Autumn Stories to Warm Your Heart!
–as told by their coordinator
When Jim first asked to mentor, I wasn’t sure it would work because he reads at a low level. He’s a sophomore in the special education classroom. He would be in the Mentoring Room with 3rd graders. Then we added four 2nd grade special ed. students. Jim asked to mentor once a week. So I paired him with Randy, and I could tell that Jim loved working with him. Jim asked if he could mentor more than once a week, and I said yes. Recently he asked if he could take it as a class for high school credit.
Jim told me that he had been mentored in reading, and wanted to help someone like they had helped him. This touched my heart! This is what it’s all about! God is good all the time!
“Football players aren’t the only ones looked up to on Friday nights on that field.”
This is another sweet thing I witnessed at the beginning of the third quarter, after the band’s halftime show tonight. Jim and I were talking when one of the second graders he mentors walked up to him. Jim has been very excited about helping our students improve their reading skills. We paired Jim up with one little boy who has no male role models, and has other challenges to overcome in school.
So Jim’s second grader walked up to him (Jim was still in full band uniform) and looked up with admiring eyes and told Jim that he played “good.” Then the 2nd grader offered Jim a candy from the bag he was carrying. Jim took one, thanking him. The little boy said, “Would you like to walk around with me, buddy?” Jim, with a huge smile, said he had to stay with the band as they were about to begin playing again. This 2nd grader smiled really big, looking at Jim as if he was a rock star.
My heart melted. There is much more than reading intervention that goes on in our room. These two are forming a bond that will positively affect them for quite a while.