Lunch-time club encourages students to become teachers
While some high school students spend their days after school
working on their own homework assignments, Ruth Perez and Missael
Diaz are helping other students get ahead. They are just two of the
high school students involved in Club Ed, a program that pairs up
elementary, middle school or high school kids with a peer
tutor.
Lunch-time club encourages students to become teachers
While some high school students spend their days after school working on their own homework assignments, Ruth Perez and Missael Diaz are helping other students get ahead. They are just two of the high school students involved in Club Ed, a program that pairs up elementary, middle school or high school kids with a peer tutor.
Perez, a sophomore, signed up for Club Ed at the beginning of the school year because friends of hers were involved. She works with a fourth-grader and an eighth-grader after school four days a week.
After school she can be found in the San Benito High School library with one of her students by her side.
“It gives us an opportunity,” Perez said. “It shows how teachers work.”
She is interested in becoming a teacher herself someday, so the club is good practice.
Rachel Flores-Zepeda, a Spanish teacher at San Benito High School, started Club Ed with a grant from California State University, Monterey Bay five years ago.
“They were looking for a willing teacher to start a future teachers’ club,” Flores-Zepeda said.
The club has 50 active members this year, though only 35 of them are involved with tutoring. Some students just participate in the club activities. Club members meet twice a month in Flores-Zepeda’s classroom. Once a month they have guest speakers, usually a panel of SBHS teachers.
“I ask the kids to give me ideas, but if I let them choose they would just want the cutest or handsomest new teacher all the time,” she joked. “I’ve had a panel from the English department or a panel of new teachers.”
Students gathered at the March 11 meeting to celebrate birthdays and honor students with perfect attendance to the year’s meetings.
The main component is tutoring, but the second part is to get ethnic students interested in going to college and studying to be a teacher. With some of the left over grant money, Flores-Zepeda is able to pay for graduating seniors to take the CBEST, a state test required to be a substitute teacher.
As for the tutoring, students need at least a 3.0 GPA and most of the students are bilingual. Tutoring is $13 an hour, much less than for-profit tutoring services or private tutors. Student tutors keep what they earn, but they are limited to three hours per week.
“[Flores-Zepeda] comes in the library and checks what we are doing and gives us advice,” Perez said. “She said ‘don’t sit across from your student. Sit side by side so they feel you are really helping.'”
Flores-Zepeda pairs up tutors with students based on the age groups they are comfortable with and their academic strengths, as well as parents’ requests.
“I get along better with the little kids,” Perez said.
She teaches algebra to her older student, but helps both students with whatever subjects they need.
“Spelling and multiplication,” Perez said. “And anything they need help with.”
The tutors spend two to three hours with each student weekly.
Diaz, a junior, has been a Club Ed tutor since his freshman year. Through the years he has worked with students of all ages.
“When I tutored first- and second-graders it was hard to keep them focused,” he said. “I got a little frustrated with the little ones.”
Now he tutors Jacob Deleon, an eighth-grade student who attends Sacred Heart School. Much of their focus has been on math.
“It got me way better,” he said. “My grades went from Fs to As. Now I just need to study history.”
Diaz said he helps Deleon focus on his assignments.
“He just needs someone to make him do it,” Diaz said.
Flores-Zepeda said some of the Club Ed members who have graduated have gone on to tutoring in college.
“It’s how I got started, as a volunteer tutor,” Flores-Zepeda said.
Parents looking for a tutor for their child or students looking to become a tutor may contact Rachel Flores-Zepeda at 637-5831, ext. 370 or may e-mail her at [email protected]. Tutors are available to help with all subjects for $13 an hour. Tutoring is available Monday through Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. or 6 to 8 p.m. at the San Benito High School library or the San Benito County Free Library.
