Reporter Kaoutar Wakaf also contributed to the article.
Every year starting in late October, The Peer Tutoring Program becomes available all the way up until May. The tutoring sessions usually take place in the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. Peer Tutoring is a program that Malden High School provides for its students. It is a place where they can get help with their homework and where they can come if they are struggling with a particular topic or subject.
In Malden High School, there are times in a classroom where students may not be able to get the help they need from their teacher, whether it is because of the large amount of students in the class, or the fact that all students have different ways to learn certain subjects.
The person behind creating this program is Arlene Ceppetelli. Ceppetelli is a retired teacher from Malden High School. She now works for The Malden Teen Enrichment Center. Back in 2013, Ceppetelli became the coordinator for Peer Tutoring. It was her and Cathy MacMullin’s idea to initiate the program.
According to Ceppetelli, there is not a strict system for picking out students if they want to become a peer tutor. She said “[she] simply [puts] it out there that [they are] looking for tutors.” She believes that “if anyone wants to help somebody out, [she] think[s] that’s wonderful.”
In general, the students who go after school seem to respond to the peer tutoring very well, especially the ones who stay for the full two hours. The schedule for the sessions are made to be flexible since Ceppetelli knows how busy students can be, which is why there are only two days out of the week when peer tutoring happens.
Ceppetelli said that “most of [the students] have told [her] that they’ve really benefited from it. One girl once told [her] she had gone from a D to a B plus.”
All of the staff who help with the program seem to always find the work all worth it in the end when they see students’ faces when they’re having the moment where they finally understand and get what they did not know before.
Tutor Shreesha Jamkatel, a senior, says that a big benefit from peer tutoring was that it “definitely helped [her] with communication skills and interactions with other people.” She also feels a sense of achievement when she sees students succeed because of her help. She expressed that “[she feels] happy and proud,” adding that tutoring has been a highlight of her two years teaching at Malden High.
From Librarian Mary Liberge’s perspective, she claims that “there’s no better way to use this space.”
