Time for tutoring
Jamie Watts and Nancy Righi enjoy socializing as well as the homework help.
By staying at school after the final bell rings to do homework, freshmen in a Pueblo Magnet High School tutoring session find their grades are going up.
That was the intention of the sessions, said Saul Ostroff, a Pueblo counselor and teacher. He said that if students pass algebra with an A, B or C, they're more likely to graduate from high school and go on to post high school programs that will prepare them for a career or occupation.
Math teacher Jennie Elrod tutors students.
Because 60 percent of freshmen get D's or F's in core subjects such as integrated science, algebra and English, it's important to provide help with homework, Ostroff stressed. At the tutoring sessions, no lectures are given nor extra work assigned. Instead, students finish their homework with the help of Jennie Elrod, a Pueblo algebra teacher; Baltazar Alcantara, a Pueblo English teacher; and Ostroff. All three took workshops on strategic tutoring from Maryann Judkins, a University of Arizona instructor.
"It's good for them to be in a study environment where they can focus on their study skills," Elrod said. "It's encouraging for them to work here. We make it fun to be here and to finish their homework before they leave."
Itzayana Vejar appreciated the help. "If I don't understand something, they explain it to me," he said. "It's easier to do my homework in here." Sitting next to him, Damen Romero commented, "When I'm here, I'm doing work and I'm getting help from my teacher."
Luis Laguna, Mireya Gamez and Itzayana Vejar finish homework and improve grades.
At another table, Jamie Watts worked on a geometry assignment, saying, "It's a safe place to get help with the work you don't understand." She and her classmate, Nancy Righi, who read a book for English, had another reason for coming to the sessions, and it was more socially motivated. "You can meet new people here," Righi said.
The sessions were helping her improve her reading skills. "It's tricky," said Righi. "It's hard to pronounce words that I don't know. We help each other a lot."
Watts said the tutoring helped her keep her mind on the homework. "If you go home, you start watching TV and it gets your mind off your work," she explained.
Teacher and counselor Saul Ostroff helps Isaiah Martinez finish his math, a difficult subject for many students.
Elrod said parents like the tutoring sessions because many times they don't know how to help high school students with assignments, especially in math, and they give up.
Ostroff said the Academic Progress Account weekly check-in form shows that students' grades have steadily improved. The Ds and 's have moved up to As, Bs and Cs, he reported.
The sessions run from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. each week day except Wednesday, when the sessions are from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Students were recruited last spring and recommendations also came from counselors.
Tucson City Council Ward 1 kicked in $6,000 and Ward 5 added $5,089 to finance the tutoring.