Teachers typically attempt to finish a lesson in fifty-five minutes, regardless of the distractions, disruptions, or amount of confusion. This can be frustrating for students who feel that they don’t completely absorb the material in that time period. Especially because students are tested on this material in class, and sometimes even later on larger tests, like the AP exams. Students also experience frustration when they have questions about long term assignments, which aren’t discussed in class, like term papers, senior projects, or research papers.
Often times teachers will be available at lunch; however, lunch is also a prime time for club meetings, making up assignments, or just eating and having a conversation with your peers. Lunch time in classrooms can also be very distracting because some students will sit in classrooms just to chat, huddled in a loud, large group, while others are working on assignments. In my experience I have found help after school or on the weekends to be most effective and I have benefitted most from my teacher’s dedication in that time period.
Ellen Wong is the director of the Humanities International Studies Program (HISP) at McClatchy and teaches three periods a day. She is extremely busy, but she still makes time to offer her students extra help outside of school. Lori Jablonski teaches HISP seniors with Mrs. Wong. Both teachers take four weekends in late November and early December to help their HISP seniors with their term papers. They edit outlines, introductions, and citations. Mrs. Wong says giving her students feedback before they turn in the papers makes her less frustrated when grading because students can use her previous feedback as a model to help as they write. Due to this, the grades of the terms paper have risen. However, Mrs. Wong notes that only those students who go in and take advantage of the help benefit. Guidance on a research paper, especially one that is worth a large percentage of a final grade, helps ensure that students can avoid taking a hit to their grade.
Along with Mrs. Wong and Mrs. Jablonksi, Crystal Nishizaki, the Geometry and Calculus AB teacher offers help outside of class on a regular basis. Ms. Nishizaki offers hour long study sessions after school before every test in her class. She goes over questions that students have and then prepares a few probable test questions, meaning that if you attend the study session, you are preparing yourself well for the test. When I was in both of Ms. Nishizaki’s classes (geometry and calculus) I consistently did better on tests when I had gone to the study session. Along with study sessions for her own tests, Ms. Nishizaki offers study sessions, starting around March, every Sunday afternoon from 4-7 at Round Table on Freeport to help her students prepare for the AP test in May. Not only does Ms.Nishizaki have multiple binders of practice problems and answer keys showing all the work, but she also offers to go through the problems step by step individually if you ask her for help. The study sessions were productive and since she offered so many I felt prepared even without attending all of them. I would not have been able to pass the Calculus AP test had it not been for Ms. Nishizaki’s help. On a side note, Ms.Nishizaki would also buy pizza to help ease the pain of Calculus and give us brain food, which demonstrates how above and beyond Ms.Nishizaki goes for her students.
I understand teachers have complete lives of their own and cannot always make themselves available on a consistent basis, however teachers who offer their emails and make an effort to respond after school also benefit their students. For example, HISP senior teacher Brian Perry makes an effort to respond to emails frantically typed by students trying to find the meaning of a text. Just simple feedback is extremely helpful.
Overall I understand that teachers don’t have time to hold your hand and walk you through every assignment, but when teachers make an effort to help above and beyond the norm it is noticeable and extremely appreciated by myself and many other students.
One reply on “Teachers Who Offer Extra Help”
Ms. Nishizaki is one of the best math teachers ever. I had her for two out of four years of HS @ Sac. Senior HS way back when. She made the class fun and was social. She invited those of us on the math club to her house. I became a math major in college, too, thanks to her. Nobody doesn’t like Ms. N.