Tri County TeamMates Chapter: READ Nebraska Grant
For the 2024-2025 school year, the Tri County TeamMates chapter has elected to be part of the READ Nebraska program.
The READ Nebraska program is a grant signed into legislation by Governor Pillen with the primary goal of expanding mentorships throughout the state of Nebraska to improve the reading levels of elementary students. To this end, the TeamMates Mentoring Program has a goal of matching 800 new students statewide in grades 3-5 to improve literacy through mentoring. The national TeamMates office has partnered with Link2Literacy to bridge the literacy gap. Each student in the program will receive a tote of really fun books based on a topic of interest to keep at home to read; Mrs. Katz is working diligently to pair tote books with the accelerated reading system. There is also another selection of books, games and activities for the mentoring pairs to do together during their meetups. Students who are already part of the Tri County TeamMates chapter in grades 3-5 may qualify to participate in this program based off of their current reading proficiency scores. In addition to the 1-1 grant support of this program, there are other opportunities to engage and benefit non-TeamMates students with special programming and other learning encounters.
READ Nebraska will provide additional support to elementary students specifically grades 3-5, who to no fault of their own, may be scoring below reading proficiency. Due to COVID, literacy is a nationwide issue, and we are in a unique period in time. Mentoring naturally improves the grades, attendance and behavior of students so we expect with some intentionality around literacy great things will happen for students.
Our Tri County chapter currently has 50 matches with more students waiting to be matched. While we will to strive for quality matches for any student who wants one regardless of grade, age or proficiency. This is a unique opportunity to provide specific support to elementary students as part of a collective effort to improve literacy. As a chapter, we’re so excited to be able to bring this opportunity to our students and our school.
If your child is in grades 3-5 and already part of the TeamMates program, they may qualify for this opportunity. Assistant Program Coordinator Erica Barela and librarian Mrs. Katz are working together to identify students who qualify for this opportunity based on their accelerated reading proficiency scores.
At TeamMates, our mission is to positively impact the world by inspiring students to reach their full potential through mentoring. Mentors come from all walks of life. To be a mentor, all you have to do is be there. Find more information about how to become a mentor, contact Program Coordinator Dave Rosenbaum at 55dlrose@gmail.com.
Tri County TeamMates Chapter: READ Nebraska Grant
For the 2024-2025 school year, the Tri County TeamMates chapter has elected to be part of the READ Nebraska program.
