We're shining a light on education success stories and talking about current trends and topics of importance to the education community. Join us in conversation!
Cydney invites you on a journey into HeartMath's collaborative approach that turns schools into hubs of learning and growth. With only 30 minutes to an hour a week, volunteers equipped with a comprehensive curriculum can make a significant difference in a child's educational journey. Cydney's passion for fostering academic success and personal growth in young learners is infectious. Tune in to understand how you can become a part of this invaluable initiative, especially if you're in the Charleston area, and help transform lives through the power of math education.
Devin Pintozzi:
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at the South Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics with Cydney Clifton with HeartMath Tutoring.
Cydney Clifton:
Hello.
Devin Pintozzi:
Welcome.
Cydney Clifton:
Thank you.
Devin Pintozzi:
It's so great to see you here at the SCCTM. Can you tell us about what brought you here to this conference?
Cydney Clifton:
Yeah, absolutely so. Our organization works with elementary schools across the Carolinas, so the opportunity to come and learn from experts in the field and what's going on with math education from other educators is so valuable to us to make sure that we're aligned to what schools and districts are doing in South Carolina.
Devin Pintozzi:
Wonderful so with HeartMathTutoring is is that heartmattutoring. com?
Cydney Clifton:
Yes or .org
Devin Pintozzi:
. org.
Devin Pintozzi:
Wonderful nonprofit work. Yes, can you tell us about the community that you serve?
Cydney Clifton:
Yeah, absolutely. So. We recruit and bring community volunteers into elementary schools that have under-resourced students that wouldn't be able to have access to something like one-on-one private tutoring. So we recruit and train the volunteers to be able to deliver foundational math skills and number sense for 50 to 60 students per school site that we work with.
Devin Pintozzi:
That is wonderful. And what kind of? Do you have a success story you'd like to share that's gone on in the community?
Cydney Clifton:
Yes, I would love to. I think that. So our students are working. We assess the students in the beginning of the year to figure out what specifically their foundational skills that they're missing, and then they work at that level and at their own pace through the course of the year. So they're spending this hour a week working at a level that's appropriate and makes sense to them, and we're kind of chipping away at this lack of confidence or fear that they might have towards math. So one of my favorite things is just to see the students confidence from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Cydney Clifton:
We had a student last year. He was new to the country and you could tell he really understood the math but had a hard time explaining his thinking right. So that is where the tutor came in. So so they were spending these sessions. They were using cubes and dice and cards and bringing really that language, that mathematical language, to what was going on in his brain. And at the end of the year I assessed him and he would not stop talking like explaining everything. He would just walk through every single problem and at the end he goes I'm still working on my explaining and I was like you have come so far.
Devin Pintozzi:
Wow.
Cydney Clifton:
And I do wonder like without that kind of one-on-one time and that safe space, that would have probably been pretty hard for him to have that kind of confidence growth within the school year.
Devin Pintozzi:
There's nothing like the power of an educator or tutor or someone pouring into someone's life like that. That is so wonderful what you're doing. Can you share with us a little bit what brought you into HeartMath? You were in college.
Cydney Clifton:
Yes. So I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, after I graduated and I taught middle school, was a seventh grade social studies teacher and I taught math for a semester and then I was an instructional facilitator helping coach and support the teachers and I found Heart and so we work within public schools but we're a non-profit. So this kind of intersection of bringing community into schools and really seeing what wonderful things are happening I felt really excited about. And then the one-on-one piece. So I had 180 students when I taught because it was middle school block schedule and as much as I'd like to think I met each one of them, I know that there were ones that were falling through the cracks. So we really focus and give a lot of attention to our students to make sure that they're progressing as much as possible.
Devin Pintozzi:
That is fantastic. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with the SCCTM community?
Cydney Clifton:
Yeah, absolutely. We are in Charleston County School District in South Carolina right now. We've got about 160 students that we're working with across four school sites, so anyone in the Charleston area. We are still recruiting volunteers to be tutors. We provide the curriculum, an on-site staff person, all of the different pieces. They pick their school, their day of the week and their time and they tutor for 30 minutes or an hour once a week and then for the rest of the state. Like we're still very much interested in opportunities to grow and bring our mission to other cities, so if that's something that interests folks, I would be the person to talk to.
Devin Pintozzi:
Well, thank you so much, Cydney Clifton HeartMath Tutoring. Really appreciate you coming on board with us today, yeah, and I hope you have a very successful conference.
