Meet a volunteer: Mary Lucid
This year, teacher Sam Davis had his hands full: his fourth period class
at Balboa High School was crammed with nearly forty 10th graders, many
of whom had individual reading and writing challenges and a large number
of whom were special education students mainstreamed into a non-special
education class. When volunteer Mary Lucid heard about the class’s needs,
she eagerly offered a helping hand.
According to Sam, Mary never backed down from a challenge: “The first day, I pointed out 10 students that I was most hopeful Mary could help with. Mary dove right in. Within two weeks she had made contact with each student and started the process of building trust. I noticed right away she would sit with the students, rather than at the front of the class, moving around the room each day in order to see the class from their perspective.
For several students, particularly students with reading and writing challenges who were often behind in work and who were not passing, this [one-on-one] contact and help was invaluable. Simply put, several of these students turned in their first essays of the year, raised their grades considerably, passed the semester and developed a much stronger connection to both the class and the literature itself.”
As a classroom volunteer, Mary really made the effort to get to know the students she worked with. She strove to understand the individual learning challenges facing each student, as well as details like their test score history, home life, economic status and legal troubles. Mary engaged in the coursework right along with the students – she listened to the lessons, did homework assignments, wrote essays, and took tests so she could understand exactly what the class was going through and where they might get hung up. Sam says Mary’s “emotional intelligence and ability to ‘read’ students and to attune that understanding towards finding a way to help a student read, write, and comprehend difficult literature and motivate themselves” is what makes her a true asset to his classroom and to his students.
