AP Language Support Program

Diana Garcia:After teaching for 20 long years and being an assistant principal for two, Diana Garcia enjoyed a much-deserved break from the educational world. However, like many great professionals, she was unable to stay away from her field of expertise for long. She was ready to get back to working with students and educating.“I became a volunteer because I wanted to share my strengths and my experience in teaching this class with current students and help as much as possible,” Garcia said.For 12 years she taught AP English and understands the difficulty of the class for all students and the significance of the program here at Samo.“It’s a very difficult course for most students and for most teachers, but I believe in the program and I believe all students should have the opportunity to be exposed to this kind of discipline in learning and in teaching,” Garcia said.As an experienced educator, Garcia believes that teaching is about the rigor, discipline, and significance of being a student and being able to see the growth within a student after they’ve gone through the course.“AP English is about what you learn by challenging yourself as a student and also being able to really learn about great literature and how to write about it,” Garcia said. Barbara Bilson: Barbara Bilson is another volunteer titan with the program who retired after teaching for 30 years at Samo.“When I retired, I wanted to do something for my own community, something that would use my skills,” Bilson said. “So I approached the school and they thought it was a good idea.”After volunteering with AP Language and Support she has noticed the effects the program has left on both the students and the teacher.“It’s a wonderful opportunity to give the students extra support, and working with the students has been marvelous. They really seem to appreciate the extra help, because when a teacher has 40 kids in the class, it’s impossible to give the extra attention a certain student may need,” Bilson said.Bilson began volunteering three years ago and has loved the experience so far and can’t wait for many more years to come. “The teachers I’ve worked with are all so creative and engaged, and I love helping and teaching with the program, because it gives me an opportunity to work with students again,” Bilson said. Robert Thais:Robert Thais taught at Samo for 22 years before beginning his new career as a bona fide volunteer last year.“I retired six years ago and did various things, but not teaching and a year ago when I first volunteered, I thought I’d like a little dose of teaching again,” Thais said.Thias loves teaching high school students, and has enjoyed his experience with the program. “The big fun of teaching is [that] the kids and I get to have that fun again and I love that,” Thais said.After joining the program a year ago and working with multiple AP English classes, Thias has really enjoyed the process and the wisdom he has been able to share with students.“The students have been the delightful part because I get to work with small groups so we get to joke around a little bit, have a good time, but I also, every once in a while, get to teach whole class lessons because I was a real teacher and I can teach the kids some of what I think is my wisdom,” Thais said.Through his experiences with the program, he was able to see the improvements certain individuals that he worked with often were able to make despite the difficulty of only getting to work with them once a week.“Last year I saw big improvements in writing,” Thais said. “Even when the classroom teacher really didn’t want me to work on writing, I always kind of naturally gravitated toward that and I did definitely see some progress in the writing of the students that I worked with a lot.