For many years, our tutors have been helping seniors at Palos Verdes High School complete their senior projects called the Capstone. This project consists of a research paper on a topic the student is interested in or affected by and a corresponding research project or experiment. Study Hut owners Rob and Sean Patrick, together with Redondo Beach manager, Justin, are all industry partners and judge the Capstone projects at the end of the year to decide which students will receive prizes and scholarships. In the past, the entire project has been completed during the course of the student’s senior year, but during the 2013-2014 school year, the school made some changes. Now students are required to finish their entire paper in the last quarter of their junior year, leaving the entire senior year to dedicate to their physical project and research. As the school is aware that this can be a very stressful time for students due to Advanced Placement exams in May, AP students are not required to begin working on their Capstone papers until after they have completed all their AP exams.
Early in the school year, I worked with a senior named Cara whose project analyzed the effectiveness of three different teaching styles. She works as a swim teacher at the South Bay Aquatic Center, which was the perfect place for her to experiment with different teaching styles in her swim classes. I recently worked with a junior named Halle who studied the societal influence on the evolution of music. While expanding on previously learned academic skills and preparing students for college level papers and projects, the Capstone also provides students an opportunity to pursue further education about a topic of personal interest.
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.
El Segundo Office: (310) 648-8526 – Office Manager Adam – Adam@studyhut.com
The High Schools around the area have been holding registration and students have been preparing for their new classes/schedule for the Fall.
We have had many students here at the Study Hut gearing up for the new year and getting some refresher courses before the school year begins.
For students going to Mira Costa High School, school starts on the 28th of August.. one week and counting. For students attending Redondo Union High School and schools in Palos Verdes, they start school on Tuesday August 27th.
Here are the Study Hut we are closed Monday September 2nd for Labor Day and Wednesday September 5th for Yom Kippur.
On another note, we are also getting back into SAT and ACT training. The first exam of the year takes place in October which many students are signed up for.
We have diagnostic tests every other week on Saturdays at 8am for SAT/ACT/HSPT/ISEE. We had one on Saturday August 17th and the next one we have is on Saturday August 31st.
We have had many students in here for consultations with our co-owner Rob going over scores and getting prepared for their prep.
All our diagnostic tests are free as well as our consultations with Rob.
Past events and/or events coming up:
Our staff went to Parris Middle School for the week to help with registration Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8-12noon.
We helped hand out schedules, assign lockers, and distribute agendas
– We have 15 tutors going to training for AVID on Monday. It is for the AVID programs at Palos Verdes and Peninsula High Schools – teaming up so the whole mountain is on the same page
We had a great turnout at our first ever Study Hut Foundation Parent/Teacher Scholar Quiz on Sunday June 2nd at the Manhattan Beach Country Club!
We had 16 teams participate at our event, and the event lasted from 4pm until 8pm. The winning team’s name was WB and the Funky 3.
The teams were parents and teachers from all the surrounding areas including Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Hermosa Beach. Many teachers from the schools participated including: Palos Verdes, West High School, Manhattan Beach Middle School, and Mira Costa High School.
The questions that were asked ranged from all different subjects, including English, History, Geography, Pop Culture, Math and many more!
We had a silent auction as well which included restaurant certificates, jewelry, signed memorabilia from the Kings Hockey Team, cupcakes from Susie Cakes, and many more.
Many local merchants donated silent auction iteams, including but not limited to wine, plants, hair appointments, free tutoring sessions, and music lessons.
We also had raffle tickets that we sold ($5 for 1 or $20 for 5 tickets). The people who won, received a trip for 2 nights (air fare not included) – and they can pick from over 50 different destinations.
We served Hors d’œuvres while the event was going on including but not limited too: Quiche and dumplings – and we also had a cash bar outside that overlooked the tennis courts.
If you would like to donate to the Study Hut Foundation, you can log on to our website at StudyHutFoundation.org and click “Donate”
As of right now we have 13 students that attend the Study Hut Foundation and next year we are hoping to bump it up to 50 students. We are seeing improvements already in their grades and have changed the way that the students view going to school.
Thanks to all the teams that participated! Congrats to the winners! Thanks again to everyone that came out and supported our event! We really appreciate it!
Stay tuned for Part 2 and more pictures in the next blog!
This summer, as manager, I have been presented with the opportunity to actually tutor! Normally, the hustle and bustle of the Hut prevents me from my real passion, teaching. One of my regular and favorite students in here over the summer is Adelia. She has diligently come in twice a week throughout the summer to study Spanish and Geometry. I admire her confidence and motivation to get ahead of the game and become prepared for the classes she will endure in the fall.
Starting out with Spanish 5/6 in the fall she went ahead and bought the book that her high school, Mira Costa, uses so that I can start teaching her the material. Once fall comes she will be prepared with the vocabulary and will be strong with the grammar. Throughout the course of these few weeks she has already improved in both her retention of vocabulary and her ability to speak and comprehend the language. Last year, I tutored another student in Spanish in preparation for Spanish 2. He excelled in his Spanish class receiving a high B opposed to D+ he received the semester prior. A little elbow grease in the summer goes a long way when it comes to learning a language. I have the confidence that Adelia will be able to start and finish this year strong.
Similarly, math skills are just as important to maintain during the summer. Adelia already has a solid understanding of the primary concepts in Geometry and will have gone through the first few chapters of the Mira Costa Geometry book by the time summer has ended.
Most kids are resistant to summer tutoring and believe that it will take up their entire summer. Adelia, however, is extremely active. She owns a horse is Palos Verdes and rides him every day. She is extremely happy with her progress she has made this summer at Study Hut.
Not only can we provide enrichment for math and Spanish, but also French, English, reading comprehension, physics, history, biology, chemistry and whatever else, you name it, we have a tutor for it! Bring it on fall semester!
If pushed to describe the biggest change I have seen at the Study Hut from A year ago to today, I think I could some it up in one word: Organization. There is a fancy new scheduling system and absolutely no confusion when a student comes in; the managers know exactly where the students are going and when they are going to be here. Of course I may not be in the inner circle, but it certainly seems there are no mishaps or surprises, at least on the staff side of The Hut.
Of course this wouldn’t be any sort of claim if the Study Hut had many less students than it did before, but this couldn’t be farther from the case. The Hut is BOOMING right now, with more students and Tutors than ever before, and the space to accommodate all of them. I’ve tutored kids from Palos Verdes High, Peninsula High, West Torrance High, and know a few students from my alma mater, Chadwick High School. All in all there has been incredible expansion, and all without making any compromises and concessions, but rather with an impressive
The Study Hut is more streamlined than ever. The hitches that face many young enterprises are all but forgotten, with near seamless scheduling and communication between tutors, supervisors, students, and parents alike. Students are learning and excelling academically more than ever with one-on-one tutors who are more than qualified, with many, if not most, of my peers in graduate programs and experts in more than one field of study. To top it all off, the fun, energetic, friendly core of Study Hut that I grew to love a year ago is itself booming. The tutors love their students and the students their tutors. People are learning, and having fun doing it. Rather than pressure students with the threat of grades or financial success, students here focus on their academics because they are working with tutors whose opinions the students genuinely care about. I feel very grateful and proud to once again be associated with the Study Hut name!
