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Ready to Learn Providence
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Early this month our 2015/16 AmeriCorps members began their assignments in the field. Some will spend the year in state-funded pre-kindergarten classrooms; others will support the work of our family engagement initiative in which we are bringing Mind in the Making to families and staff in the Providence elementary schools. |
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Mind in the Making
MITM view of childhood appeals to this family from Iraq
"In Iraq, you learn to obey," says Fawaz Francis, who emigrated from Baghdad less than a year ago. "You do what you're told. And most children leave school early to go to work.There's so much I learned [in Mind in the Making] about how you open up a child's mind." Fawaz, who has two young children in the Providence schools, participated in an MITM class this summer along with his wife, sister (who also has two children in the city's schools) and parents.The extended family says the program was particularly useful to them because of the cultural differences between Iraq and the U.S. See their full story here.
This year we are offering MITM to Providence families and school personnel at: William D'Abate, Asa Messer, Dr. Martin Luther King, Vartan Gregorian, George J. West, Frank D. Spaziano and Webster Avenue.
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T.E.A.C.H.Early Childhood
T.E.A.C.H. has helped this educator advance his dream For 30 years Bob Sousa, who never went to college, worked as a bookbinder, a store manager, and in factories. Now in his 50s, he's found his dream job teaching preschool at the Isenberg Early Childhood Center at the JCC in Providence, and, thanks to T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood ® RI, he's halfway through his degree at the Community College of R.I. Read about Bob's journey to the early childhood field here. And check out the box at the end of this newsletter to see if a T.E.A.C.H. scholarship might help you pursue your dreams as well. |
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| | Mirna Carrillo, an assistant teacher in one of our Pre-K classrooms at Heritage Park, gets to know one of her students. |
Pre-Kindergarten
The year gets under way at our three Pre-K classrooms
With the addition of a second pre-kindergarten classroom at Heritage Park YMCA Early Learning Center in Pawtucket, we now have three classrooms that are part of the state-funded project. Our third classroom is in Providence on the CCRI campus. We partner with Heritage Park in the operation of the two rooms there.  Sabrina Strawn and Paula Encisco are the teacher and assistant teacher in the new classroom at Heritage Park. They are assisted by AmeriCorps member Paola Monroy, who floats between the two Pre-K classrooms in the center.
(L-r) Sabrina Strawn and Paula Encisco are pictured here setting up their new classroom the week before the children arrived.
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Attention all early learning programs!
Earn cash award by increasing your rating
Child-care centers, family child-care providers and public schools that increase their BrightStars rating by December 15 are eligible for a Rising Star cash award. Programs that transition to the 2013 BrightStars framework are also eligible. Click the image at right for details. |
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