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Read Aloud America
RAP - The Read Aloud Program Resources |
Leadership
Jed Gaines, businessman and founder of Read Aloud America, is the RAP Director. Since 1985, Jed has read aloud in classrooms across the state of Hawai'i and made numerous presentations to parents, students, teachers, and librarians nationwide. His monthly column, "Read Aloud", appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser for seven years. Formerly Public Relations Consultant for
the Curriculum Research and Development Group/University Laboratory
School at the University of Hawai'i, Jed is with the Rotary Club of
Honolulu and active on
numerous community boards, including Kids Voting Hawaii and the Hawaii
Library Foundation. He also serves as Director and Senior Mediator for
the Mediation Center of the Pacific. |
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Contact Us
Lt. Govenor, Duke Aiona, speaks with Jed at a RAP Session at Nanaikapono Elementary School.
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Jim Harstad, teacher and Director of Performance English at the University Laboratory High School at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa supports RAP as a curriculum specialist and reader. Jim is the creator of the "Golden Triangle," a reading/writing strategy that incorporates reading aloud with journal free writing and vocabulary development. He holds a Masters degree in English from the University of Hawai'i and has taught English at the University Lab School since 1971. He and his wife Cheryl have published textbooks and other classroom materials for the Curriculum Research and Development Group, University of Hawaii.
Tracey Saiki : Tracey Saiki is the senior strategic planner at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. She is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves as a public affairs officer assigned to HQ Pacific Air Forces at Hickam Air Force Base. She has family roots here in Hawaii. Being a part of RAP, Tracey knows she has found a way to be a positive influence on Hawaii's children and their families. Tracey began with Read Aloud America as a volunteer reader in 1999, and years later became a RAP coordinator for several schools. For the past three years, Tracey has been a parent trainer/presenter. She has found her “happy place” and is proud to be a part of the RAA ohana.
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Ted Norris : Ted is a businessman whose work history has spanned a wide range of administrative and staff position and vocational fields. He can easily attest to the ever-growing need for the fostering and development of the innate ability to read and read well in this day and age. Ted is the Program director for The Queen's Medical center Wound Care Center and solely responsible for the start-up joint-venture between curative Health Systems and The Queen's Medical center. Ted got involved with RAP 2001 at Kaneohe Elementary School upon his children's request to "Please come, Daddy .. it'll be fun!" and fun it was. From the get-go, the energy that is created in a RAP session is unsurpassed. He awoke the very next Saturday morning to the sound of pages rustling in the living room versus the sound of the Cartoon Network blaring out of the family room. Katie and Connor were actually reading books on their own instead of staring at the boob-tube for the first time! They still watch cartoons now and then, but they also read every single day. Ted and his wife, Anna, try to read to them every night and that love of and for books is perpetuated with regular trips to state libraries and local bookstores.
Ted presents awards at the end of a RAP Session |
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E-mail us: read@readaloudamerica.org Copyright 2008 Read Aloud America - all rights reserved | |
As a RAP presenter, Ted tries to create that fervor for the love of
reading and being read to in every session he attends. Loving to read
and loving to be read to creates lifetime familial bonds that are
rock-solid and ever-lasting.. E komo mai, come to a RAP session in
your local neighborhood and help spread the word that reading is FUN!