Volunteer puts his stamp on students’ learning experiences
By MIKE ROTHMAN
Forum Publishing Group
January 28, 2009
The School District of Palm Beach County recently announced the 2008-09 Palm Beach County outstanding student, adult and senior school volunteers.
Ira Klosk of Poinciana Elementary School in Boynton Beach is the senior volunteer of the year.
Klosk, a retired lawyer from New York, has been a volunteer at the school for the past six years.When he moved to Florida, he had heart bypass surgery and after that decided to do the things he always wanted to do.
“My wife told me that I have always been involved with public education, so I should probably volunteer down here,” he said.
Klosk has recruited more than 125 retired volunteers and has started lunchtime programs at the school.
One of the lunch programs is a stamp collection activity that teaches geography and history. Each week, the 80 children in the program get a packet of stamps from a different country and discuss that country.
“With the stamp program, he is bringing stuff to these kids that they would otherwise never see,” said BettyAnn Adams, school spokeswoman. “I used to think stamps were boring until I talked to Ira about them.”
He has also started a chess program where every kindergarten student learns chess as part of their curriculum, and he also started a money and investing activity for fifth- graders.
“All these programs are based on helping the kids reach their max potential,” Klosk said. “Chess teaches the children to think in a logical way. We have some kids who last year never saw a chess board but now are on the chess team.”
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Kudos to Mr. Klosk.