Terrific Turn Out Welcomes Peer Tutoring's Return Back
Peer tutoring makes return with newly trained math tutors ready to help out students and teachers.
By Jisela Negrete
Peer tutoring makes return with newly trained math tutors ready to help out students and teachers.
By Jisela Negrete
After its noticeable absence for the fall semester, the Peer Tutoring program recently returned with the goal of providing more support to students and teachers during FLEX periods. Although the program started with a focus on math, support for other subjects will also be provided.
Thirteen student tutors, who were trained by math teachers Cem Yesilyurt, Aruna Renduchintala, Louburn Martinez and club president Lauren Chui, 12, and the program as a whole, hope to help students in all academic subjects. The training process involved two days in which students who decided to become tutors and those who were recommended by a teacher learned how to teach students. For the thirteen students who participated, this meant that they all became proficient in helping their peers and tutoring them in the subjects they struggle with.
“(For) any teacher that wants tutors in their FLEX classroom, we can assign student tutors who have applied to the program and gotten recommendations from other teachers in that subject. Then they'll go one day a week to that teacher's FLEX classroom to help out the students,” said Chui.
With the program now in place, teachers can request for a student tutor to help during FLEX. Many teachers are excited to have the extra assistance as the demand for help can become overwhelming.
“There is only one of me, (so) I can't run around and help everybody. I’m looking forward to that because it’ll be another person here that can help us,” said math teacher Whitney Goodman. “Especially for math, things can be done in so many different ways, so sometimes if the teacher teaches it in one way and you don’t get it, maybe the tutor will teach you a different way and you will get it.”
Math teacher JennieRae Paker agrees that the addition of tutors during FLEX will allow more students to get the help they need.
“I get 20 kids in here and they all need help with different assignments and I can’t get to them all. So the idea is to have a tutor help me help students,” said Paker.
Prior to the program, Chui has had previous experience with tutoring students on campus. When the peer tutoring program didn’t make a comeback last semester, she planned to bring it back to school for the spring semester to help teachers give more students the support they need.
“I talked to other teachers and figured out that they also wanted peer tutoring back. I was more determined to just do it myself so that it would be here and it would be here in the future,” said Chui. “It’s for every subject. It's just that the main area that we have been working with teachers in is math right now because it's really been the math teachers that are driving for flex tutoring. Math is just one of those subjects that a lot more students tend to struggle with.”
The goal of peer tutoring is to connect student tutors with students who are in need of help so that they can provide additional academic support that many teachers are unable to provide due to demand.
“Math teachers are really overwhelmed with handling class loads and also providing the individual attention students need. Having a one-on-one peer tutor connection can really provide that and be beneficial for both the students who are tutoring and students receiving tutoring,” said Chui.
As the program is being rebuilt, program founders have really needed the support of teachers on campus. Yesilyurt, who is also one of the advisers for the program, emphasizes how critical the staff support has been to get the program up and running.
“I’m really grateful for all the people who have helped me along the way. Mr. Burrell was a big help in getting me in touch with Lauren, who is the student club president. I also want to thank the department as well as the administrators. Mr. Craycroft, the principal, has been very supportive of this. A lot of people's support came with this and I’m grateful for that,” said Yesilyurt.
Thirteen student tutors, who were trained by math teachers Cem Yesilyurt, Aruna Renduchintala, Louburn Martinez and club president Lauren Chui, 12, and the program as a whole, hope to help students in all academic subjects. The training process involved two days in which students who decided to become tutors and those who were recommended by a teacher learned how to teach students. For the thirteen students who participated, this meant that they all became proficient in helping their peers and tutoring them in the subjects they struggle with.
“(For) any teacher that wants tutors in their FLEX classroom, we can assign student tutors who have applied to the program and gotten recommendations from other teachers in that subject. Then they'll go one day a week to that teacher's FLEX classroom to help out the students,” said Chui.
With the program now in place, teachers can request for a student tutor to help during FLEX. Many teachers are excited to have the extra assistance as the demand for help can become overwhelming.
“There is only one of me, (so) I can't run around and help everybody. I’m looking forward to that because it’ll be another person here that can help us,” said math teacher Whitney Goodman. “Especially for math, things can be done in so many different ways, so sometimes if the teacher teaches it in one way and you don’t get it, maybe the tutor will teach you a different way and you will get it.”
Math teacher JennieRae Paker agrees that the addition of tutors during FLEX will allow more students to get the help they need.
“I get 20 kids in here and they all need help with different assignments and I can’t get to them all. So the idea is to have a tutor help me help students,” said Paker.
Prior to the program, Chui has had previous experience with tutoring students on campus. When the peer tutoring program didn’t make a comeback last semester, she planned to bring it back to school for the spring semester to help teachers give more students the support they need.
“I talked to other teachers and figured out that they also wanted peer tutoring back. I was more determined to just do it myself so that it would be here and it would be here in the future,” said Chui. “It’s for every subject. It's just that the main area that we have been working with teachers in is math right now because it's really been the math teachers that are driving for flex tutoring. Math is just one of those subjects that a lot more students tend to struggle with.”
The goal of peer tutoring is to connect student tutors with students who are in need of help so that they can provide additional academic support that many teachers are unable to provide due to demand.
“Math teachers are really overwhelmed with handling class loads and also providing the individual attention students need. Having a one-on-one peer tutor connection can really provide that and be beneficial for both the students who are tutoring and students receiving tutoring,” said Chui.
As the program is being rebuilt, program founders have really needed the support of teachers on campus. Yesilyurt, who is also one of the advisers for the program, emphasizes how critical the staff support has been to get the program up and running.
“I’m really grateful for all the people who have helped me along the way. Mr. Burrell was a big help in getting me in touch with Lauren, who is the student club president. I also want to thank the department as well as the administrators. Mr. Craycroft, the principal, has been very supportive of this. A lot of people's support came with this and I’m grateful for that,” said Yesilyurt.