Now that we've been living in Atlanta for almost two years, we started looking for an opportunity to get involved in our community. After correspondence with the organizers of the Math Advocacy Group at Grady High School, we volunteered to tutor for Super Saturday in preparation for the End of Course Tests (EOCT) administered by the Georgia Department of Education for 9th and 10th grade students.
Grady High School is an urban school with a very diverse student body. My husband and I volunteered to tutor optional Saturday morning sessions before the test date. For the first hour, students would attempt to take a practice exam. And then for the next two hours, we would present our solutions to various problems and try to get the students participation as much as possible. It was quite a challenge as we had the full spectrum of students and behavioral problems. But by the end of the session, we hope the students learned something from us. We wish them all the best on their standarized testing.
It was clear that some students in the session did not understand the problems that were expected of them. We wish we could spend more time with them to help them understand these problems. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if a decent percentage of the students who attended Super Saturday will not pass the EOCT. We hope that we can help such students pass next year by commiting ourselves to tutor them for a full year and monitoring their progress. Other ways we would like to get involved with Grady include coaching a math competition team, teaching an SAT course, and making a presentation on our experiences in math related jobs.
Despite the challenges, we are having a great time with these students and we are very excited to get more involved. I admire the teachers at Grady that we worked with for their dedication. They were all so wonderful and really passionate about what they do. We were really touched by their warmth and trust in welcoming us to their team. In fact, we got an invite to Prom and it made us feel at home... and like we were in High School again!
Grady High School is an urban school with a very diverse student body. My husband and I volunteered to tutor optional Saturday morning sessions before the test date. For the first hour, students would attempt to take a practice exam. And then for the next two hours, we would present our solutions to various problems and try to get the students participation as much as possible. It was quite a challenge as we had the full spectrum of students and behavioral problems. But by the end of the session, we hope the students learned something from us. We wish them all the best on their standarized testing.
It was clear that some students in the session did not understand the problems that were expected of them. We wish we could spend more time with them to help them understand these problems. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if a decent percentage of the students who attended Super Saturday will not pass the EOCT. We hope that we can help such students pass next year by commiting ourselves to tutor them for a full year and monitoring their progress. Other ways we would like to get involved with Grady include coaching a math competition team, teaching an SAT course, and making a presentation on our experiences in math related jobs.
Despite the challenges, we are having a great time with these students and we are very excited to get more involved. I admire the teachers at Grady that we worked with for their dedication. They were all so wonderful and really passionate about what they do. We were really touched by their warmth and trust in welcoming us to their team. In fact, we got an invite to Prom and it made us feel at home... and like we were in High School again!
