s youngest students count on TCNJ\u2019s summer math program to bring them up to speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":296,"featured_media":11792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11801,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11779\/revisions\/11801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}