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Firefly Education in Cookstown helping students lean core skills

April 18, 2013   ·   0 Comments

In this day and age, finding help for students struggling to make it through school is not an easy task, but Firefly Education in Cookstown wants you to know they are there to help and exist as an option.

Offering an extensive program catered to each individual student, owner Paul Valliere, 35, said his program can guarantee results.

“Our focus is on getting the fastest and best results we can,” he said. “We teach the core skills, so math, reading, writing and spelling, because if you can master those you can do anything else and apply it to anything, like geography or sciences.”

At Firefly, Valliere said a specific plan of action and course work is planned from a detailed assessment of the student.

“Right when they come in the door, we’ll come up with a snapshot of where their child is and plan to move ahead, so parents know where we’re heading,” Valliere said. “Sometimes a parent will bring their child in and say, ‘he needs help with math,’ but then we’ll do a assessment and find that they have a reading comprehension problem, which could be a big reason why the student is having a hard time with everything else. You’ve got to get right in there and treat the problem.”

Having been open just over a year, Firefly is now up to 15 students ranging from 5 years old to adults and four instructors. All sessions are one-on-one and each student typically visits Firefly twice a week for at least an hour per session.

Instructor Matt Funston, 27, has a background in English and works with the students on a regular basis, he said he is impressed with how detailed the assessments are in figuring out the needs of a particular student.

“The assessment that we do for each student is incredible and helps as far as modifying the teaching method for perhaps someone on an advanced learning cycle or accelerated students,” he explained. “That has always been very helpful and instructors we also know what we’re looking at before we start teaching.”

Funston said one thing he has noticed with his students is that a fear of the learning environment begins to dissipate as confidence is built up by the student learning the skills they need.

One of his students in particular, Funston said, has started to improve her reading skills, which has led to increased participation in school.

According to Funston, this confidence stems from students “mastering” the basic skills.

“One of the things about our program is that it’s about mastering skills. You don’t move ahead without having a solid foundation, because then things just start to erode as you keep on going. In turn, most students will start to hate that subject because it’s a roadblock.”

He also touted the one-on-one time with students as there is no “zoning out” or slacking as students are held accountable and know they are there to learn and do work.

“Because it is one-on-one you can give a lot of feedback and positive reinforcement to the students and that’s simply in a lot of cases not possible other than seeing a graded number on a piece of paper.”

Valliere added that the program not only holds the students accountable, but also the instructors because everything is so closely monitored, including the progress of the student.

“The course work is very clear and scripted,” he said. “We are held accountable to it as well. Our students don’t have time to keep trying something that doesn’t work and we have to get them working faster to get them on the same level as their peers,” Valliere said.

Valliere, who said he was labeled both gifted and learning disabled when he was in grade four, admitted it’s a big commitment for parents who are enrolling their children in the program, but confidently said results are guaranteed.

“It’s an investment and it’s worth it and we want the parents and students to know it’s worth it. We can guarantee results because everything is tailored to the specific student,” he said.

“They’ve got a goal and that goal is monitored every time they are here. Then they can see the progress to reaching that goal. They always have knowledge of what’s going on and how well they’re doing and the program can always change based on needs. We don’t have anything set in stone, it’s based on how well they’re doing and what they need. We have a 100% success rate. When they come in here they learn.”

Firefly is open by appointment all the time, including weekends. For more information visit www.fireflyeducation.ca

By Jeff Doner

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