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Honor societies begin Virtual Peer Tutoring Center to give helping hand
MON.| 10-26-20 | FEATURES
Due to COVID-19, some students have had a hard time adapting to virtual learning. Many students are struggling to adapt to this new learning style, which has caused tutoring to become an important necessity for those who need additional guidance. Students at Rose are now provided free one-on-one tutoring sessions with the development of the Virtual Peer Tutoring Center (VPTC). This resource will be used by multiple honor societies to tutor several core subjects and is now being utilized by the math department. Senior Kelli Melvin and junior Brighton Hou are among the members of Mu Alpha Theta that are using this new resource to tutor math students. The VPTC allows students to receive needed tutoring while providing an opportunity for honor society members to earn credits.
Our teachers here at Rose are trying their best to make sure each student is getting the proper education and material for each class. Even with teachers making the extra effort to make hybrid learning as smooth as possible, they are not able to have one-on-one interaction because their time is limited.
“Maintaining a close relationship with a teacher is much harder through virtual learning, more importantly, getting one-on-one help from a teacher can be especially hard during these times,” Hou said. “By attending tutoring sessions, students can get the help they need that is specific to them.”
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Both Melvin and Hou, have had to learn to be super cooperative and be flexible with their peers they are working with. Melvin feels that tutoring has been a lot more challenging not being face-to-face. They have to learn how to use the camera and screen share with the students and she feels that she has to really go the extra mile to allow the student to get the full experience out of each session. Melvin feels it is more of a challenge to do tutoring sessions via Zoom because it is harder to show math problems worked out. Camera quality is not always the best so instead, Melvin has to do a lot of verbal explanation.
“Since it is all online it has been a lot different. We’ve had to do some screen sharing and just be a lot more patient,” Melvin said.
One of the main issues that Mu Alpha Theta tutors are facing is minimal participation. Many students do not know that these sessions are available. So far, fewer students have attended the tutoring sessions. Hou has tried his best to spread the word to lowerclassmen who may need the extra guidance.
“There has been a significantly less amount of students showing up compared to previous years, I believe this is simply due to the fact that [not many students know that Mu Alpha Theta is offering virtual tutoring services yet],” Hou said. “Spreading this information by word of mouth is how I would usually go about doing it.”
While both Melvin and Hou tutor in Mu Alpha Theta which focuses on math, they have to plan out strategies that will help them to successfully benefit their peers. Since half the time we are virtual and not face-to-face, the tutors have to put more effort into each session and clarify things more. Hou and Melvin have had to adjust to the virtual learning platforms to have beneficial tutoring sessions.
“With the Zoom camera, it is hard to show worked-out problems so you have to do a lot of explaining,” Melvin said.
The VPTC is a very beneficial program for students who are in need of extra support. Not many students are aware of the program and both Melvin and Hou hope that this program will grow so they can help their peers who are struggling, especially during remote learning. To get further insight on VPTC contact Kinsley Tate White for more information and support.
