by Lindsey Edwards
Woodrow Wilson Community School Coordinator
Woodrow Wilson Elementary teachers and Hser Ner Moo staff are working together to improve student outcomes! It is fair to say that teachers are heroes in the communities they serve, but the teachers at Woodrow Wilson Elementary truly LIVE UNITED!
All of the kindergarten and first grade teachers volunteered their time, after school hours, to visit the Hser Ner Moo Neighborhood Center, where the majority of Woodrow WIlson refugee students attend an afterschool program. The teachers wanted to visit Hser Ner Moo to speak with parents in order to build relationships and strengthen their ties to the community. It was a great opportunity for the parents to see how committed the teachers are to their students’ academic success, and for the teachers to see where their students live and what type of programming is available to them after school. It was such a great experience that the teachers invited the Hser Ner Moo afterschool program staff to come and observe them in the classroom.
One week later, the afterschool staff spent two hours rotating through the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. They were able to watch the teachers give small group instruction on “blending” and “sentence formation” techniques, both of which help students learn to read. The teachers even gathered supplies and additional lesson plans for the center staff to take back with them. Now the afterschool staff will have access to the same materials used by teachers in the classroom! Both the teachers and center staff are committed to aligning out-of-school time with in-class instruction, as it is important to them that their students have access to high-quality afterschool programming offsite.
The students’ eyes lit up when they saw their afterschool instructors entering their classrooms at school. At first they were so surprised to see the center staff during the school day but it was a great way to show the students that their teachers and afterschool instructors are willing to work together in order to support their academic achievement!
Woodrow Wilson teachers and the Hser Ner Moo staff are genuinely dedicated to changing the odds for kids in South Salt Lake! Thank you for your commitment to improving academic outcomes for students and for LIVING UNITED!
