James Simmons, a Ball State student, fell heavily on the couch in the lobby of the Motivate Our Minds building. A small boy sat next to him, thrusting a copy of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” into his hands. They took turns reading a page at a time, Simmons helping the boy when he struggled. After-school tutoring often takes this form at the Muncie-based education organization.
“[Simmons] is very good at helping all the students,” teacher Linda Rose said. “The kids all really like him.”
Motivate Our Minds provides after-school tutoring for elementary and middle school students. Over 40 children are enrolled in the program, located on East Highland Avenue. Once arriving by bus, parents or the organization’s shuttle, the students are placed in a classroom with licensed teachers and volunteer tutors who provide them with one-on-one attention.
Simmons, a senior social studies education major, began volunteering as a requirement for his multi-cultural education class. Simmons said the majority of education majors, including himself, are Caucasian and the curriculum requires them to work in environments like Motivate Our Minds with primarily minority students.
The organization’s classrooms appear similar to traditional classrooms. Educational, ethical and artistic decals adorn the walls and too-short tables covered in pencils, books and art supplies dot the floor.
The students and tutors experience more than just an academic or student-teacher relationship.
“Sometimes you need someone to tell you that you can, not just how you can,” said Executive Director Monique Armstrong.
Simmons said students don’t confide in him much about their personal lives, which he speculates is because he his male, but their behavior is very telling of their need for one-on-one attention.
“When [the tutors] miss a week, the little kids think maybe they did something to offend the tutor and make the tutor go away,” Simmons said. “They get very attached to you very quickly.”
The personal connection extends beyond the expectations and structure of the program.
Simmons volunteers with the students in the third, fourth and fifth grade classroom. He rarely gets to use his social studies specialty to help his students because children that age need the most help in math, reading and spelling. When he does get the opportunity to teach the subject, it is with an old student of his who graduated out of his level of the program.
“You can see how much it matters to them,” he said. “You are taking an interest, you are just being engaged with them. There’s a young boy this semester who will just follow me around attached to the hip.”
Motivate Our Minds is an after-school program, meaning that students are brought directly from seven hours of formal school into three-hour tutor sessions. Simmons must sometimes employ creative strategies to keep his students focused.
Simmons spoke about the unconventional resources the students at Motivate Our Minds have access to. In the computer lab, middle-schoolers work with Dr. Devon Yoho, a former Ball Sate University economics professor. The assignment: Roller Coaster Tycoon.
Two blocks from the facility, Simmons and the other volunteers take the students to an outdoor garden that Motivate O+ur Minds has used for educational purposes since 2004. While ragged and barren in the winter, the garden is full of life during the warmer months.
“The kids love working in the garden,” Simmons said. “Growing stuff. It’s a change to get out and moving around doing stuff. They’ll learn how to care for things, which is great emotionally as well as educationally.”
Simmons said he values the experience he’s gained from his volunteering. Spending time with children and working with licensed educators has taught him valuable skills, most notably the empathy and understanding to be patient.
“You have to have some patience in letting them talk to you a while,” Simmons said. “If you’re going to expect them to be nose-to-the-book, it’s not realistic. We have to let them get a little bit out while still maintaining control.”
One boy Simmons regularly works with struggles to complete his work due to hyperactivity. To help center him, Simmons takes him out into the facility’s courtyard to look for rocks, which fascinate him. After searching for and identifying the rocks, the study sessions have been more productive.
“If something doesn’t work you can’t just give up,” Simmons said. “These are students who are depending on you to help them. You have to think, ‘let’s try something else, let’s try a new approach.’”
Marg:
Motivate Our Minds
2023 E. Highland Ave.
Tutoring Hours: 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. Monday - Thursday
Hours: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friday
For more information go to motivateourminds.org
