Author Archive

Name: Robert Oakley
Hometown: New Haven, CT
College and Major: Western Connecticut State University B.S. Computer Science & B.M. Music Performance
Tutoring Site: Bristol
Clubs: 2 Chess Clubs, Math Club II (Multiplication and Division)
Favorite Childhood Book: The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins and The Animorph Series by K.A. Applegate

Working with New Haven Reads this summer has been a wholesome learning experience for both the kids and me! This is my first summer being involved with New Haven Reads. The New Haven Reads mission is nothing new to me being a graduate of Music Haven. The programs are fundamentally identical in their reach to under-represented individuals in the education system and that’s what makes this so enjoyable for me. It feels like home when I get to work with children to show them that they are fully capable. My time at New Haven Reads has solidified a few ideals for me as well. It has proven to me again that the only way children can learn is to give them a space where they feel comfortable, show them that you care about them and their success, and to give no room for negativity and humiliation in the classroom. Mistakes should be encouraged as a natural part of the learning process; if we allow kids to feel bad for making mistakes, they will never feel confident enough to actually try the material.

One of my most memorable experiences working as an intern is definitely the tutoring. I like to make it clear to my kids that it is their time to shine in tutoring; I am only a resource that activates when they need it. Giving that supported independence really made the kids motivated to try and succeed. I tutor these two brothers at Bristol and they really make my week every time I meet with them. I remember one day I was working with a student and I heard some commotion in the background of his audio. I asked what was going on and I got the report that his brother didn’t want to go to his tutoring session because he, the young man I was tutoring, was working with me. I remember in that moment feeling a conflation of emotions and the one that stuck out the most was gratitude. I was so thankful that my teaching was desirable because that meant I had achieved the goals I set: to make a safe space for mistakes and to care about each student I work with to the fullest extent of my power. That is what teaching is about to me and New Haven Reads gave me a platform to do what I love: helping other people see their strengths and overcoming any obstacle or adversity.

A special thank you to First Niagara Foundation in partnership with KeyBank for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Posted in Blog

This summer, enrichment clubs at New Haven Reads have been an entirely new experience for everyone — for the students, the families, the helpers, and even the staff — as they were all carried out remotely.

These enrichment clubs range from Chess to Origami, and the New Haven Reads Interns and Fellows have been responsible for planning and leading them.

Natalia Miasek, a rising senior at the University of New Haven and Summer Fellow at New Haven Reads, had some worries about online learning initially. “As someone who prefers face-to-face contact and feels more confident when working in person…I originally thought that Zoom would be difficult to work with and I wouldn’t be able to make personal connections over a webcam,” she shared. “I was proven wrong about using Zoom and was able to get close with my students and the staff at New Haven Reads.”

Natalia, Her Student, and Elena (A Summer Intern)

Everyday, she is excited to see her students and volunteers in the two clubs she leads, Math I and Make and Take. But tutoring sessions have also been significant to her throughout the summer. “One of the most special moments was with a student I tutored who came from a different culture and loved sharing about it,” Natalia remembered. “She shared very personal stories and we talked about her culture…I looked forward to learning something new when talking to her.”

Robert Oakley, a Summer Intern attending Western Connecticut State University, felt that the tutoring sessions were the best part of his experience. “There are these students who like to fight for my attention because they’re brothers, they’re very sweet and they’re always, always prepared to get their work done,” he said.

Robert and His Student

Another Summer Fellow, Abigail Eswarakuma, thought that the day-to-day moments on Zoom were the most meaningful. These moments, she said, range from the students getting a math problem right or reading a bigger chapter book, or even just sounding out a word, after which they “jump up in excitement!”

Picture Created by Abigail and Her NHR Student

Undoubtedly, this summer had its fair share of challenges at the start, but through hours of planning, brainstorming, and Zooming, these challenges quickly dissipated, replaced by hundreds of positive interactions and memories.

Natalia ended with a comment that in many ways represents the surprising capacity for connection that distance learning still allowed for: “We dance to celebrate each question she gets right, and we do a lot of dancing during our sessions!”

Our Summer Intern positions are funded by the First Niagara Foundation in partnership with KeyBank. Be on the lookout for an upcoming blog series from our 4 interns.

Posted in Blog, Home Page

Although all of the programs at New Haven Reads — from the daily tutoring sessions to the summer camps — are now running smoothly, the transition to online distance learning was no small feat.

In fact, Pre-K & Kindergarten Director Allison Pittman at first wondered if it would even be possible to plan and execute an enjoyable and effective distance learning camp for her students.

“Having done distance learning with my Kindergarten students in the Spring [as a Kindergarten teacher], I thought distance learning might be a disaster,” she said.

But it has been anything but a disaster! “It’s actually going really, really well,” Allison shared. Students are learning five days a week, participating in activities as varied as scavenger hunts to letters of the day. There are also informative presentations for the students. Every Friday, Norwalk Aquarium joins the Zoom session to talk about the aquarium and about ocean-life. And thanks to a generous grant from the Women’s Seamen’s Friend Society of Connecticut, our students received six brand new ocean related books, ocean-themed backpacks, and more.

These backpacks, along with other supplies, were actually an important part of the success of the virtual format. The teachers packed these drawstring backpacks with their workbooks, pencils, and everything else they might need for camp. By asking that they keep it by their computer each day, they were able to provide some much-needed structure and organization for students.

Ultimately, although the backpacks and supplies were helpful, the key to the camp’s success came down to one thing: the educators. In talking with Allison, it was clear how much time, effort, and meticulous planning was required.

“Generally, our teachers plan as they go based on the kids, but we had to adjust that model,” she explained. They had to pre-plan everything — including the new activities like scavenger hunts and dance videos — in order to send all the assignments out beforehand, so that the students would have them at their home at the start of camp.

We are so thankful to our staff at New Haven Reads whose dedication and commitment have made the online transition possible for our students!

Posted in Blog

New Haven Reads will continue with distance learning in the fall.

We have explored various options for the fall and ultimately decided to remain online for the new semester.

The safety of our students, volunteers, and staff remains

our priority and we have been so pleased with how successful our online tutoring programs have been.

Tutors will be hearing from their Site Directors about signing up for fall tutoring later in August
Student registration for the fall session will be online and will start on 8/26
We will update the fall hours for Book Bank in the coming weeks

Posted in Blog

New Haven Reads has a clear mission, one which we work toward day after day: to share the joy and power of reading and to increase the literacy skills of our students. But we also know that our work involves more than just working with our students directly.

Outreach Director Natosha Wengreen recognized that New Haven Reads could expand our reach to play a more vital role in our local and national community. In launching the New Haven Reads Lecture Series, Natosha said she set out to “bring the passion and mission of what New Haven Reads does to a wider community of people, to draw awareness to what we do, which is teaching literacy to students.”

These lectures, hosted every Saturday from now until August 29th, come from a myriad of different careers and offer vastly different perspectives. For example, Wendy North’s August 8th lecture will focus on dyslexia and literacy, while Professor Bryan Brown, lecturing on August 22nd, studies literacy in more than just language arts. “He talks about science, how race and identity involve themselves, and how academic language in science can be exclusionary and limiting,” Natosha explained.

There is a common theme throughout all of these lectures, however: to promote an understanding of someone who is different from oneself.

“When I came into the position and started to read all the surveys and talk to volunteers, fellows, and interns, the number one thing they say is that I worked with students that I probably would never have met in my entire life,” Natosha said. Enabling these connections between people from different backgrounds also places a responsibility on us at New Haven Reads to ensure that we are educating ourselves and our wider community on issues related to race, identity, and socioeconomic status.

Dr. Carlotta Penn, who spoke on Saturday, discussed this intersection of race, identity, social class, and literacy. She taught the 40 attendees about some of the leaders — Septima Clark, Paulo Freire, Katerina te Heikoko Mataria, and Edie Benton Benai — throughout history who have sought to reform schools and other institutions so that students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social classes will experience educational equality. After this, she emphasized the way in which we — as community members, volunteers, and teachers — must strive toward real equality.

“We are bringing who we are to whatever educational space we are in, and it is our responsibility to understand that,” Dr. Penn explained.

To address the ways in which educational equity goes beyond just the classroom, the last portion of the Lecture Series will discuss architecture. “This relates to the fact that even the buildings we know and use — parks, libraries, and other public spaces — are not accessible to people in equal ways,” Natosha explained.

SuWe at New Haven Reads hope that the Lecture Series serves as an opportunity for all of us to learn more about these issues and become more aware of the ways in which we can help solve them, whether that be in individual tutoring sessions or, more broadly, through our support for equitability and accessibility in educational institutions and in public spaces.

Posted in Blog, Home Page

On June 11th, New Haven Reads hosted its Spring Social virtually through Zoom. The Social, a virtual Trivia Night, brought together 32 volunteers from all different sites.

Natosha Wengreen, NHR’s Outreach Director, said that the Trivia Night was meant to celebrate the end of Spring Semester and allow the volunteers to have a great time.

In addition to being a celebration, Trivia Night also served as an opportunity to connect volunteers that had not had a chance to meet before. Volunteers ordinarily find themselves working with a similar group each week at a specific NHR site, but for Trivia Night, the volunteers were all randomly grouped together in teams. “These teams allowed people to interact with other tutors they might not otherwise meet,” said Julie Yerganian, NHR’s Outreach Assistant.

Overall, the Trivia Night was a terrific success, not only because of the energetic and dedicated volunteers, but also due to Natosha and Julie’s behind the scenes work. Natosha first wondered, “How do you facilitate an event that gets people into teams, and makes it easy for everyone to participate?” To do this, she and Julie worked to “plan how the flow of the evening would go and practice how it would be experienced by the participants.”

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers and staff!

Posted in Blog

New Haven Reads has distributed thousands of gently-used books to children at the New Haven meal pick-up locations since early May. It has been exciting to see the joy on children’s faces as they receive their books.

We are inspired to do even more to support children in our community.

We are running a campaign to make a bulk purchase of 1,600 diverse books, enough for two weeks of book distributions this summer. All funds raised will go to the purchase of books.

Donate Here

Posted in Home Page

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It took 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed before finally enforcing and freeing all of enslaved Black people. Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. On Sunday, June 21st, join NHR at the Juneteenth Forum presented by The New Haven Amistad Committee and The CT 29th.

NHV Juneteenth Flyer 2020a

Posted in Blog

See our photo montage to see how New Haven Reads has pivoted to meet the needs of our students and our community during the coronavirus pandemic.