Continuing Diane Holum's legacy

Deb Gau
GRANITE FALLS — Teachers in the Yellow Medicine East School District were gathered for staff development on Thursday morning when they received the news that fellow teacher Diane Holum had died. When faced with the choice to take some time out or continue with staff development, YME Elementary Principal Stacy Hinz said, they decided to continue. It was what Holum would have wanted.

“We were gathered this morning as a K-6 staff, and it was kind of a question of, do we stop what we’re doing? In Diane’s honor, we continued with our professional development,” Hinz said.

Holum was a mentor and trainer for many area teachers through the Reading Recovery literacy program. On Wednesday, Holum died after a fight with multiple myeloma, Hinz said. She had been in hospice in Willmar for a little more than 10 days.

“It was something we knew about for a while, but still it feels like it’s not real yet,” Hinz said. “She lived her life with complete grace . . . She was really a magnet for a lot of people.”

Not long before she died, her fellow educators created the Minnesota Literacy Scholarship in Holum’s honor. Hinz and YME Reading Recovery teacher Kerri Schackelford said they hoped the scholarship established in Holum’s honor would allow her teaching work to continue.

Introduced by Minnesota Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Tonya Person in late February, the Minnesota Literacy Scholarship is aimed at teachers, not kids. Hinz said the scholarship would provide funds to allow teachers to attend the annual National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Conference in Ohio.

Reading Recovery is a program developed by New Zealand educator Marie Clay to help teachers reach out to young students struggling with reading and writing. Teacher leaders provide ongoing training for Reading Recovery teachers. The teachers, in turn, give kids daily lessons personalized for their own needs and learning styles.

At YME, children entering first grade are tested on their reading skills a couple of weeks before school begins, Shackelford said. The children with the lowest scores spend half an hour every day with a Reading Recovery teacher.

“For 16 to 20 weeks we’re with them every day,” Shackelford said. “In about a half day, you can work with four students one-on-one. You don’t have time to do that in a class of 18 or 20 students . . . but in Reading Recovery, you can.”

Shackelford says Reading Recovery often brings struggling kids’ reading skills closer to the average for their age. Teachers can also get a better sense of whether a child may have learning disabilities.

Holum was involved in the Reading Recovery program from about 1997, Hinz said, and she was passionate about her work from the start.

“She went through teacher leader and literacy training at USD-Vermillion, so she actually lived out there for a year learning to be a teacher leader,” Hinz said. Although she had an office at Bert Raney Elementary in Granite Falls, Holum had responsibilities to a bigger region.

“She trained teachers from all over, some from Richfield and the Twin Cities,” Hinz said.

Besides being a driving force behind Reading Recovery in the area, Holum was also a mentor and sounding board for many teachers.

“For me, and for a lot of the teachers, a lot of them would use her to share their thinking,” Hinz said. “She had this very unusual gift for just listening to people and helping to further their thinking.”

“She also didn’t have just quick, pat answers,” Shackelford added. “She had these answers that would make you think a little more.”

“Angie Jans - a Reading Recovery teacher - she wrote me a note,” after hearing the news of Holum’s death, Hinz said. In the note, Jans said, “It was an honor to know Diane as a teacher and as a friend. We will miss her presence in the world.”

Hinz and Shackelford said they thought the literacy scholarship was one of the most appropriate ways they could think of to remember Holum.

“Diane has never been about just herself,” Hinz said. “We had kind of wanted to name the scholarship after her, but she wouldn’t have liked that.”

Becky Leiseth, a longtime friend and coworker of Holum, shared similar feelings.

“Diane chose to live life in a way that can only be admired. She knew that the important moment is now, the important one is the one you are with, and the most important thing to do is to do good for the one who is at your side. She always had time for others, treated everyone with importance and chose to make the world a more beautiful place,” Leiseth said.

As of Thursday, Hinz said teachers didn’t have any specifics on when services for Holum would be.

“One of the things Diane had said was she wanted to have a celebration for her life,” Hinz said.

Contributions to the Minnesota Literacy Scholarship can be made online by going to the Reading Recovery Council of North America Web site, www.rrcna.org, and clicking on “Make a Gift.” Enter “Minnesota Literacy” in the special instructions section to direct the donation.



dgau@marshallindependent.com