{"id":3212,"date":"2015-02-24T18:04:25","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T22:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2015-03-10T14:16:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T18:16:12","slug":"cookes-latest-program-empowers-esl-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/cookes-latest-program-empowers-esl-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooke’s latest program ’empowers’ ESL parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the best way to help is just by making yourself available. At Cooke Elementary, that was certainly the case as staff reached out to its English as a Second Language (ESL) community.<\/p>\n

Teachers at Cooke Elementary were noticing some of their students were not getting help with their homework at night. Parents would talk to the school\u2019s staff about the need for English classes\u2026not to mention, a way to be able to get to those classes.<\/p>\n

Cooke\u2019s administrative team knew that as its Hispanic population continued to grow, the school\u2019s outreach efforts would also have to increase. Ready to help, teachers and administrators held brainstorming sessions at the school. They reached out to the PTA and two local churches and together they launched its latest program, “Empowering ESL Parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dulce<\/a>
Dulce Garcia and Adriana Barajas work and review a story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The program features 16 evening classes held over an eight-week period. In class, parents receive instruction on English from teacher volunteers, working in small groups that focus on specific needs.<\/p>\n

All the while, the children go to a nearby church were volunteers work with them on literacy and math skills.<\/p>\n

Laura Beth Lawver, a first grade teacher at Cooke and the school\u2019s Partners in Education coordinator, worked with Virginia Beach United Methodist Church to use one of its buses to pick up and take home participants. In addition, assistant principal Frank Gillikin, Jr. reached out to Beach Church for a place for the children to stay while their parents were in class.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Sheryl Cholish demonstrates a word match with Midian Pena and Maria Solis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFrom the feedback that we have received from the participants, I can truly say that everyone involved has benefited,\u201d Gillikin said. \u201cThe children love the time at Beach Church with Pastor Brockway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillikin says each week the program has more participants than the week before, and that the results from the program have been staggering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parents don\u2019t want to leave even though they have homework. They say the time is not long enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThe adults are beginning to feel more comfortable engaging their own students in conversation and English has become the language during homework time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/a>
Catherine De La Cruz-Garcia enjoys literacy activities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most importantly, though, the program is connecting the school with the community and strengthening the relationship between parents, teachers and those just wanting to see the best for the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur program has provided an opportunity to meet our identified goals and then some.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the best way to help is just by making yourself available. At Cooke Elementary, that was certainly the case as staff reached out to its English as a Second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30,31,45],"class_list":["post-3212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-cooke-elementary","tag-literacy","tag-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3217,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions\/3217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}