FARMINGTON – Changing the life of a child can take as little as 15 minutes, according to University of Maine at Farmington educator Kathryn Will-Dubyak. 15 minutes, and a little social media sharing, that is.
The Literacy Education professor took on the Read to ME challenge presented by the Maine Department of Education in order to highlight the importance of reading to her early childhood education students. The statewide initiative lasted for the entire month of Feb. and involved each participant reading for 15 minutes either to or with a child before sharing a picture or video to social media. Participants were then asked to nominate someone else to take on the challenge, with the hopes of a simple 15 minutes multiplying each time a new challenge was made. The department’s website offered tips on reading aloud with children, as well as book recommendations and hashtags that could be used to track the ripple effect of the challenge.
Here in Farmington, Will-Dubyak, students and faculty from UMF logged a grand total of 4,340 minutes during the one-month period, not counting the minutes logged by nominees out of town. The group worked specifically with children at W.G. Mallett School, logging in minutes before, during and after the school day.
“Being read to offers young children an opportunity to see the variety of people who love to read- that it’s not just their teachers,” Will-Dubyak said. “It allows them to gain perspective.”
Will-Dubyak and her students roped in a wide range of readers for the challenge, including Director of the Teaching & Learning Collaborative Ashley Montgomery. Readers were encouraged to bring in their favorite childhood books to share with the Mallett School students before nominating someone else in their lives for the challenge.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to work together- to not just be the university, but to be a part of this community,” Will-Dubyak said.
This is great! It would be nice if UMF collaborated with the other elementary schools in our district instead of just Mallett every time.
Hi Zooey and other interested folks,
A quick plug to let you know that UMF volunteers are found in many of our schools. UMF students serve as 4-H STEM ambassadors at Cascade Brook School, they serve as mentors at Mt. Blue Middle School through the Teen Voices program, and we are piloting a program this semester to have Lunch Buddies at Academy Hill School, just to name a few of the places where RSU 9 has UMF volunteers. There are UMF volunteers at pretty much every school in our district! You are correct that the majority of UMF volunteers do end up at Mallett School, mostly because many UMF students don’t have transportation to get them to our other schools.
This Read to ME initiative is so awesome and we are very thankful that Kathryn and her students initiated this program!
Erica Emery
RSU 9 Volunteer Coordinator