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- [00:00]
Bill Gray
Hi there, it's Bill Gray from Hillsdale College. Before you skip ahead, can I ask you a question or two? If you could teach 50 million Americans one thing, what would it be? Would you teach our great American story that this nation is unique, founded on self government and individual liberty? Maybe you would teach the truth about free enterprise, how hard work and opportunity allow anyone to rise? Or would you teach the gospel and the Christian faith that helps us live good and meaningful lives? At Hillsdale College, we're doing exactly that. Teaching the best that's been thought and said. Through our free online courses, K12 programs, Imprimis, podcasts and more, we reach and teach millions every year with the principles of liberty that make America free. And with your help, we can reach even more. Your tax deductible gift today will help us teach millions more people to pursue truth and defend liberty. Just text the word give to 7 1844. You'll get a secure link to make your donation in seconds. That's give to 718 44. Thank you for standing with us. Now back to the show.
- [01:16]
Tina Bolen
Welcome to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, bringing you insight into classical education and its unique emphasis on human virtue and moral character, responsible citizenship, content, rich curricula and teacher led classrooms. Now your host, Scott Bertram.
- [01:35]
Scott Bertram
Thanks for listening. The Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast is part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast hillsdale.edu or wherever you get your audio. You also can find more information on topics and ideas discussed on this show at our website, k12 hillsdale.edu. we're joined by Tina Bolen. She is literacy coordinator at Treasure Valley Classical academy in Fruitland, Idaho, also a literacy trainer with Hillsdale College K12 education office. Tina, thanks so much for joining us.
- [02:11]
Tina Bolen
You're so welcome. Scott, good morning.
- [02:12]
Scott Bertram
Good morning to you. Tell us a bit about your background. How long have you been in education?
- [02:18]
Tina Bolen
Well, I was a homeschooling mom first and I have children that are in their 40s, so I've been in education for quite a while and I homeschooled my own 10 children and then started the second generation. So I homeschooled a few of my grandchildren for a little while and during that time I worked evenings at an outreach program for the GED program. So I was hired through BSU in an outreach program in our tiny little community to help adults get their GEDs and was a substitute teacher for a few years. Taught as a kindergarten teacher before I
- [02:50]
Scott Bertram
found Hillsdale School back then 30ish years ago. And since then, what was that decision about homeschooling? Like, why. Why homeschooling? 30 years ago and for many decades,
- [03:04]
Tina Bolen
the very first reason was because I was a piano teacher. And if I. My children were in school all day long and then I taught piano lessons at home, I didn't see my kids until like 6 o' clock at night. So it's like, we have to do something different. I want to be with my children. So my husband and I talked about. And it was really at a time where homeschooling was not very popular, and I was nervous about it. So I started when I only had two kids in school, they were in first and second grade and started homeschooling them so I could be with them during the day and then teach piano lessons in the afternoon. And during that time is when I started reading and learning a lot about classical education. So it was drawing me in from a very long time ago. You know, I was starting to be drawn to classical education.
- [03:46]
Scott Bertram
What resonated with you when you started reading and learning about classical education? Why did that sound appealing to you?
- [03:53]
Tina Bolen
I think mostly because it was. I wasn't just putting facts inside my children to spit back out to me in a test. It was to teach them to be great thinkers and to love literature. You were forming them as a human being, not just putting facts inside their brain.
- [04:10]
Scott Bertram
And you've been with Treasure Valley Classical Academy since it opened back in 2019. How did you find out about Treasure Valley? And again, what was appealing to what they were trying to do and trying to begin out in Fruitvale right at the time?
- [04:24]
Tina Bolen
So it was probably about 2017 or 2018. I was homeschooling a group of children in my home, and a couple of the moms would come during the week and help out. And one of the moms happened to be a future board member for our school. And so as she was telling me about things that were happening, they were trying to write their charter and they were trying to find leadership to come to the school was so far off in my mind. It's like, wow, you've got a long journey ahead of you. But knowing her and then seeing things come to fruition, it was exciting. And she used to say to me, tina, you should apply for the school. And it's, yeah, I'm busy here. And, you know, I didn't think of it at the time, but when the school actually opened, all the grandchildren I was homeschooling, helping to homeschool, were going to go to the school. So it was an easy transition. It's like, okay, if all the grandkids are going to the school, grandma's going to go, too.
- [05:18]
Scott Bertram
And how did that door open? Meaning, how did you start at Treasure Valley Classical Academy? And what did you learn about them as you began those discussions?
- [05:25]
Tina Bolen
I think just hearing about it from our board member, and then, you know, they have community outreach meetings for, you know, parents and people who are interested in the community come. And I went to several of those just to hear. I got to hear Steve Lambert, you know, talk about classical education. And it was exciting and to think there would be a school that wanted to emphasize virtue. They wanted to emphasize being patriotic. And those were the things that I loved as a child in school. And so it was, like, exciting for me to think this is where I want my grandkids to be. You know, I wanted to support that. And so I prayed about it. You know, is this the right step for me? I had a job at a title and escrow office, so it's like, is this the move for me? But I once I interviewed with Steve Lambert and we talked about it, I got very excited about the school and knowing that being in that very beginning time of when the school was opening was exciting. So I decided to interview and got the job. And I started as an aide, a classroom aide, first grade classroom aide at the school in 2019, and now as
- [06:26]
Scott Bertram
literacy coordinator at Treasure Valley Classical Academy. What. What does a literacy coordinator do? What. What do your days look like?
- [06:34]
Tina Bolen
So I am really responsible for the Tier 2 and Tier 3 students to learn literacy. The classroom teachers, you know, help out, but there's always students who need a little bit more help, especially in kindergarten and first grade, to learn their phonograms and learn the beginning steps in reading. And so I make sure that those students have time during their day to meet with an aide or myself and get extra help, Especially kids who tend to be dyslexic. If they can see things more often, not just four or five times to learn it, but 10 or 12 or 13 times or even more, they do get it, and they do succeed. So that's my job to make sure of that. I meet with the teachers weekly when they have their team meetings to talk about what's going on in literacy and if they need help with anything, or if we have students who are struggling, what can we do for them? And then I also make sure that our assessments are going well and that we can kind of put them into the school calendar as to when they're going to get done.
- [07:30]
Scott Bertram
So what do you track students? I guess my question really is, what's it like to see someone begin working with you as literacy coordinator and then see them learn, grow, and thrive at Treasure Valley?
- [07:44]
Tina Bolen
I'll give you an example. I have a little student that came into our school in October this year. And in third grade, this student was struggling. He has an iep. And so we just start at the very beginning, like we do in kindergarten. They're going to learn their phonograms first and make sure that they can decode and spell, you know, three letter words. And we assess them and, you know, he's making great progress. We have just the literacy essentials is beautif because it sets up step by step what you want your students to learn. So even if we have a fifth or sixth grader that comes into our class and hasn't been exposed to literacy essentials, they get those beginning steps so that they can succeed and they move forward. So we track them for years, actually, to make sure that they're improving and going forward.
- [08:28]
Scott Bertram
And what does success look like for you as literacy coordinator? What do you want to see from those students that you work with? And how can you tell that?
- [08:36]
Tina Bolen
Their readings improving, their spelling's improving, and then once they're learning to decode words better that their fluency comes, they can read faster, their eyes are tracking, and then it becomes. That's a building into their comprehension. So if a student can't decode well, and they're reading extremely slowly, they really can't comprehend. And the whole idea is that you want them to comprehend what they're reading, to be able to visualize what they're reading. So a lot of it is teaching and visualization. When I'm reading a short little story in kindergarten or first or second grade, do I know what's actually happening sentence by sentence? And it's a. You break it down so that they can learn it that way, because when they're in fifth and sixth grade, it's going to have to be paragraphs or pages long. You know, can they comprehend what they're reading? So a lot of it is the conversation. Do they understand what it is? I would say more so for us in our community, we have a community that does not have a strong vocabulary. And so we really work on teaching them vocabulary while they're learning and making that fun. And so, yeah, we see great improvement with kids. The more that we can work with them and expose them to books and reading and explaining what's happening in the story and that conversation going back and forth about, you know, characters and setting.
- [09:48]
Scott Bertram
Talking with Tina Bolen, who is literacy coordinator at Treasure Valley Classical academy in Fruitland, Idaho, and also literacy trainer with Hillsdale College's K12 education office. When did you become a literacy trainer for Hillsdale's K12 office and what does that entail?
- [10:06]
Tina Bolen
I did a year long practicum with Hillsdale College and Megan Satcher. So I had books assigned to me to read. I had assignments of different things to cover in my teaching that I videotaped. And then Hillsdale watched it and gave me observations back so I knew where to improve. And that was a year long. And I was still being the literacy coordinator at TBCA while I was doing that. And then once I became a trainer, I was able to go to new schools and with a team member from Hillsdale. Several team members are there, but it's two of us mainly teaching the literacy. So we for three days bring in all the new teachers. If substitute teachers are there or leadership, we take them step by step through a training manual of literacy essentials so they are being exposed to and learning what is literacy essentials and why are we teaching it to the students? And I do at Hillsdale? Let's see, probably three years ago, I started doing small classes during our summer training. And last year I was able to do the literacy training for three days at Hillsdale, which was a lot of fun. The room was, you know, filled with teachers from all over the United States that were going to start their literacy training teaching at their schools the following year. Some of them had been teaching and wanted to do the training again. But it's just so exciting to know that, you know, for me as a teacher, I can only take so many students. But when you can train teachers so that you know that all of them are going to go out and teach 10, 20, 30 students and it's just like, okay, we're going to spread this great education and this way of teaching children to learn to read so we can help not have illiterate children, you know, in high school in our country.
- [11:41]
Scott Bertram
What's the biggest difference between working with children at Treasure Valley and working with adults and teachers here with Hillsdale K12,
- [11:50]
Tina Bolen
I don't know, teaching children, they don't ask as many questions. The teachers, it's hard because you tell them the first two days we want them to put on, you know, the student hat. They can't ask questions for the first couple of days. And then afterwards, okay, now we're going to teach you how to Teach this. First they have to learn it as a student, then they have to learn it as a teacher.
- [12:13]
Scott Bertram
Yeah.
- [12:14]
Tina Bolen
So that's, that's hard.
- [12:15]
Scott Bertram
What impact would you say the Treasure Valley Classical Academy is having on your community? The community in Fruitland, Idaho?
- [12:22]
Tina Bolen
It is phenomenal to hear how many parents want a better education for their students. We have, you know, waiting list in those younger grades. So many parents want their students to come in, in kindergarten and first gr and you can see such a need for it in our community. We have a little girl that came into our school in third grade. She was on the waiting list since kindergarten. So her mom was thrilled that she got into our school. And I think I don't have any proof of this, but just in hearsay that bringing our school into this community helps the other surrounding schools want to improve also as far as helping their students and stuff. So that's exciting. And year by year, we started as a K through 6 school. This year will be our first graduating class. So, you know, there's, there's such a learning curve in adding classes and getting new teachers and you know, what a high school needs compared to what a grade school needs is a world apart. But for us to have our students ready to go out into the world and, you know, apply for colleges to get their first jobs, it's just exciting to see in the community. And when we have like our veterans. Every year in November, we have a day to celebrate the veterans. And it's absolutely beautiful to see our entire school, kindergarten through 12th grade, was there to honor their veterans and our orchestra played and we had, you know, guest speakers from Idaho legislature, you know, come to say hello. We, we're here to support you and we love what's going on in your school. So I think it's a huge impact and parents are so grateful, so thankful to have a school where their children are learning virtue and they're learning, they're reading great classical books and they're learning how to be good human beings.
- [14:05]
Scott Bertram
And what about the effect on your family? You went from a 30 plus year homeschool family to a place where, as you told us earlier, all your grandchildren now are at Treasure Valleys. What effect has it had on your family?
- [14:18]
Tina Bolen
It's a great impact, to be honest with you. I have 28 grandchildren and 14 of them go to our school. So that's pretty exciting. A couple of them don't even live in the state of Idaho, so they couldn't go.
- [14:29]
Scott Bertram
That's tough. That's a long commute.
- [14:31]
Tina Bolen
Yeah, but so I. We have kindergarten through 12th grade grandkids. This year, our third grandson is going to be graduating. Our third grandchild is going to be graduating from TPC this year, and then he leaves and then two more come in as kindergartners next year. So that's exciting. And yeah, it's, it's really fun to see them at school, to, you know, watch them run together, to in carpool, you know, to go to their cars in the afternoon. And I always get hugs throughout the day, so that's exciting. Even my daughters and I talk about how wonderful it is to hear the older kids, my older grandkids, have great conversations about the books they're reading and the authors. And my one daughter said to me, she said, you know, mom, we homeschooled and we did a lot. She said, but I never heard my brothers have conversations like my sons have. And I said, I agree.
- [15:19]
Scott Bertram
Has there been a particular moment at Treasure Valley now you've been there, what, seven years or so at this point where it really was gratifying to say, oh, yes, this is why I decided to join Treasure Valley to join the classical education movement.
- [15:35]
Tina Bolen
I don't know if I could pinpoint one particular moment. I tend to absolutely squeal when I get my first readers when they're just starting to send out three letter words and they get their first little primary book and they read their first sentence and have these big eyes and they're so excited and they're like, I can read. And I just giggle along with them. I'm so excited that they actually can read. I see the other side of kids who are struggling and that they didn't get it when they needed it. You know, the basics of learning to read. And so when I see those older kids, I just recently got to talk to a fourth grader who became a tier one student this year for the first time, meaning they are on grade level. And I've worked with him since he came new to our school in second grade. And so, you know, he just beamed when I told him. I said, I am so proud of you. Your teacher told me how well you're doing this year. And so for a child who's been pulled out for two years, get extra help to realize I'm staying in the classroom and I'm, you know, that's exciting. You, you see the progress and, you know, it's not the goal of every student to read extremely fast because you want them to comprehend and then you want them to love reading. But for a child who struggles for Whatever reason, whether it's they're, you know, tracking with their eyes or they don't know the beginning basics of reading, when they get that and you can see that they're going to succeed, it's almost like I don't have to worry about you as much anymore. I've got kindergarteners now that I can focus on, so that's super exciting. And I, a couple years ago, I had two sixth graders who were very low and we just started reading first grade books. I took them after school for months and we read first grade books, then a couple of second grade books and a couple of third grade books. And I remember the very first time I brought out a book for one of them and it was a first grade reader, you know, and he opened it and all he said was, oh my gosh, there's so many words. And, you know, to see that. And months later for them to take on a third grade book and go, this is fun, you know, magic Treehouse book. You know that you're making progress, that you want them to love to learn at whatever level they're at, but if you can help them become closer to their class level so that they can succeed, then that's very rewarding.
- [17:49]
Scott Bertram
Tina Bolen is literacy coordinator at Treasure Valley Classical academy in Fruitland, Idaho, also literacy trainer for the Hills to College K12 education office. Tina, thanks so much for joining us here on the Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast.
- [18:06]
Tina Bolen
You are so welcome, Scott. Have a great day.
- [18:08]
Scott Bertram
I'm Scott Bertram. We invite you to like us on Facebook search for Hillsdale College K12 classical education. You also can follow us on Instagram hillsdalek12. That's hillsdalek12 on Instagram. Thank you for listening to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More at Podcast Hillsdale Edu or wherever you get your audio.