During the school year, TeAndrea Rowell teaches seventh and eighth grade science at Warren Central Junior High School, but come the summer, she shifts gears, helping students become better readers.

Rowell is a teacher in Central Mississippi Prevention Services’ summer reading program, working with fourth and eighth grade students to improve their reading comprehension and other skills.

“I really do have a passion for kids,” she said. “I love to see them learn.”

A native of Vicksburg, Rowell has been teaching science at Warren Central Junior High for eight years.

She worked in industry before she entered teaching, she said, “Because it was something I wanted to do when I got out of college, but other opportunities just presented themselves.

“When you have a change in life, it helps you re-evaluate. I was living in Georgia and worked in production control for Club Car. I was what they called a scheduler, doing schedules for making the cars, and in 2009, there was a downturn in the industry and I was laid off.”

The layoff, she said, provided the opportunity to go back to school and return home. She chose to teach science, because she has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in environmental science.

“I’ve always liked science, and I’ve always felt that science connects the world,” Rowell said.

And her assignment to Warren Central brought back some old memories.

“I went to Vicksburg High and I graduated in 1990. I was in the first class that graduated from what was then the new Vicksburg High. Before that, I attended at what is now Warren Central Junior High School. I was pretty excited that I would get to teach where I started.”

Rowell was working as a tutor in Central Mississippi Prevention’s after school program when she heard about the summer reading program and talked to director John Johnson about getting involved in the program.

“I’m an avid reader,” she said. “I told Mr. Johnson I like to read junk. Romance novels; we’ve (one class) read the Twilight series, and so many things out there and you don’t really think about it. It’s fun reading.”

Rowell said she began working with younger children, but now works with fourth through eighth grades.

“I really like to work with the fourth- through eighth-graders, because we can read all kinds (of books). They like the autobiographies, and during the six-week program they read four books; some kids read five, but we’ve had some kids read seven,” Rowell said.

“My goal is to read one book a week. The challenge was making sure they enjoy themselves, and if you have a good book, you can enjoy yourself.”

She said she brings science into her reading classes to increase interest, and has activities planned that tie in with reading each book. In one project, she said the students made gloves with each finger indicating an element of a story, like the characters, the plot and the climax of the story.

“They got to choose the books they wanted to read, so we had reading circles. We read the autobiographies of Jackie Robinson and Louis Armstrong, and a lot of baseball books,” Rowell said. “The most important thing was they were able to choose their books. We had 10 books for them to choose from and based on the book they chose that was the circle they were in.”

Rowell said allowing the children to choose their own books helps the their interest.

“When we get to the end of the summer and they realize they read seven books, they’re amazed. I enjoy seeing them enjoy the accomplishment they made,” she said.

In the beginning of the program, she said, the students are reluctant to be involved because it occurs during the summer, but that reluctance changes once they become involved in the program.

“Another thing is they get confidence because they make the choices,” she said, adding sometimes she sees some of her students in the class.

She keeps up to see how the students are doing and they can tell that because they’ve been reading more, they can see they’re getting better.

“I tell them, the more you read, the better you get, and especially when they can read something they like.

“I think that’s pretty good whenever kids can do that self-assessment and see it’s getting better,” Rowell said.

“I think reading and science go together. I tell them, ‘If you can read, you can do anything,’ I feel like it opens so many doors for them.”