Six-year-old Ellie Salb was about to have one of her favorite days of the week: the day when “Granny B” and “Granny M” come to her first-grade classroom with stickers and sweet treats.
Bobbi Sandrin and Marcia Klein are two former teachers who live in a retirement community about a half-mile away from Fields Road Elementary School in Gaithersburg. They’re part of about a dozen other seniors who volunteer at the school each week, a project that one of the community’s residents pitched earlier this year.
Stephani Sausser, who teaches Ellie’s first-grade class, said the effort has had a positive impact in her classroom.
Klein, known as “Granny M,” has a background in reading recovery, Sausser said, and will read with students one-on-one to help them build skills like sounding out words and putting sounds in words together. Sandrin, or “Granny B,” typically focuses on reading comprehension assignments.
Sausser said their presence has been a big help, since she can spend more time in the classroom digging into students’ skills and tailoring lessons for them.
“It’s nice because the kids don’t get just extra hands, but extra perspective,” Sausser said.
The partnership between the school and senior living community started in January with a cold email.
Bob Karp, 86, had recently moved to Gaithersburg to be closer to his daughter and grandson after spending about 30 years in Boston. But after a few months of getting settled, he said — with a slight chuckle in his voice — he was starting to get “impatient about doing something.”
Karp, the son of a former principal in Boston, grew up hearing conversations about public schools at the dinner table. So when he learned there was an elementary school close to his new home, he wrote to principal Joshua Williams with a request: “I would very much like to meet with you to discuss volunteering options for our residents including several who taught in the Montgomery County Public Schools.”
Karp was uncertain about how the request would land. But about three days later, Williams replied. He loved the idea.
Karp, Williams and another resident named Jim Pattison met later that week to discuss how to make it work. After getting some input from teachers, six of the seniors started coming to the school to help with reading in small groups — and whatever else was needed.
As the initiative continued, Karp learned that some of the seniors wanted more structure. So before the current school year started in August, the principal asked what teachers what support they needed, and in return, the volunteers said what they thought they could help with. Karp said they had a “match day,” like residents do in medical school.
Karp was paired with Lia Vasquez, who teaches a class of fourth- and fifth-graders who have autism. He said he was thrilled because he was interested in working with students who are similar to his grandson, who also has autism. When he comes to the school on Tuesdays, he helps with small group projects and has lunch with them.
“When I come here, I can see … that the teachers are happy to have me, the students are happy to have me, and I’m happy to be here,” Karp said. “For me, it helps give me some purpose in my life right now — when I’m not working — of feeling like I can contribute something to the community and that I’m needed.”
The school hasn’t had a partnership like this before, said Williams, who is in his second year leading the Gaithersburg school. The school serves a diverse population of about 450 students, and about half receive free or reduced-priced meals. Since the initiative started, the senior community has also raised about $4,000 to buy T-shirts for the students to wear on field trips and a school tree and garden beautification project.
“What I admire is the consistency,” Williams said, “because they come every week.”
Each volunteer has their own schedule. Some will come in the morning, and others stick to afternoons.
Pattison usually comes every Friday, but recently missed a shift because he was in the hospital. He sent an email to second-grade teacher Mandy Huang explaining his absence. To his delight, several of the second-graders sent him “get well” cards — some of which made him laugh.
During his most recent visit, he was chuckling again after some children tried guessing how old he was. Some of the kids guessed he was over 100 years old.
Pattison, who is 74, said those interactions are meaningful to him. “We’re helping the kids, but the kids are helping us too,” he continued. “It’s a way for us to get out of ourselves, not to be so wrapped up with our aches and pains — complaints that come with old age.”
Most of the volunteers rotate around the building’s three third-grade classrooms, a grade level that experts say is critical for students to master reading skills. Five of the retirees help with small group reading.
Quinn Liston, 8, said she’s gotten better with some of her words since she has started to read aloud with the volunteers. She learned the word “import,” she said, as an example.
“It’s really fun to read with them, because you think you’re scared to read and mess up the words,” she said. “But actually, when you mess up the words, the people help you.”
On a recent visit, Janice Faden was in the middle of reading a graphic novel with third-grader Dereck Romero Núñez. “He’s so expressive. We’ve talked a little bit about crash, bang and the words that sound like they mean,” Baden said. She explained to him that those words were a use of onomatopoeia in stories.
As if on cue, Dereck’s finger landed on a block of text that depicted a rocket flying off. He sounded it out: “Ka-ka-boosk!”
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