During this time of COVID-19, our volunteer readers continue to give back to the community by connecting with children virtually.
HONOLULU, HAWAII. Patricia Munoz “Aunty Pat”, Volunteer: Reading to children via Zoom has been both a little awkward and remarkable. Kristen Eastevedt (Teacher of the Year in her District!) does an impressive job of scheduling and corralling her students for Zoom story time with me. I join ongoing classes twice on the day I visit and Kristen helps facilitate the greetings, names and Q&As afterwards.
Zoom allows the children to get up close to and be curious about the books I'm reading because I am able to fill their home screen with the book pages while I read and am visible on the side bar. I do this by uploading the book I read onto my computer and screen sharing the book pages. If the kids want the pictures/pages bigger or smaller I can accommodate this. To accomplish this I use the feature that you showed me to scan and upload the books onto my desktop! Thank you Catherine
While I miss the person-to-kid interaction and connections that happen in the classroom, I find the level of engagement (by the kids) with the screen encouraging, especially if the child is shy to begin with. So I try to share big colorful books and use make believe ("hey, can you reach in and touch the dragon on the screen?") when I read.
Another down side of Zoom reading is that I only see or engage with a small group of students (3-10) and they are easily distracted by the activity around them @home. But this too has had some plus sides when parents or older siblings get involved.
MESSAGE: From Hauula Elementary- Ms. Kristen Eastvedt -PreK Teacher
This experience has been such a joy for my student's and me! Story time with Aunty Pat is always an anticipated event. The students are very engaged and love her stories and "friends" that she brings along during story time. I teach at a Title 1 school, and the student's have benefitted from the books that are donated. It is such a special time when they receive their very own books from Aunty Pat to keep and share with their families.
During COVID 19 school closures, Aunty Pat has joined our Webex meetings to continue story time. The students are highly engaged as usual! She selects the perfect books that students are interested in. They spark their imagination and students are able to make connections and inferences.
Mahalo nui loa for this amazing program that helps bring books alive to students, even during this pandemic.
