Mercedes’ passion for helping kids learn ignited more than a decade ago when she became a 阅读队 导师. 如今，澳门皇冠国际官方APP客户端是她的生命和目标. 她一直是圣. 保罗公立学校, a servant leader intern in the district’s Freedom School program, 一个作家, 澳门皇冠国际官方APP客户端媒体的游戏设计师, 还有更多. 她写了三本关于黑人历史的漫画书 黑色通往未来, 黑色的未来, 回到隆多. 查看她的工作 mizzmercedez.com.
是什么让你成为阅读团的一名导师?
I was working jobs to survive, pay the bills, care for my child, make ends meet. My mom found out about 阅读队 和 told me it might help me pay off my student loans.
My son was going into pre-K, so I signed up for the pre-K 阅读队 program [now 早教团我能把他带来. The school I served at was also right across from where my mom worked. 有这样的经历真的很有趣. 令我惊讶的是，我喜欢做家教. 我觉得我有目标.
What was it like to serve with AmeriCorps 和 also be a parent?
Being able to do service 和 have my son there was really meaningful to me. Watching him grow 和 learn – I saw, oh 哇, this really works. Seeing things from a teacher’s lens prepared me to be a mom, too.
你最喜欢的服务回忆是什么?
I loved the trainings that prepared me, teaching alliteration 和 rhyming 和 different word cards. 到今年年底, I was amazed — one little girl who didn’t know what a duck was when we started knew all 26 letter sounds by the end. Seeing the kids’ progress was an amazing feeling — like, 哇, I was influential in their learning experience 和 I helped them grow!
Seeing these little four-year-olds really look up to me, it just really warmed my heart. It sparked something inside of me – I felt like I was dreaming again. I learned a lot of great things 和 really started to get confident about helping kids learn. That opened the door to being hired at the school the following year.
How did 导师ing help prepare you to move into a role at the school?
I was hired as a teacher’s assistant (TA) in special education, assisting the classroom teacher doing behavior management. 我的很多学生都被寄养了, or their parents had passed away or were incarcerated; unfortunate things were happening to them in their home life. 因为很多孩子在学业上落后了, knowing how to 导师 和 work one-on-one with them was really valuable.
当你做家教的时候, you’re giving that student your undivided attention in one-on-one time, 你正在建立一种关系. “你周末过得怎么样?? 你今天做了什么? 学校怎么样??“只是简短的谈话，真正打开了大门. And then once you have that relationship, that’s when the learning really blossoms.
You’re not able to teach anyone without building that relationship. 在任何学校环境中, it’s the person who has the relationship with the kid who is going to make the difference, 这不是职位的问题.
You’ve created a Black history comic book series, educational video series, other learning tools. How did you get the idea to create some of these materials?
我和St. 保罗公立学校 和 did a two-week training in Tennessee. 他们的指导和研讨会非常棒. That’s where I started to really get creative – one year I decorated my room with Minions, 另一个是忍者神龟.
When I was growing up, a lot of times I would be one of the only brown girls in the class. During Black 历史 Month, all eyes would be on me. But in Freedom School, you learn more Black history, other things than just slavery. Black people are inventors, we’ve created a lot of things. 我想知道, what if we start teaching Black history from a positive lens, 它会让我们的孩子在学校感觉良好?
Was there a connection between your 导师ing 和 beginning to create the comic books 和 other materials?
I think just knowing 和 underst和ing the importance of reading. 在下一本漫画书里, 我会用头韵, that’s something that we focused a lot on in pre-K — alliteration 和 rhyming concepts.
One reason why I made the comic books was because our kids, 尤其是黑人和棕色人种的孩子, 没有拿起书来读. Whenever it was reading time, many of them were reading off the iPad. They were having it read to them, so they’re not reading, they’re just listening. I was like, I need to make something that is not on my iPad, so they have to pick it up. 我知道这一代人喜欢漫画小说, 动漫, 所以我说, 好吧, 让我们在他们所在的地方见到他们.
作为澳门皇冠国际官方APP客户端者，我们的工作就是激励. I want to teach things that inspire kids to use their imagination 和 creativity 和 just get their brains moving.
What would you say about serving in AmeriCorps to someone who has an interest but isn’t sure they want to serve?
I would say if you’re looking for a purpose in life — if you just feel like you’re lost, or don’t feel like you have any purpose — I highly recommend that you sign up. A lot of people don’t realize how meaningful serving 和 giving back is, especially to youth. Seeing the growth 和 knowing that you had a part of that will make you feel good. You did something, you were beneficial, you had purpose, you made a difference.
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