2008 Woodie Awards
Susan Perry
Allison Walker
Issue date: 2/10/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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"If you can read this, thank a teacher." This frequently used quote is simple but true, especially thanks to teachers like Hendrix professor Susan Perry. She is an assistant professor in the education department and the founder of the Hendrix Early Literacy Program (HELP).
Perry felt her students at Hendrix were not getting the early childhood education experience they needed, and the HELP program is changing this. It also provides elementary students extra classroom time. Funded by the Murphy Foundation and the Hendrix Odyssey Program, HELP is a model of experiential learning.
The program started last fall after Sallie Cone Elementary school in Conway agreed to work with Perry on the program.
"A lot of schools don't like kids being pulled out, but Delanna Lacy, the principal at Sallie Cone knew the training I had at UALR and trusted me," she said.
The Hendrix students are responsible for teaching three lessons a week to a group of four children that are pulled out of the classroom.
"These children are the ones that need help, and in such small groups they are able to focus on what the need. Sallie Cone has two reading coaches, so with their teacher and the Hendrix student, these children are getting hit four times," she said.
Starting next fall, the Hendrix students will go twice a week to work with their small groups and once to work with the teacher so they know what is going on inside the classroom.
Perry is very dedicated to this program and her students, making her a very busy person. On an average day, a stroll past her office will show two or three students waiting to talk to her about what they are doing in their classroom and about problems they are having with the children they are teaching.
"I would be with them day and night. I wish I was, but I don't think they with like that very much," Perry said.
The classes that have the HELP program as a practicum will be the most intense students will take, according to Perry. Currently, four of the courses that Perry teaches have the program as a requirement for the class.
Perry felt her students at Hendrix were not getting the early childhood education experience they needed, and the HELP program is changing this. It also provides elementary students extra classroom time. Funded by the Murphy Foundation and the Hendrix Odyssey Program, HELP is a model of experiential learning.
The program started last fall after Sallie Cone Elementary school in Conway agreed to work with Perry on the program.
"A lot of schools don't like kids being pulled out, but Delanna Lacy, the principal at Sallie Cone knew the training I had at UALR and trusted me," she said.
The Hendrix students are responsible for teaching three lessons a week to a group of four children that are pulled out of the classroom.
"These children are the ones that need help, and in such small groups they are able to focus on what the need. Sallie Cone has two reading coaches, so with their teacher and the Hendrix student, these children are getting hit four times," she said.
Starting next fall, the Hendrix students will go twice a week to work with their small groups and once to work with the teacher so they know what is going on inside the classroom.
Perry is very dedicated to this program and her students, making her a very busy person. On an average day, a stroll past her office will show two or three students waiting to talk to her about what they are doing in their classroom and about problems they are having with the children they are teaching.
"I would be with them day and night. I wish I was, but I don't think they with like that very much," Perry said.
The classes that have the HELP program as a practicum will be the most intense students will take, according to Perry. Currently, four of the courses that Perry teaches have the program as a requirement for the class.