PRHS teachers and administrators band together to further support students this finals season through a series of after-school Finals Study Sessions located in Bearcat Hall.
Though the sessions started with a little over 30 participants, as the days went on, that number grew to an average of 60-100 students per session, so many students that the overflow had to be moved to other classrooms (Mrs.Legucha’s class for Spanish help and Mrs. Smith’s class for “quiet help”).
The sessions provide students a place to work in groups or independently, catch up on work, study for finals, or take makeup tests under teacher supervision. They took place Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 3:30-6 pm on December 5th through 7th, 12th through 14th, and Monday and Tuesday 1:30-2:30 pm the 18th and 19th.
Attending students were mostly there for math, but all subjects were welcome. Free pizza, snacks, and drinks were provided daily at 4:30 pm, and every participant had an opportunity to be entered into a raffle for every hour they were there for a chance to win a variety of prizes, ranging from out-of-class early passes to a pair of Apple AirPods.
Teachers also attended the Study Sessions to help tutor students, including Lori Jordan (Math), Evan Johnston (Science), Nikki Moallemi (Science), and more.
The idea for the school-administered Finals Study Sessions came from Math teachers Kolby Wagner and Hilary Heinrich, who also host a math lab for students wanting to “get their grades up and improve in math”. “We were brainstorming about how we could help some of our kids who are struggling, who may have never had finals before, specifically freshman,” Heinrich said, “We wanted to create an environment conducive to learning, where students can get a lot done in a more controlled place.”
Despite the focus on freshmen, students from all grade levels took advantage of the study time. Senior Kaden
Mitchell was there on December 7 and said the following regarding his experience with the Finals Study Sessions: “I thought it was managed very well. Students were organized into different parts of the room to make sure they could get the help they needed, and on top of that, there was good incentive with the pizza and the prizes.”
Other students supported those at the study session, too, with Jordan providing extra credit to her AP Calculus AB and BC students for 1.5-hour tutoring. Tutors would walk around and help students with their work or help staff with the session’s management.
One such tutor, senior Maxwell Berry, said: “I felt really good about it. I’m glad that I could help some people through their work and just make it easier. Someone came up to me today and said they passed the test I tutored them for. That was awesome.”
Heinrich cites the success of the study sessions to the food and the raffle prizes. “We are very grateful to Mrs. Fletcher for her support of this (and for) providing all the prizes. I think that made a big difference.”
She also expressed both surprise and satisfaction for the turnout. “We’ve never done anything like this before, and I definitely think it’s exceeded our expectations,” she said. “We were thinking it could be a hit, or it might not be. But we’ve had a lot of students come repeatedly and everyone’s gotten a lot of work done. (It’s been so successful that) if we do this again, we might have to move to the gym for space.”
