RBHS terminated the Advisory+ program, implemented the “10-40-40” advisory format and added upperclassman tutors this year to streamline and improve how advisory works for freshmen.
The “10-40-40” system refers to how the 90 minute period is split up. During the first 10 minutes, students and mentors settle into the classroom and discuss school events. The next 40 minutes are study for classes and homework. The last 40 minutes consist of games to give students a break from the school day and participate in group activities.
Advisory mentors, made up of senior students and the new addition of juniors, help run these classes. To become a mentor or tutor, upperclassmen turned in a teacher recommendation at the end of last year and filled out an application listing extracurriculars, ways they have demonstrated leadership in the past and characteristics they would use to describe themselves.
They also met with guidance counselors who interviewed them before the coming year. At these meetings, they were asked how they might handle different scenarios involving new freshmen. For example, one of the questions asked was what advice they would give to a student balancing home problems and school life.
Their main duties are to help the new students settle into the routine of high school and promote school involvement. Junior Hannah Rettke is a mentor who assists with this process.
“My hope is to be an upperclassman that they can look up to and ask questions about school or things going on in their life as well as form solid relationships within our advisory,” Rettke said. “I also have an obligation to update the freshman on what events are going on and how they can get involved in activities and events occurring at Rock Bridge.”
The addition of upperclassman tutors was another new change made this year. They assist other students with subjects such as math, science, or civics studies.
“We realized that we had a significant untapped resource when it came to tutoring in our upperclassmen student population,” said EEE coordinator James Meyer. “Teachers know one of the best ways to solidify the learning you’ve done in previous classes is to be in a position to have to tutor it or teach it. So in that way, we’re not just serving the freshmen who are having issues, we’re also serving the tutors who are willing to help out.”
Senior Greta Scheidt, a math tutor, agrees with Meyer’s philosophy. She finds it valuable to take on a teaching position and have the ability to practice breaking concepts down in an understandable way. Although tutoring is helpful to her, her main goal is to be available to freshmen students.
Based on Scheidt’s experience, peer tutors are helpful because freshmen can receive immediate feedback on homework and have questions answered in varied ways. This also takes a load off of teachers in the success center.
“I think the biggest thing that can be done to improve the program is for teachers to continue encouraging students to use the peer tutors for help,” Scheidt said, “and reminding them that it is never a bad thing to seek help.”
Another change was the termination of Advisory+, advisory periods only consisting of gifted students. Meyer oversaw this change.
Since former EEE coordinator Gwen Struchtemeyer retired last year, Meyer has been the only person in charge of gifted student affairs. He realized that if he continued to teach the Advisory+ section, it would take up half of his schedule, and he would only have a couple of periods within the day to interact with his sophomores, juniors and seniors. His solution was to integrate gifted students back into the general advisory system.
Freshman Brook Novinger, a gifted student, is disappointed that she won’t have advisory with other EEE students.
“Advisory can be a nice place to get homework done,” Novinger said, “but I’d rather have a class where I can be creative and do fun projects like we did in EEE.”
Although students like Novinger are upset by the removal of the Advisory+ section, Meyer believes that having EEE students spread among different advisories will, in fact, strengthen them.
In order to ensure gifted students still interact with each other, Meyer decided to run meetings every three weeks with groups of freshmen students so they can get to know each other. Novinger attended the first meeting. She and others at the meeting were given a sheet of paper with lists of classes they had in common with other EEE students so they have peers to talk to and get help from.
“We know that there are a fair amount of EEE students who can work with each other to get tutoring issues solved,” said Meyer, “work with students having issues in classes that are on-level, and can then act as informal tutors when a question comes up.”
Do you like the new changes to advisories and the tutor system this year? Let us know in the comments below.
