“I am very thankful for my time at Team Read, as it genuinely guided me towards my future academic and career goals,” said Niki, as our 2023-2024 school year program wrapped up. Niki, who worked as a teen reading coach for five years, is one of the 440 talented middle and high school students tutoring with us this year. These amazing coaches came from 21 different middle and high schools around the Puget Sound region, helping 453 elementary school students improve their reading skills!
Team Read programs ran in 19 different locations in the Seattle, Highline, Renton, and Tukwila school districts this school year. In addition to working with readers, many coaches engaged in special projects such as creating an electronic inventory and catalog of the portable libraries that are used at our program sites. Organizing the thousands of books we have will help us determine how our collections can grow in the most intentional way to best reflect and connect with our readers. You can read more about this project here.
Readers enjoyed exploring fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They set and tracked their goals through their Power Reader Journals which they share with family members to communicate progress and individual milestones. Some of our readers had the opportunity to read in front of large audiences at school assemblies and events and it was exciting to see how much their confidence had grown throughout the year.
Sharpening coach skills and supporting continuous learning is another key goal of our program. Thanks to generous community support, we were able to hold eight enrichment workshops for coaches throughout the year. Coaches strengthened the skills they use each week, and also learned about themselves and their communities. The most popular workshop this year was Support Strategies for Early Readers and English Language Learners. One coach reflected, “I like how everyone in my breakout room communicated with one-another and we were able to come up with many different strategies to improve our reading skills and teaching skills.” Other popular topics included Behavior Management, Financial Literacy, and Career Day.
In March, nearly 300 Team Read supporters gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel for our annual lunch. Coaches Jasmine and Rohan spoke about their experiences with Team Read, and our Program Director Jeanette Eisenberg had an inspiring and insightful conversation with our guest, Marcus Harrison Green. Through this event, the Team Read community raised over $200,000 to support our programs. We are incredibly grateful.
Team Read is only possible through the commitment and collaboration of schools, districts, families and students, donors, supporters, and volunteers who join forces with our staff to make magic happen. Thank you for being a part of this unique and impactful program!