KP Writes: Vaughn Elementary Students Publish First Book

Twenty-seven students at Vaughn Elementary School, from second to fifth grade, published a hardcover book on the importance of hope June 21. Copies were distributed to the authors, the school, the Key Center library, and the Key Peninsula Business Association, which donated funds for the project.

The idea started with Martyna Tecl-Reibel, the Vaughn site coordinator for Communities in Schools of Peninsula. CISP site coordinators work with school counselors and teachers to assist students who need extra academic or emotional support, or even food and clothing, and arrange for volunteer mentors to work one-on-one with them.

“I love it,” said Tecl-Reibel. “I started working with kids in high school; I always wanted to work with kids that need some support and help.”

Tecl-Reibel received a master’s degree in child development and guidance from the University of Opole in her native Poland in 2007. She came to the U.S. with her American husband three years ago and started work for CISP at Vaughn in November.

After a few months of helping kids with reading, she and some teachers decided to start concentrating more on writing as well.

“We had this same way with months of doing the same thing, so maybe we can spice it up a little bit,” she said. “And what can I do to make it interesting, because I know they don’t want to write. I think, maybe we can publish a book. I remember this organization, this publishing house, for students to do this. I talked to teachers about students who weren’t the stars of the classrooms and that needed some kind of boost to work. So, I just presented that idea to them, and most said, ‘Yeah, sure, we want to be a published author.’ ”

The next task was figuring out what everyone would write about.

“The biggest thing that I see is, many students, they have some private hardships, they have some things they need to deal with that many adults wouldn’t be able to,” Tecl-Reibel said. “You know, as a kid, the awful thing is that you can’t really make your own decisions. You can’t just say, ‘OK, I’m leaving, I’ve had enough.’ You just have to deal with whatever it is you have to deal with. And if you don’t have a safe and stable life outside of school, it’s hard to focus on learning.”

The idea of writing about hope came to her after participating in a webinar about how to better work with students. “Hope is the main motivator,” she said. “If people don’t have hope generating their life, that’s not good. If you have hope, that sets goals and then you are motivated to work to achieve them.”

The book title, “Hold Onto Hope,” came from a fourth-grader named Kaylee who has a younger brother with a serious illness, and her family’s determination to “make as many memories” as possible with him. “Every week, some students wear T-shirts to promote awareness (of the disease) and on the back it says, ‘Hold Onto Hope,’ ” said Tecl-Reibel. “They thought it would be a good title. I said, ‘Yes, that’s perfect.’ ”

As with so much of writing, however, getting started was the most difficult stage.

“Many students, they would say, like, ‘When I get home, I hope to have chocolate cake.’ I’d say, that’s not really it,” Tecl-Reibel said. “More life goal. The bigger picture. And so that first stage was pretty hard for many of them to say what they really want.”

But it was a question some students had contemplated before.

There are stories about small dreams, like having ice cream whenever they want. There’s a story about competing in the Olympics. There’s a story about a hungry cat. There are stories about how hard it can be to keep friends. There are stories about bullying, fears about middle school, and writers hoping they will be able to control their emotions, so they won’t get in trouble.

Describing her experience with the book, a third-grader named Charlie said, “I thought it would be really good to tell people to follow their dreams because other people out there don’t have dreams. I just feel like sharing my life with people, and I can do that by writing.” Charlie’s dream is to become a teacher.

“I would like other kids to do it because it’s fun and then gives you courage,” said Graeme, also in third grade. “You put your book in other places and other kids can read it, and it’s just like, whoa, it’s all around. I’m not good at writing, and my handwriting is awful, but now I think, hey, I will be there. Like, you know, we can do it.”

A third-grader named Hailey had a more philosophic view and said she participated “Because Miss Martyna (Tecl-Reibel) shares kindness around, so if people don’t have stuff they need, she’ll give it to them, like backpacks and food and like a toothbrush, and I think that’s very helpful to everyone, and it makes me want to maybe do that too.”

Caiden, also in third grade, was more direct:

“Miss Martyna does a lot of stuff for the school district, there’s a lot more activities she does, but she really depends on us, so we can do a great job for helping other people.”

Colleen Speer, now in her 22nd year as executive director of CISP in Key Center, said “We are in 10 schools in the Peninsula School District and five in South Kitsap.” That includes 16 site coordinators, like Tecl-Reibert, eight full-time and five part-time administrative employees, and approximately 190 volunteers.

“We are still focusing on the same core areas of student support as in past years, but now especially attendance since COVID,” she said. “It affects academic performance, it affects behavior, it affects emotional learning. Social-emotional learning has been a big push post-COVID; that impact doesn’t just go away.”

Support can vary from motivating students to go to school to participate in a site coordinator’s project, like the Vaughn book, to meeting with mentors, to receiving tangible help. “Their everyday basic needs can be huge,” Speer said. “So we help as much as we can to get clothing, food, gift cards, gas cards, things like that into the hands of parents and students so they can survive.”

CISP is also always in need of volunteers, she said.

“Programs don’t change lives, relationships do. That’s really the core of our work, that one-on-one connection, and our site coordinators have really been the magic that carries us through the job every day. It makes the kids want to come back to school.”

Tecl-Reibert said, “I think what people tell you that you are, you become, you know? When you don’t think about yourself highly, when you are the student that is always getting in trouble or doesn’t have good grades, when you’re in that position, it’s hard to be better. This is why I wanted to involve students that don’t have great grades, that do struggle, and writing this book was a struggle, but they all stayed, they all did it and made their goal. Now they can think, ‘I can do what I thought would be maybe impossible if I work hard, if I ask for help, if I have support — I can do better.’

“That was my goal,” she said.