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DEL.ICIO.USJoin the Spelling Bee Club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two years ago, Rosemarie Lebert-Clarke invested her own money to launch an academic tutoring service.
Reading to Learn Inc., sits next to a Domino’s Pizza and a Mega Tools store in a strip mall off Indian Trail Road in Lilburn. Unlike the franchised operations that charge out the wazoo, the nonprofit organization charges a sliding fee.
“There are so many people who just can’t afford Sylvan Learning Centers,” Lebert-Clarke said Wednesday when the Badie Tour stopped by.
In the years that Reading to Learn has operated, Lebert-Clarke has noticed a common thread among the students who seek one-on-one help with math, science, reading and writing. Many can’t read well.
“Even the ones who are doing OK in school can’t,” Lebert-Clarke said. “I’ve had 12th-graders functioning at the sixth or seventh-grade reading level. “And most of them are boys.”
That last comment stung. That’s the very reason I started a book club for boys nearly two years ago. There’s been an ebb and flow in the number of participants - from a high of 14 tykes to the current six who are sticking it out. We read several books last year. Now that school is back in, our get-togethers and discussions should become more routine.
Lebert-Clarke contacted me when she read my initial column about the club. She wanted to wish us well, and said she’d thought about starting a similar group.
“I decided not to since you were starting one in the area,” she told me.
But there’s room aplenty for enrichment activities and programs to stir young minds. And Lebert-Clarke, who left the world of corporate advertising and lithography to start Reading to Learn, told me about a project she plans to launch this fall.
It’s a free Spelling Bee Club. It will be for boys and girls in fifth through eighth grades. The idea is to help kids expand their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills by using strategies, games and other means.
“It won’t be just spelling,” Lebert-Clarke told me. “They’ll learn the roots and origins of the words and their meanings. It can help them in the long run with standardized tests and when they read, they’ll understand more.”
Beginning Oct. 3, the club will meet every Saturday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Reading to Learn center. Kids from any metro Atlanta school system can apply to join the club, but there are requirements. They must have a least a C+ in their most recent language arts class. Students will be chosen on the basis of a teacher’s recommendation and on the quality of an essay that they must write - “Why should I be selected to be a member of the Reading to Learn Spelling Bee Club.” The deadline for the essay is Sept. 12.
“Kids have very low esteem these days,” Lebert-Clarke told me. “All they hear is that they are failing. Our purpose is to focus on reading, math and science. To help kids learn in every subject.
“And to build their self-esteem.”
For more information about the Reading to Learn Spelling Bee Club call Rosemarie Lebert-Clarke at 770-279-6987 or visit www.readingtolearn.us. Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers who want to discuss the people, places, events and topics he writes about may post comments online or contact Badie directly. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By LT5000
August 21, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this
Badie is a hack. H-A-C-K.
Badie, any new developments on THE CASE OF THE SUSPICIOUS SUSPENSION.
That’s what I thought. Anymore “gut feeling” you will be musing about?
Oh yeah, will these kids be spelling in Spanish or English?
LT5000
By LT5000
August 21, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this
Now the LT5000 Edition of “Illegal of the Day”
IllegaL - I-L-L-E-G-A-L
During that race Gallardo rear-ended a Ford Explorer with so much force it flipped the SUV over, said police.
The woman driving it — 61-year-old Linda Wiglesworth — was taken to Atlanta Medical Center with serious injuries.
But Gallardo got away.
“He fled the scene prior to our officer’s arrival,” said Louth.
Police were able to track this car’s tags back to Gallardo. And his family police said, were able to get him to turn himself in.
During interviews Gallardo admitted to being in the country illegally, said police.
But somehow they said — even without a Georgia driver’s license — he was able to register his car and get up to date tags from Fulton County.
Those Illegals are just doing the Drag Racing that Americans are too lazy to do.
Let’s pray for Mrs. Wiglesworth, we all know Gallardo no havie eensurance.
LT5000
By Stan
August 21, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
WOW!!! Almost 2 hours before our AWESOME post by Mr. LT5K. Please don’t make us wait so long for your mindless BS next time LT.
Say, what do the LT stand for anyway? Light Thinker? Lost Time? Lame Tampon?
Stan
STFU LT
BTW Good write up today Rick
By LT5000
August 21, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this
Stan,
Congratulations you are the one and only member or the Rick Badie Fan Club.
What does STAN stand for?
Sh** Talking Angry Nerd?
Syphillitic Transexual Anal Neophyte?
FU Stan
LT5000
By Stone
August 21, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this
Actually, Stan, LT5000 cracks me up almost every time he posts. You, however, sound like an angry, snivelling, little jerk who can’t come up with anything original. And by the way, who are you to tell someone to STFU?
By What're you an idiot
August 21, 2008 4:43 PM | Link to this
Just ignore him. It is the method his parents employed.
By Stan
August 21, 2008 4:46 PM | Link to this
LT my point is if you are not a fan of what Badie writes, then STOP F’ing reading it!!!! It’s THAT simple you troll.
Stone, I’m not really angry or snivelling (sp?), though I AM a bit of a jerk. If you like reading what LT has to say so much why don’t you just read his blog? BTW As to who I am to tell someone to STFU, I am Stan. It shows that just before my post.
LT STFU
By Stone
August 21, 2008 7:01 PM | Link to this
Stan, my point is if you are not a fan of what LT5000 writes, stop F’ing reading it!!!! It’s that simple you troll!!
By LT5000
August 21, 2008 10:18 PM | Link to this
Stone,
Thanks. Blubbering Badie’s blog is usually so devoid of facts or anything of interest that I feel obligate to correct and mock him.
Either that or post something that is off topic, but is actually interesting to read.
I wonder when our journalistic endomorph is going to post the update to his expose of the Suspicious Suspension.
I can’t believe the AJC actually pays this moron to write this crap.
LT5000
By Mary's Mom
August 22, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this
LT, can you please elaborate about the “Supicious Suspension”? What is that?
Thanks :)
By Mark
August 22, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this
Oh black badie, bam ba lam, oh black badie, bam ba lam, black badie has a job bam ba lam, writing a useless blog, bam ba lam, and he’s always ready, bam ba lam, to write something petty, bam ba lam. Oh black badie, bam ba lam, oh black badie, bam ba lam…….
By LT5000
August 22, 2008 3:36 PM | Link to this
MAry’s Mom.
Suspicious Suspension refers to Badie’s moronic blog from tow days ago. Where Badie professed to have journalistic instinct that told him that there was more to the Gwinnett Police Chief’s suspension than the public knew.
As usual blubbering Badie was wrong.
It seems Badie’s finely tuned journalistic instinct is only good for sniffing out Cheetohs between the couch cushions.
If only his journalistic skills could tune into stories of actual interest like:
Two suspected members of an East Coast robbery crew who impersonate police while ripping off drug dealers were arrested Thursday in Gwinnett.
Bourbonnais said the robbery crew consisted of Dominican Republic nationals.
Instead of addressing why Gwinnett is becoming a haven for Illegal Immigrant drug dealers, kidnappers and robbery crews, we get to read Badie’s blubberings about a nonprofit spelling school.
The only reason the AJC would keep this dope around is that he must make a mean latte and keeps the rims on Cynthia Tucker’s car shiny.
LT5000
By NOWICUNVME
August 22, 2008 4:02 PM | Link to this
Mary’s Mom: Have you lost your lamb? Go back and reread the article about the school. Maybe you could profit from a private lesson yourself. Then again, did anyone handcuff you, tie you down, or force you to read it in the firstplace? If something is no interest to you, “keep it moving” and call it a day. Geez! Is everyone getting enough air down here?
By NOWICUNVME
August 22, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this
OKAY SINCE LT5000 AND MARY’S LAMB, I MEAN MOM, CAN’T FIGURE OUT THE SUSPICIOUS SUSPENSION STORY: IT DOESN’T TAKE AN EINSTEIN TO KNOW THAT IF A POLICE CHIEF GETS SUSPENDED, WITHOUT PAY, FOR THAT MATTER, THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MORE TO THE STORY THAN THEY WERE WILLING TO GIVE UP. ANYONE AFFILIATED OR HAS EVER BEEN AFFILIATED WITH POLICE AGENCIES KNOWS THAT “EVEN WHEN THEY’RE WRONG, THEY’RE ALWAYS RIGHT”. BESIDES, I THINK THE NAME OF RICK BADIES’ COLUMN IS CALLED “MY OPINION”….HMMMMMM
By LT5000
August 22, 2008 4:48 PM | Link to this
NOWICUVME,
Facts or proof? Nope? Didn’t thnk so.
Perhaps the AJC will sign you up as a blogger, you have the perfect resume.
Are you Blubbering Badie’s long lost twin brother?
LT5000
By Mary's Mom
August 22, 2008 4:48 PM | Link to this
To **NOWICUMVME”:
What the héll are you talking about? I simply didn’t hear about it. I was actually doing something that day.
You’re a douchebag!
Thank you LT5000 for the reply.
By NOWICUNVME
August 22, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
AND SO THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTIONS ARE???? EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT…NOTHING SMART OR MEANINGFUL TO SAY REGARDING THE MATTERS AT HAND. OBVIOUSLY, I WILL NOT DIGNIFY EITHER ONE OF YOUR RESPONSES WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN SILENCE…IT’S GOLDEN…YOU SHOULD TRY IT. THE LOOKS OF YOUR FACES RIGHT NOW IF I COULD SEE THEM?…PRICELESS