With Final exams around the corner at Peninsula High School and Palos Verdes High School, students in the AVID program have been taking advantage of Study Hut counselors and mentors with one-on-one meetings to go over their Finals Survival Guide. This is a new tweak on the comprehensive program that Study Hut has provided to the AVID for almost a decade, and the results and feedback have been overwhelming.
Before the holiday break, instructors came into each 9th and 10th grade classroom for a full-period tutorial on how to fill out the Study Hut Finals Survival Guide. Students went through the Aries portal and took a deeper look at each of their individual grades, identifying any missing assignments and low test and quiz scores. They then listed content from these assignments and tests that would be likely be coming back up on the Final exam, and they highlighted classes in which their semester grades could potentially go up or down depending on their performance on the Final exam.
The first week after the holiday break, Study Hut instructors came back into each of these same classrooms to help students construct an individualized day-by-day task list. The content on these tasks lists was derived directly from the Finals Survival Guide. Students broke down study tasks by class; for history and foreign language classes, students created manual flashcards, and then plotted 15-minute flashcard run-throughs each day leading up to the Final exam. For science and math classes, students identified units and chapters that they struggled with the first time around, and then they plotted chapter reviews and study guides each day leading up to the Final exam. The results for each student was a comprehensive task list that lined up the exact tasks that each student needs to complete in order to meet their goals on Final exams. They then met individually with Study Hut counselors for 15-minute meetings to review the task lists and make sure that their efforts aligned with their goals.
The Finals Survival Guide is a template and service that we also provide to our one-on-one students at Study Hut. It is a built in service for our clients that can help students maximize their efforts and streamline their studies. If you would like to set up a free meeting with a manager or owner at Study Hut, please email info@studyhut.com.
Study Hut has been collaborating with the AVID program providing AVID SAT Prep for 6 years. AVID takes place every week with six tutors from our Redondo Beach Location that are hand picked to facilitate the AVID tutorials. AVID SAT prep and test prep training is conducted by the owners of Study Hut Tutoring, and helps students improve upon their test prep skills. The AVID sophomores begin with pre AVID SAT prep and AVID juniors dive deeper with full AVID SAT prep.
During the AVID classes, each student comes prepared with their tutorial form filled out with their question or information that they want to review or understand better. Each student has a chance to get up and present their question to their small groups and then the tutor will help answer any questions needed while the other students take notes and participate in the discussion. Each student gets about 5-6 minutes for their individual question which makes the hour go by quickly once each student has presented.
We are able to track students progress and the students get points for their achievements, being engaging and participating in the group lessons. Another awesome collaboration we have going on with Peninsula is that a Study Hut manager along side a teacher lead ACT/SAT training as well.
There are about 25 students that are taught by one manager and one teacher that receive instruction and receive homework assignments to complete and to help track their growth. The sophomores receive test prep once per month and the juniors receive test prep help once per week. We use an online system that we use in office that helps track progress and makes for a smooth class and easy way to generate the information needed. The manager will help with the Math portion of the test prep and the teacher will help with the English portion of the test prep. We are very excited for the school year and to see many familiar faces around campus!
Peninsula SAT prep at it’s finest! Like the ACT better? Peninsula ACT Prep has never been better.
Welcome back to school We are so pumped that Peninsula AVID is back up and running in full swing. Study Hut has been collaborating with the AVID program and delivering tutorials to the AVID students for many years now. AVID takes place every Thursday from 10am-12noon with six tutors from our Redondo Beach Location that are hand picked to attend the AVID and test prep training and help students improve upon their test prep skills. We have all four grade levels that participate and each grade level has two class periods for AVID since Peninsula has a block schedule.
During the AVID classes, each student comes prepared with their tutorial form filled out with their question or information that they want to review or understand better. Each student has a chance to get up and present their question to their small groups and then the tutor will help answer any questions needed while the other students take notes and participate in the discussion. Each student gets about 5-6 minutes for their individual question which makes the hour go by quickly once each student has presented.
We are able to track students progress and the students get points for their achievements, being engaging and participating in the group lessons. Another awesome collaboration we have going on with Peninsula is that a Study Hut manager along side a teacher lead Peninsula SAT prep as well as Peninsula ACT prep.
There are about 25 students that are taught by one manager and one teacher that receive instruction and receive homework assignments to complete and to help track their growth. The sophomores receive test Peninsula SAT prep once per month and the juniors receive Peninsula ACT prep help once per week. We use an online system that we use in office that helps track progress and makes for a smooth class and easy way to generate the information needed. The manager will help with the Math portion of the test prep and the teacher will help with the English portion of the test prep. We are very excited for the school year and to see many familiar faces around campus!
Keeping your binders or binders organized is important for a few reasons. You will know where everything is, which means: no missing assignments that you totally did, no missing notes to search for while you are studying for a test, and everything no shuffling through every paper trying to find a worksheet from class. You will spend less time trying to find things. An organized binder will also keep you from getting stressed out or frustrated because you will always have your things and be able to find them. Luckily, keeping your binder organized is super easy to do.
First, be diligent about keeping up your binder. If you let it pile up until there are papers falling out everywhere and all the pockets are tearing, you are not really keeping your binder organized.
Use dividers to separate different classes and sections. Some students like to separate notes and homework, while others like to just divide it by classes. Do whichever way works best for you.
If you do not have time to put a worksheet or handout in its proper place when you get it in class, put it in a front pocket. Then every day when you get home, put all your pocket papers in the right place before you get started on your homework. It will only take a few seconds but it will make a world of difference.
With your organized binder, you will find that you have fewer missing assignments in class, better access to your notes, and overall a better grade!
Study Hut tutors have the opportunity to work with the Academics Via Individual Determination (AVID) program at different high schools. One of these schools is Peninsula High School in Palos Verdes. During her freshman year, a student named Cindy was among one of the students I got to regularly help last school year. Now as a sophomore, Cindy comes in to Study Hut for tutoring and it seems fair to say that she is both enjoying it and benefitting from it. While waiting for her ride after one of her sessions, Cindy decided to hang around. Since I did not have a student at the time, I invited Cindy to sit at my table until her ride came (more like she invited herself to come sit). We chatted about her AVID class, school functions, friends, and life in general. Although the conversation only lasted about five minutes, it was one of those small events that happened to make my day that much better. It was a great feeling knowing that she was comfortable enough to talk to me like a friend and I was able to provide her with advice as a mentor. On behalf of the Study Hut tutors, we strive to provide an environment that balances serious styles and laid-back styles in order to allow students to succeed inside the classroom and beyond. This is just one example of the bonds that the tutors and students experience at Study Hut – I am sure there have been and will be plenty more.
In the beginning of spring 2014 semester, Laura, Justin, and I had one-on-one advisement sessions with Mr. Mullen’s AVID (http://www.avid.org) class at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (PVPHS). We split the class up into four groups & had each freshman student bring up their grades, as well as a write-up of their future goals for spring semester. The main objective of these one-on-one meetings was to assess & acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses in each individual’s academic performance, analyze certain areas in which the students needed improvement, discuss their past history of success & setbacks, visualize how they should go about working towards those improvements, and how they could tackle their educational struggles so that they may be able to achieve their end goals.
During these mini break-out sessions, I noticed a pattern with a couple of my Biology students. Nicco, Sarah,Tessa, and Annie, talked about how hard it was to retain all the information their teachers expected them to digest & how they continued to struggle with this particular subject. I informed the students that they should be delegating at least 45 minutes per day to Biology because the subject requires a lot more memorization than most of their other subjects. In addition, I advised them to take advantage of all the resources available to them, whether it’s their textbook, materials given out in class, valid online resources, or even videos from places like www.khanacademy.org.
I felt that these individual conference meetings were very beneficial to the students because each student goes through their own distinctive battle. As an AVID tutor, my goal is not only to teach the appropriate set of skills, but also to ascertain students’ attitudes towards school and their self-perception as learners. Furthermore, by uncovering the root of their concerns about school & listening attentively, I develop relationships with my students based on mutual respect, thereby opening their minds to learning and applying skills.
From iLead to AVID, Study Hut covers ground in the South Bay!
Study Hut has had the privilege to extend our tutoring services to local high schools in the South Bay, including South High, Palos Verdes High School and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. We are able to do this by orchestrating in-class programs like AVID (http://www.avid.org/) in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and ILEAD through the Torrance Unified School District. In a typical AVID or ILEAD class, Study Hut will send a number of tutors (typically ranging from four to eight) who each specialize in variety of academic subjects. Our tutors then have the unique opportunity to break the class into smaller groups of students based on subject each student feels that he or she need the most help with.
Last Tuesday was an awesome day at both South High and Peninsula! We arrived at South High for ILEAD at 8am to offer additional tutoring on late start mornings. We then separated the students into a “Math and Science” classroom, and an “English, History and Foreign Language” classroom. Tori and I were put in charge of English, History and Languages room. After an hour of answering questions about everything from World War I and the differences between Preterite and Imperfect in Spanish, our manager Justin was nice enough to take us out to a quick breakfast to refuel before we headed up to PVPHS to tutor in AVID for their third and fourth periods.In AVID we like to take a more hands on approach by encouraging the students to break into groups and take turns writing their questions on the board. Their peers then use their notes and textbooks to help them solve their problem. In my English groups in AVID, we had some remarkable discussions about Animal Farm (my favorite) and determining Direct Objects vs. Predicate Nominatives.
AVID is an Advancement Via Individual Determination: A 4-year elective that helps kids get ready for a 4-year college experience. AVID is a bi-weekly tutorial which helps kids keep their GPA up, SAT and ACT tutoring starting in 10th grade, and the rest of the time is focused on expanding their horizons and getting them ready for college.
From their website it says: AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a college readiness system for elementary through higher education that is designed to increase schoolwide learning and performance. The AVID College Readiness System (ACRS) accelerates student learning, uses research based methods of effective instruction, provides meaningful and motivational professional learning, and acts as a catalyst for systemic reform and change.
AVID began in 1980 by Mary Catherine Swanson, then-head of the English department at San Diego’s Clairemont High School. The federal courts issued an order to desegregate the city’s schools, bringing large numbers of inner city students to suburban schools. While applauding the decision, Swanson wondered how these underserved students would survive at academically acclaimed Clairemont High.
Her answer was AVID, an academic elective. But it’s more than a program – it’s a philosophy: Hold students accountable to the highest standards, provide academic and social support, and they will rise to the challenge.
AVID is having their year-end site team meetings. Peninsula High School’s meeting was today and Palos Verdes High School is tomorrow the AVID year-end site team meetings are where parents, students, teachers, and tutors get together to discuss how the year went and discuss goals for next year. The Peninsula High School Avid seniors set a record: 100% of the kids that applied to a 4-year school were accepted to at least one. They had a record high for applications for next year’s freshman that is. The AVID Program is increasing the amount of tutors they are going to have next year – so the ratio will be 7 students to 1 tutor in tutorials. This year it was about 12 tutors to 1 student. They also have a record high number of kids going to their overnight college trip – which is where 41 kids spend 2 days to go see Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and University of California Santa Barbara.
We did it! We made it through finals season!! Last week was a long week here at the Study Hut.
Last week we went to different schools and helped them study after school for a few hours.
We went to Peninsula High for 3 hours and at Palos Verdes High for 5 hours and the weekend of the 19th/20th – we went to West on Friday afternoon, West again on Saturday morning and then to South on Sunday for free Finals Tutoring in the library.
We had such a great turn out at each session.
I tutored in Spanish on Friday afternoon from 3 to 6 in the library at West. There were over 100 students who came and another 100+ on the waiting list to participate in the free tutoring.
When the students came into the library, there were signs hung up on both the 1st and 2nd floor of the library, with the names of all the different subjects that we helped tutor in. The High School also sent some of their students to help tutor as well with us which was greatly appreciated.
We tutored in multiple subjects – Algebra 1 & 2, Trig, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish – just to name a few.
Each student chose to either be tutored in one subject for all three hours – or be tutored in three subjects, one subject per hour.
For my first hour I had about 6 students – 2 in Spanish 1, 2 in Spanish 2, and 2 in Spanish 3. Then for my 2nd hour – 5 of the 6 students went to a different subject so I tutored a student one-on-one. Lastly, for my final hour, a few more students showed up and I finished with 5 kids. My subject was one of the smallest groups. I enjoyed having a small group since I was able to help each student individually.
Both the Science and Math subjects had about 30+ students in their group.
We always enjoy going to other schools before finals to help them study and we also helped many AVID classes study for their finals – including Newport and PV High.
This finals season went really well and we are proud of all the students!!
It’s that time of the year again… that cliche statement.. “the most wonderful time of the year”… Ok, not really… but it is FINALS SEASON.
Today is one of the busiest days for the RB Study Hut since PV high are taking their first two final exams today! Good luck to all the students today!!
This past weekend the Study Hut went to both Peninsula High and Palos Verdes High to work with their AVID programs.
We were at Peninsula High for 3 hours and at Palos Verdes High for 5 hours.
This weekend we will be going to both South (Saturday) and West (Sunday) for free Finals Tutoring.
The Study Hut will be open on Monday January 21st – Martin Luther King Jr Day – since schools have off that day.
All our students have worked very hard this semester and we are hyped up for what next semester is going to bring!
