When I was a student at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, we had a
cooperative program with schools in the town where HPA students were regularly
tutoring Waimea Elementary/ Intermediate School students in Math.
I participated in that program; I was helping an algebra student at
Waimea Intermediate.
It dawned on me one day that we had students in need at HPA; why
weren’t we also helping them?
I approached the administration about this and in their typical fashion
they said, great idea, go implement it.
They weren’t being lazy in that response; it was typical, because they
encouraged students to think of new ideas and then gave us the freedom to put
those ideas to work.
My plan was to partner students successful in Math with students who
were having problems, using grades as the basic guideline.
To keep the focus on education, the pairs would use empty classrooms
for the tutoring (rather than in the dorm rooms.)
There were lots of volunteers (another lesson taught to us at HPA.)
The school trusted me enough to give me full access to all student
records.
That, in itself, is amazing, when you think about it.
I think back on this often; it’s one of my proudest moments.
I am humbled by the extreme level of trust and confidence the school
administration placed in me (a high school senior) in fulfilling my commitment
to keep all records confidential – to this day, I have honored that
responsibility.
Unfortunately, in today’s world of distrust and fear, I don’t see this
kind of thing happening for anyone else.
I went through each student’s report card and interim grades and, based
on their grades, identified the prospective tutors and tutees. I also had the student and classroom use
schedules.
I contacted each prospect (tutor and tutee) to check their willingness
to participate (no one was forced into the program.)
Compatible student volunteers were then matched with students in need
and the team was fit in an empty classroom when each had an open period in his
schedule. (Yes, there were also lots of
logistical issues in setting this program up.)
I picked the student who was having the hardest time in Math.
The program worked – students were helping students, and those having
challenges in Math had the added benefit of getting insights from his peer.
No comments:
Post a Comment