It’s Tuesday afternoon and the middle schoolers have arrived back home. Preteens pour in the door and head straight to Mrs. Timaiya, peek their heads around the corner and ask, with enthusiasm, “Are we having tutoring today?!?”
Transformative Impact on Educational Support
Over the past three years Timaiya Stocks has transformed the educational support program on Crossnore’s Winston campus. Her programming is not only fun for the kids but also making a huge impact on educational outcomes for all our clients.
Mrs. Timaiya has worked at Crossnore for the past three years as our Educational Support Supervisor, a position funded by Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools’ Title I program. Timaiya taught Pre-Kindergarten through second grade in Guilford County Schools for six years prior to coming to Crossnore. She worked with both exceptional children as well as general education students. She also has experience teaching adults to learn to read through work at Reading Connections, an adult literacy program in Guilford County.
Adapting Tutoring Approaches and Implementing the MTSS Framework
As we talked, Timiaya shared that she has learned over her time at Crossnore that a “one size fits all” approach to tutoring does not work for our students. Children used to come to tutoring with their cottage regardless of age or need level. The children in our campus foster care program have a variety of needs, gaps and deficits. Over the past year she has redesigned the program to better meet each student where they are.
Mrs. Timaiya has adopted the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework in her program. MTSS is also used in the public school system. When using this framework, educators categorize students into three tiers. Students don’t know their tier but the staff and volunteer tutors are able to understand how best to support them based on their categorization. All students receive support but, as the tier levels increase, each student receives increased support and increased individualized attention.
Individualized Educational Case Management
Our highest need students receive individualized educational case management by Mrs. Timaiya. She regularly attends IEP, 504 and other educational support meetings. She helps legal guardians navigate the complexities of the school system to ensure all children have access to the supports they need and deserve. “Many social workers don’t know how to request an IEP and I help them with that process,” said Mrs. Timaiya.
Enhancing Cottages with “Prep Time”
Mrs. Timaiya has partnered with campus foster care leadership and cottage parents to institute “prep time” in all our cottages. “Prep time” happens right after school. One tutor supports each cottage for “prep time” during which each student has their folders and book bags checked, their assignments reviewed, and their support needs for tutoring identified. “Prep time” has standardized daily educational check ins for all cottages and given cottage parents a clear way to hold students and staff accountable to ensure children have their educational needs met.
Supporting Early Childhood Education
While her focus has been on our school-age children, Mrs. Timaiya has also helped our youngest children access early childhood education resources. Recently, a newly admitted child, age 2, presented with behaviors consistent with autism spectrum disorder. From her early childhood background, Mrs. Timaiya was able to identify this need and quickly connect this child’s legal guardian and case manager with resources so the child could gain support during a critical time in development.
Passion for Innovative Education
For our youth and young adults in the independent living program, Mrs. Timaiya has partnered closely with Carlo Moser from the Crosby Scholar’s program to link our youth with classes that help them understand their educational resources for secondary education and scholarships.
Last year, with the support of Mrs. Timaiya and her tutoring staff, four students were able to increase their reading proficiency by more than one grade level. We also had 12 students increase their math growth range by improving on their individualized lowest recorded domain.
Mrs. Timaiya told me she loves the innovative nature of this role and program. Not only is she coordinating tutoring and educational case management, she is an integral member of each child’s support team, attending their school performances, bringing them lunch when they really have a great or challenging day. “I’m able to support kids much more than I would if I was a traditional teacher. My ultimate goal is for learning to be engaging for the students. I want them to each have something they can access at their own pace.”
All of us at Crossnore, students and staff, are so grateful that Mrs. Timaiya is on our team.
