It is not every day that high school students get to spend time with their younger counterparts.

Recently, a number of students from Helix Charter High School visited La Mesa Dale Elementary School to read to youngsters and share some valuable time together.

Eric Ginsberg, teacher for the Helix Charter Education Pathway course, noted that the opportunity for high schoolers to reach out to elementary students was a good one.

According to Ginsberg, Helix Charter’s Education Pathway, which is part of Helix’s EDGE Career and Technical Education (CTE) program and was developed beginning in 2018 with funding through a specialized secondary program grant from the state of California, has the goal of creating and supporting a future educator pipeline that explores careers in education and also examines schooling with a focus on improvement.

As part of this program, La Mesa Dale Elementary (LMD), La Mesa Arts Academy (LMAAC) and the Extended School Services (ESS) program as the school’s community partners in the La Mesa Spring Valley School District (LMSVSD) are vital to Helix’s success. As a next step in expanding the partnership between La Mesa Dale Elementary and the Helix Charter Education Pathway, staff discussed the idea of having Helix Charter students read the same picture book to every TK-3 grade class on the same day at the same time—and principal Tammie Babbitt choose the text After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat which connects to LMD Elementary’s focus on resilience and socio-emotional learning.

From there, Ginsberg then contacted the San Diego County Library to have a librarian provide storytime training for the Education Pathway students. Librarian II/Youth Services Manager at the La Mesa Branch of the San Diego County Library, Sara Nielsen, provided two class periods of training on storytime and early literacy practices and joined the class on the event day.

All told, there were 32 Helix students and 12 different classrooms at LMD participating.

Education Pathway students embrace authentic opportunity

“The Education Pathway students embraced this as an authentic opportunity to explore working with TK-3 grade students in a school setting, practicing engaging students in learning, managing full classes in an activity and responding to questions,” Ginsberg stated. “Using the storytime and early literacy training provided by Librarian Nielsen, they were eager and prepared to read to LMD students.”

According to Ginsberg, this “Reads Across LMD Elementary” event will happen again next year in October—and the next major education event this year working with community partners will be teaching LMAAC 7th and 8th grade students lessons focused on high school success and then the LMSVSD’s ESS program conducting work-based learning mock interviews.

For Nielsen, the opportunity to participate was well worth it.

“Mr. Ginsberg reached out to me to discuss the possibility of a multi-agency collaboration between his Education Pathways class at Helix High School, the library, and the La Mesa Spring Valley School District, specifically La Mesa Dale Elementary,” Nielsen remarked. “Education Pathways is geared towards students who wish to pursue careers in education. Mr. Ginsberg wanted to introduce his students to librarianship as a potential career in education, and he wanted the students to get experience reading to students, as it is a lot more challenging than it might sound! I agreed to adapt a library staff storytime training for his class and create an accompanying powerpoint and also include information about librarianship and how it is similar and different to K-12 education. I visited the classroom in late September and presented my powerpoint, overviewing librarianship, early literacy, and a lot of the how’s and why’s of what is required to read it children. It’s a lot more than just reading the words on the page, and is essentially a performance. I met with the class one more time to provide some feedback and coaching for the students as they practiced their reading skills, and came to cheer them on when they finally put all their practice to the test and read “After the Fall” by Dan Santat to students at La Mesa Dale Elementary.”

As Nielsen sees it, the event, which she hopes will become an annual project, was a great opportunity for all involved.

“This was a really great opportunity for mentorship and education to the high school students, and for the high school students to then become the teachers,” Nielsen said. “The high school students gained professional development and practiced skills that can be applied to many situations and education pathways. And the elementary students get to learn and interact with the older students in a really fun and unique way. It really was a win-win situation for all parties involved.”

High school students will remember this opportunity

When it comes to a number of the students having participated in the event, they felt it was an experience they won’t soon forget.

Junior Luci Lewis said she gained valuable insight with this opportunity.

“I took a lot out of this experience, not only was it fun to engage with the younger kids, it also gave me a chance to run a classroom for a little bit,” Lewis remarked. “We had to keep the kids engaged, redirect their attention if they got distracted, and facilitate discussion questions. Overall, I think it was amazing to get the experience of running a classroom.”

For Lewis, she liked that the first graders were so eager to answer questions and share their experiences.

“It was fun to see them having so much fun, to be a part of that,” Lewis commented. “They were eager to share their stories and experiences with us, I feel like you see that less and less as kids get older.”

Fellow junior Roman Chavez said what interested him the most was that he was able to see how interested and excited they were in the book.

“It was refreshing to see kids with the spark to learn new things, unlike most students in older age groups,” Chavez said. “After the Fall was a truly inspiring book that the kids were able to learn from. What I took away from this experience was that it opened my eyes to the countless possibilities that we as future educators can inspire and teach the youth. The students had such a fun time listening to the read aloud that they couldn’t wait to ask questions and talk about it. Once one hand went down, another went up.”

Young elementary students have most amazing imaginations

Another junior, Rachel Scott, noted, “Young elementary students have the most amazing imaginations and it’s a wonderful thing. Sometimes that means our conversations got a little off task and strayed away from the book but It was so much fun listening to their stories and ideas.”

Scott said you learn how talking to elementary students and managing a classroom would be different than you see in your classes.

“Participating in Reads Across LMD Elementary was overall a very fun experience and I would love to do it again,” Scott added.

Senior Lauren French-Kopmeyer stated that after spending a few weeks learning about how to give a story time, she was excited to actually apply her knowledge and be able to read to the elementary students. “As someone who is interested in becoming an elementary school teacher I was intrigued by the idea of going into a classroom and experiencing it first-hand,” French-Kopmeyer pointed out.

For French-Kopmeyer, the opportunity to read to the elementary students at La Mesa Dale opened her eyes even more to the education field.

“Being able to see the students so involved and interested in the story time really solidified my decision to become a teacher,” she stated. “Reading to the students has many positive outcomes. For example creativity, language skills, love for reading, and so much more. Knowing that doing something as simple as reading a short story to a class can help tremendously in their learning development makes doing it so much more worth it. For students who have not done this before I would recommend it. Even if you aren’t interested in this field, the pathway can teach you so many valuable lessons. We go on many field trips to get hands-on experience in a classroom including LMAAC, La Mesa Dale, and classrooms around the Helix campus. We build a close-knit community within our classroom since many of the students have the same interests.”

Fellow senior Tiki Kleymann felt he wanted the experiences of planning reading sessions to engage students effectively himself.

“I think the main thing I took from this experience was how much work actually goes into reading alouds, compared to my thoughts as a little kid when I thought people would just pick a book randomly and just read it,” Kleymann remarked. “I learned a lot about how to effectively engage kids, the differences in what different grade levels needed to be engaged, and it also gave me more time to reflect on the different developmental stages of students in elementary school.”

Know your audience and practice

Kleymann’s biggest two pieces of advice for any future Helix Charter students participating in such an event are to know your audience and practice.

“You want some beforehand knowledge about who you’re going to be reading to so you can know how to more effectively make the book entertaining/engaging, and what to focus on with your questions so the students can gain the most from the experience as possible,” Kleymann stated. “The other big thing is practice. It may not seem too hard to read, but practicing the cadence of your voice, the speed in which you read, and where you stop to ask questions + what questions you ask definitely makes the final, “real” read along run more smoothly.”

For senior Zen Crawford-Mabry, attending the event brought her enjoyment in seeing the kids’ faces spark with wonder and excitement.

“While reading, the children had all sorts of imaginative ideas about what would happen next. The book definitely had their brain active through group story questions and responses. This experience made me remember what it was like to be young and full of imagination. It made me realize that childhood strives on creative power and curiosity where a child can enjoy life through interest in simple things that upholds their fascination,” Crawford-Mabry remarked.

Junior Aaliyah Huerta said what interested her most was how engaged the students were and how open-minded they proved to be.

“What I took away from this experience was how fun it was to take a step back from high school and just enjoy how happy the students were,” Huerta stated. “Also, what I took away from this experience was how excited I was about the book. They were in the third grade so I wasn’t expecting them to like the book so much but they ended up enjoying it.”

Huerta went on to note that there are so many opportunities being involved in the Helix Pathway program.

“For this pathway, you get so many opportunities if you have an interest in education,” Huerta commented. “Or if you don’t, you’re able to do so many fun things like going on field trips to SeaWorld and other schools. This pathway has brought so many memories and most that I will never forget from creating a classroom community and also friends that are always there for me. Also not to forget Mr. Ginsberg the most understanding teacher, the teacher that makes our creativity come to life, with reading to the elementary students. Without him being our teacher I would say this class wouldn’t be the same. We wouldn’t have the sense of always being happy when coming to class.”

Kyndra O’Dell-Veniegas said what first interested her in reading to elementary students was the nostalgia it made her feel.

“It made me reminisce back to the days when I was in elementary school and those were some of the best memories I have,” O’Dell-Veniegas stated. “The idea of going back to an elementary school and bringing those students the same happiness I felt really impacted the way I felt about doing it. To me it was no longer just an assignment but an opportunity.

Not only was reading part of the day, but singing found its way into the classroom too.

“After reading the book and watching the kids engage, my group took it one step further,” O’Dell-Veniegas noted. “We decided to have a little more fun with the students and sing the Humpty Dumpty song. It was a hit and not only did the kids enjoy it but so did we. As an 11th grader being able to sing an old nursery rhyme without the fear of judgment was inspiring. Seeing and hearing the ideas the kids had made it an experience one to remember.”

For Helix Charter students with the opportunity down the road to do this project, O’Dell-Veniegas encourages them to do so.

“The pure happiness a lot of those students (elementary school) bring and the interest they have in what you say will inspire you,” O’Dell-Veniegas said. “It teaches you how to address students, how to interact and build on conversations, and most importantly help you find passion within. If you even have a thought about working with students I recommend taking advantage of this opportunity because it will help guide you to whatever you are destined for.”