Getting a jump on the school year

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Math teachers at Dwyer Middle School are seeing

too many students coming into the sixth grade not knowing how to multiply

or divide.

And it’s the math students who are doing something about it.

Last school year, math teacher Deb Clay put together a new program,

Students Teaching Arithmetic to Students, to help build students’ math

skills. The weeklong program, which began Monday, pairs up incoming

sixth-graders with a seventh- or eighth-grader.�We needed a jump-start

program before coming into sixth grade,� Clay said.

The Huntington Beach teacher gave her accelerated sixth-grade math

class an exercise illustrating how difficult not knowing arithmetic could

be. She then asked her class what they wanted to do about helping these

students.

“They can’t go through math doing it easily when their friends next to

them can’t,� Clay said.

Fifty-six seventh- and eighth-graders helped design the program and

are volunteering their time to tutor the sixth-graders one on one.

“It was hard work to make the whole thing, but once we were done, it’s

been great,� said George Pasco, 12.

During each class session, the tutors help the sixth-graders work on

math problems. Then the pairs work together building model cars donated

by Surf City Model Cars.

“It will help me improve because I mostly got bad grades,� said Chris

Skinner, 10.

Chris said he used to slack off, but he’s now working hard, having

taken advantage of summer school and the students-teaching-students

program, to get him back on track.

Besides helping the students with their math, it will make entering

middle school less threatening.

“It’s good that they had this, so kids get used to Dwyer,� said Daniel

Lovelass, 11.

The sixth-grader said he was nervous about starting middle school but

feels better now that he has had the chance to participate in a program

on campus.

And Clay’s army of seventh- and eighth-graders are more than happy to

help.

“It’s a great way to help students coming into Dwyer. It will help

Dwyer’s reputation and help the students become successful,� said tutor

Andrew Krietz, 12.

The program has brought out a wide range of assistance from the

community -- from volunteers to donations for materials, T-shirts and the

model cars.

“It shows that we all do what we need to do,� Clay said.

When school starts Sept. 6, the student tutors will receive the e-mail

addresses and homeroom numbers of the sutdents they’ve helped. Clay hopes

to establish a mentor program in which students have a network of other

students to seek help from.

“Through this, we can focus on the meat and the potatoes of what to do

to help the kids,� Principal Ian Collins said. “I think it’s the best

thing since sliced bread.�