On Monday, December 7th 2020, Malden High School started their online Peer Tutoring program. The Peer Tutoring program is meant to help kids after school who need help with their classes. It is an opportunity for students to help other students, everyone involved with the program is thrilled and ready to get started.
Too many students found themselves having a hard time with the first quarter of the school year and struggled trying to understand some of the material in different subjects. Stephanie Sibley and Kayla Scheitlin both have been working together to assist students who need help with their classes. The Peer Tutoring program also has additional support from different teachers and students who are excited about starting peer tutoring as well.
Although it is a great way for students to get help from fellow students, people are now starting to get used to how online school works. It will be difficult because now that everything is online, some things are unexpected. “Students are struggling at home, who have trouble asking teachers online for help, it’s hard to teach online classes and having to ask questions in front of everyone,” Guetchina Letang states.
Letang is one of the coordinators that started the job in February, a month before the pandemic hit. Letang is in her fourth year as an undergrad student. She wants to be there for students because she as a person understands what it is like to be a student doing online classes and can help students along the way.
The Peer Tutoring program is open for all grades where kids are tutoring other kids who they signed up.They will be willing to help the students who need help on their classwork. Peer tutoring will take place five days a week, and each day is a different subject, they spread it out so students who need to come on certain days can get help on certain subjects.
Christine Dibendetto states, that she “[thinks] it will be great, the kids will probably get something out of it, because they will have a one on one with the students.” Dibenedetto is one of the coordinators that help the students, she believes that this is a whole new different world we’re living in and all the new technology will definitely benefit people who would love to work from home in future job references.
This program is to offer students peer tutoring during the asynchronous time since they are not in the building and not able to assist students and do the after-school tutoring like they used to.
Peer tutoring is every day, Monday is for English learners kids who need help with their English,Tuesdays are math they have tons of math tutors, Wednesday’s focus is science and math, Thursdays is general reading and writing like English and History. Friday is world language. “[They] thought getting some help from peers might be more appealing to some students and it might give them additional support that some of them need,” Sibley says.
It is also a way for students to connect with other students and having that structured opportunity to talk and interact may be refreshing for some students. The outcome ultimately is that kids will improve their grades. There were too many kids who failed their classes in the 1st quarter. It is an opportunity so more students can know about this.
It’s a tough time for everyone and it can be difficult for many students to keep up with their schoolwork and try to understand life itself. “She is [I am] hoping after the new year we’ll be able to move into a hybrid schedule.” It is very much needed for many students, many are struggling in school, it has been detrimental for students and teachers the whole school year.
