EBLI Practitioner of the Week: Joe Cecchini
Joe is a 4th grade teacher in Flint, MI. Imagine the dismay of Joe and his wife (also a teacher) when they found out their oldest son was struggling with reading in kindergarten. When the school suggested that he repeat kindergarten, they scoffed and refused. By second grade the Title 1 staff were calling to ask to pull him out of class for extra help. Though he knew this was not an uncommon issue, Joe couldn’t understand why it was happening to his child. He and his wife expected him to be advanced rather than behind.
At that point they found OOPRC and brought their son for 12 sessions with Shannon. Joe saw that the EBLI strategies worked, and he began taking them from his son’s 1-on-1 sessions and formulating ways to use them in his classroom. He even took pictures of his classroom to bring in to OOPRC and show Shannon. After speaking with Nora, she offered to come in to his class and show him some exercises. She began at 9 am and didn’t stop for 2 hours – Joe could not believe that his students stayed focused for so long.
After that Joe found out about the Joseph Thomas Bryant Memorial Scholarship, an essay-based competitive scholarship that OOPRC offers to cover the cost of EBLI training. He won the scholarship and was trained in EBLI. He was sure that the EBLI training would change the way he taught, and now working on the whiteboards is the highlight of the day for his students.
Joe’s students go to school in one of the toughest cities in the country and read about 2 grade levels behind, on average. Now there is much excitement in his classroom, and the students are even asking to read. One of Joe’s students, an almost 12-year-old fourth grader and the only Caucasian in the class, rarely spoke above a whisper. Recently he volunteered to read and pronounced “oxygenated” correctly - and couldn’t stop smiling. What an amazing success story from Joe and his classroom, thank you for all your hard work!
“Going through the three-day EBLI training with Nora and Cricket was, for me, a career changing experience.” – Joe
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Joe, the story about your student (the almost 12 year old fourth grader) who used to never speak above a whisper and is now volunteering to read makes my heart sing. What an amazing thing we have in EBLI and what an honor it is to share it with others. I am deeply moved.