Nicole Scott, Communities In Schools Site Coordinator at Ginnings Elementary in Denton Independent School District, brags on an extraordinary staff member in her after school program who has changed the fifth grade class's behavior.

Jarrod McFadden, known by the students as Mr. Bryce, is an Academic Enrichment Specialist with the Communities In Schools of North Texas afterschool program at Ginnings Elementary. He works with the 5th graders and definitely has his hands full. They are a very energetic and lively bunch, and have struggled quite a bit with talking at appropriate times, showing respect, and being able to follow his instructions, especially when lining up to transition from each activity. Mr. Bryce was prepared to deal with anything the 5th graders threw his way. He became known as the "strict teacher" in the 21st Century program. He quickly let his students know that he was in charge and they needed to be able to follow his directions in order to earn their choice of enrichment activities. Sadly it took the 5th grade class a little while to figure out that if they all did what they were asked to do, they were able to have a lot more time for the super fun activities.

Mr. Bryce found it to be helpful to keep a stop watch with him for when the students were wasting their own time by not following directions. He then took the amount of time they wasted and remove that from their enrichment time. Instead they would do a character building activity which often times would be practicing the correct way to line up. We have both explained to the 5th grade class how important it is for them to be able to follow directions and complete simple tasks quickly and quietly. We made it very clear that the 5th graders should be the role models of the school and show the younger students proper behavior.

Mr. Bryce has done an excellent job preparing the students for middle school. During "Decompression Zone," which is the time that students complete their homework and reading, he has come up with his own creative educational activities to do with the students who finish early or don't have any homework. The activities revolve around math. He will have a group of students who have completed their homework come up to the chalk board and give them math problems to work on. He will sometimes make it into a competition and let the students race to see who can correctly finish the problem first. If a student is given check mark for inappropriate behavior or not being on task, he will allow them to solve a simple algebra problem to remove that check mark for the day. If they solve the problem correctly with all of their work shown, the check mark is gone and they have a clean slate.

I am so proud of the progress the 5th graders have made, and I'm happy to have Mr. Bryce on our team. The students' behavior and attitudes are improving, and they really enjoy having Mr. Bryce as their after school teacher. Even though he became known as the "strict teacher" I have heard quite a few of our younger students tell him that they want to be in his class. He has done a great job developing relationships with the students and has gained so much more respect from them. I have even had a few parents let me know how well he is doing and that they have seen significant improvements in their students.

Program Manager Bethany Lewis brags on a new mentor who has caught the bug of empowering her student to stay in school and achieve in life.

I have a new volunteer Hedrick Elementary who is just starting to mentor this year. Dana Porter's husband has mentored a student at Lakeland Elementary for a couple of years now and he passed along the interest to her! His student moved to Hedrick Elementary this year, so Dana was placed at Hedrick as well.

She was excited about being matched with a student, but I didn't realize how excited until I received an e-mail after their first meeting which contained the following: "Oh my goodness!!!!! She is just precious...... Just an angel. I enjoyed our time so much!...She was such a joy, and Thursdays are now my highlight of the week!"

I was so excited to hear that after just one meeting, Dana and her mentee, Alicia, had already made a quick connection and couldn't wait to see each other again. Last year, Alicia was meeting with a high school mentor, but because of their always changing schedules, it was hard to have consistency. We decided that it would be beneficial for her to meet with someone who could commit to the whole year.

They have already been able to celebrate a birthday and learn all about each other's favorite things in such a short amount of time! Dana is going to be such an encouragement in her life, and Alicia will greatly benefit from being able to meet with Dana every week for the entire year.