Chet Montefering, National Honor Society president, decided that tutoring needs to be more of a priority this year.

“Anybody who thinks of NHS automatically thinks of tutoring,” Montefering said. “So last year I was thinking we had the tutoring sign-ups available, but how many times did one of us actually tutor another student? This year I wanted to refresh the system and make it easier and more known to students that they have us to help them, if needed, because I feel that it is an obligation of ours.”

Students in NHS have to meet the the four pillars to be inducted: scholarship, charater, leadership and service. Tutoring other students falls under the category ofservice.

Last year, students looking for help had to sign up in one of the NHS sponsors’ rooms. After they signed up, the tutoring session scheduled would meet before school or after school in sponsor Dr. Bill McIlwee’s room, 309.

“I had a zero hour last year so that conflicted sometimes with the tutoring sessions that were held in the mornings,” Dr. McIlwee said.

Having the tutoring sessions  in the library will work better for both zero-hour students and the tutoring session by eliminating the distractions.

This year sign-ups have been moved to the library as well as the meeting locations for the first sessions. After the first session, the student and tutor can decide where future sessionswill be.

“We are trying to make it easier this year for students to have more of a central location where they can have a better meeting place with the tutors,” Mrs. Lauren Schoellhorn, new NHS sponsor, said. “In previous years they would sign up in the advisers’ rooms. Not every student would pass by those rooms where sign-ups were held. So now sign-ups for tutoring will be in the library.”

The idea is the library is more accessible to students.

The librarians will be involved in the tutoring efforts this year, unlike previous years.

“We’re excited to be able to help out,” Mrs. Janie Pickett, head librarian, said.

Mrs. Pickett made up step-by-step instructions on how to sign up for tutoring using the Google Drive. These cards are located in the library at the front desk.

A laptop for sign-up purposes is located directly next to the printers in the library, but students can also use computers at home or anywhere else in the building to do so.

The steps are simple to sign up:

1. Then, visit this link or enter tinyurl.com/EHS-Tutoring in the url bar. (If not sign into your Google account, you will be prompted to do so).
2. Finally, complete the Google doc form that appears on that new window.

If students have trouble with these steps they can ask any librarian for help.

If they have questions concerning the tutoring logistics they should talk to Dr. McIlwee.

Once students fill out the tutoring forms on Google Drive, Dr. McIllwee and Mrs. Schoellhorn will use the entries and pair up students with NHS tutors.

“Each NHS student fills out an interest survey about what time of the year they can do it based on extracurricular activities, what time of day they can do it, and then subjects and courses they would be interested in tutoring for,” Dr. McIllwee said. “That’s how we decide which tutor to match up with a student.”

Instead of going to the ac lab that is filled with other students, students can choose to get one-on-one help with a NHS tutor.

“I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other,” Mrs. Schoellhorn said. “Sometimes kids just feel more comfortable talking to kids rather than teachers, sometimes the students feel like they understand the tutors better, or the students  just feel the tutors a little more approachable.”

Montefering also had the same opinion about NHS tutors, who are all juniors and seniors, tutoring other students.

“I know as freshman going to get help from a teacher may be scary,” Montefering said. “But with what we’ve experienced as a student for the past two years we can make more of a connection and relate better with the students because of that.”

If students need help, the community has yet another option. NHS hopes the revamping of the tutoring program will make those services more accessible to the students who need it.

“The good thing about the NHS tutoring this year is that we are giving more more opportunities for students to get tutored since we all are required to fill out the interests form and tutor when we are available not just those who choose to,” Jessie Knobbe, NHS member, said.