Seniors Lend a Helping Hand with Peer Tutoring

Jenna Anderson, Co Editor-in-Chief|October 12, 2018

%28Left%29+Seniors+Emma+Teggatz+and+Lily+Gust+helping+out+underclassmen+during+SMART+Time+in+Dana+Melones+room.+

Dana Melone

(Left) Seniors Emma Teggatz and Lily Gust helping out underclassmen during SMART Time in Dana Melone’s room.

The class of 2019 National Honor Society officers recently chose a peer tutoring program for the senior class project.

“The purpose of the peer tutoring is to allow for students to have an option during SMART Time that they can go to and get more individual help from students who have been through the same thing,” Ben Koester, sr., NHS officer, said.

The four officers collaborated on the idea, with the goal of mingling upperclassmen and underclassmen in an academic way.

“Peer tutoring helps create a connection between students at Kennedy,” Lauryn Vaske, sr., NHS officer, said.

Currently, only National Honor Society members can sign up to be a tutor, but it will soon be available to all seniors.

“Once the program is off and running, we will make a Canvas page that is available to all seniors where they can find an electronic sign-up sheet and sign up to tutor,” Koester said.

As for underclassmen and juniors, they can get tutored at any time, as long as they communicate with teachers that have their rooms available.

“The tutoring occurs in different classrooms every SMART Time, depending on the subject’s tutorial days or days which the teacher has requested tutors,” Vaske said.

Teachers who are interested in helping with the program can find any of the NHS officers, or really any National Honor Society member to get involved. Aside from tutoring, teachers can get teacher support from seniors as well during SMART Time.

“Teachers can contact one of the four officers or Mrs. Kaspar about their needs for tutors or if they have an open room that they want to make available for tutoring,” Koester said.

The NHS officers hope to affect all students at Kennedy in a positive way with the new peer tutoring program.

“Students will be able to benefit because SMART Time is usually really crowded and it’s hard to get one-on-one time with a teacher to address a problem that a student is having,” Koester said. “With peer tutoring, students now have the option to go and get more individual help from their peers who have struggled with the same things they are struggling with.”