Being a teacher requires a certain degree of fearlessness, which, as you can see in the photo above, Liane Measell has in great measure. A retired teacher with 35 years of experience in early childhood special ed, Liane moved to Asheville last year and was ready for a new challenge. After reading an article about Open Doors of Asheville, Liane decided that volunteering for the organization would be a great way for her to stay engaged in education and improving the lives of children. She started tutoring at the Open Doors-sponsored afterschool program at Asheville's Lee Walker Heights community.
Throughout her career as a teacher, Liane often worked with children who had developmental delays, focusing on their phonemic awareness. Because of her interest in language development and processing, she took interest when she heard about the Orton-Gillingham Associate Level training Susie offers at Camp Spring Creek's Training and Outreach Center in Spruce Pine. Liane completed the 60-hour training last January.
This summer, she has worked with five students at Camp Spring Creek. It's been an "immersive" experience, she says, getting to work so closely with students. The key to success, she says is "teamwork and community." The whole staff at camp works together and supports each other as well as the campers. It's intense and rewarding, she says, but if feels great when she knows her efforts are paying off. Liane cites in particular a student she was working with on phonogram clusters. She asked the student to think of an instance when he could hear a phonogram cluster and he gave a very umpire-like rendition of "Strrrr-ike: you're out!"
When she's not teaching, Liane, a native of New Hampshire, can be found pursuing adventures in the outdoors, one of the chief reasons she chose Asheville as her new home. We're so glad to have Liane with us this summer, applying all her experience and commitment and enriching the lives of our campers.
