Email from a Principal

That's Shandy with Evion, a young reader at Hendricks Academy, back in 2004. I can still remember how earnest Evion was when reading aloud. He'd be all smiles though when it came time to have Shandy do a trick.

Hendricks was our very first SitStayRead school and it is such a treat for the volunteers and dogs to return there each year. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to get this email from Principal Perisin.

"Here at Hendricks we are working to ensure that our students will have a world class education and you are helping me to fulfill that goal. Next year there will be some changes and we hope that you will still be working with us. You have been an anchor for our literacy program and we want you to continue the work."

Thank you Principal Perisin for your kind words--you can count on us to continue making reading fun for the fabulous students at Hendricks!

An Email from a Program Leader

Jess Biscamp, one of our fabulous SitStayRead program leaders, made our day with this email to her team of volunteers in Ms. Pierre's class at Sumner Academy. We are so lucky to get to work with such great kids, teachers, and volunteers.

Hello, Sumner volunteers,

I didn't want to wait until next week to share Mrs. Pierre's good news and thanks with you. She pulled me aside during the program today and let me know that since we started coming, her students have been asking her if they can take home three and four books to read on the weekends. She said this is a big change in how much enthusiasm they have toward reading.

She also showed me the improvement in some of their reading fluency scores (i.e., DIBELS testing). Many of the students started the year in the 45-70 words-per-minute range and have now reached 90-120 words-per-minute! They are considered at grade level if they reach 90-words-per-minute at the beginning of third grade, and many of the students have already surpassed that in second grade. I cannot begin to express to you just how thankful Mrs. Pierre is for all the time and effort you are putting into helping her students improve their reading and writing; she said that the added excitement of new people and dogs has really pushed the students to do their absolute best. She was positively joyous while telling me about it!

Thank you all for the effort and time you put in to help these students. You are making a huge difference in their lives.

Happy Reading!

Jess Biscamp

What Are You Thankful For?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Of course food is a big part of the reason--turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie. YUM! But I also like the reminder to be thankful.

Today I am so thankful for the time I get to spend with the wonderful SitStayRead students, volunteers and dogs.

Usually I'm in the office, but last week Bandit and I were last minute subs at Lowell School and got to read with Leonardo (seen here) and his classmates in Ms. Cavallery's room. As you can tell from that big smile, we had a great time.

Then today I helped out at Hendricks Academy--our very first SSR school. I always love going back there and it was a joy to see the excitement of the kids as they read with the dogs and volunteers. There was a substitute teacher today and she went out of her way to tell us how impressed she was with the session saying, "You really keep the kids engaged."

Many thanks to everyone who makes SSR possible. I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

A Surprise from Ms. Schmidt's Class!

This week we received a delightful surprise from Ms. Schmidt's 2nd graders at Lowell Elementary. The students loved Sit Stay Read SO much that they each wrote their own story about their favorite memory with the dogs and volunteers.

Ms. Schmidt was kind enough to bind the heartfelt stories into a book for Sit Stay Read to keep. What a special treat to have these wonderful stories in the office! Take a look through a few of our personal favorites from the kids. The illustrations are fantastic, too!

Thank you Ms. Schmidt and all of the students for putting a big smile on our faces!

See Sit Stay Read on TV!

We were so excited to be included in this ABC-News piece featuring our favorite guest reader team, Beth Finke and her seeing eye dog, Hanni.

The students are enthralled as Beth reads an excerpt from her book, "Beth and Hanni, Safe and Sound" to demonstrate how she's learning to read Braille. After that, Sit Stay Read volunteer, Tara Gaffney, reads the rest of the book to the class and then Beth answers questions from the kids.

School Programs Underway!

It was a busy time at the Sit Stay Read office as we prepared for the mid-October start of our school programs. But all the hard work was worth it when we saw the smiling faces of our students, so glad to have us back in the classroom.

We're in seven schools this year and, as of yesterday, all 15 classes have had their first visit! Yeah teams!

It was great to see old and new friends. Here's our group of volunteers getting ready for their visit to Faraday (only one dog attends the first day dog safety session). That's Allison, our fabulous intern, holding the classroom sign, Jennifer Cristina, Carley and Calvin, Guy Franklin, and Melissa Kennedy, a special visitor from Australia.

Melissa, an English teacher at Scots College, is visiting reading programs in the US to research ways to engage more boys in reading. She was blown away by our program and felt that it equally engages boys and girls.

Garden of Eden at Hendricks

That's me with Miss Alice last Wednesday at a wonderful urban oasis just southwest of Hendricks Academy (you can see the sign from the Hendricks parking lot).

Turns out one of the Hendricks teachers and her husband started this block-long nature center and plant a vegetable garden for the community every year. Bus loads of students from schools around the city come to visit and enjoy the peaceful setting.

Be sure to stop by next time you're in the neighborhood.

Five Years at Hendricks!

If it's Wednesday, Sit Stay Read must be at Hendricks. It's hard to believe but the 2007-08 school year marks five years of bringing reading fun to the students at Hendricks Academy! Wow, time really does fly.

At this Wednesday's Reading Rewards celebration nearly 75 kids received books and Reading Fun Packs to honor their independent reading (that's some of the students modeling their back packs while Tibbie and Seth look on). We also took this opportunity to present a plaque to school principal Ms. Smith to honor five years of partnership in literacy. That's Tida, SSR dog extraordinaire, looking on.

We're still busy celebrating and getting 220 Fun Packs into eager hands but as soon as we have a few moments to spare we'll post photos of more smiling faces from all the schools.