Sangamon Sun

Glenwood High School issued the following announcement on Sept. 7.

Glenwood High School students are now guaranteed a time to meet with their teachers to get help on homework, receive extra tutoring, making up tests, gain a concept they may be struggling with, and even receive additional material for enrichment. Office Hours are set from 7:15-7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. This is not to say students could not meet at other times of the day, but this is set in the GHS schedule and guarantees the teachers will be available.

How it works:

Students don’t need to reserve an appointment. They simply come to school just before 7:15 a.m. and express to security staff that they are there to see a teacher for Office Hours. Once allowed access, they sign in on the Chromebook at the front security desk with their name, curricular department, and teacher(s) they need to see. In the first four days since Office Hours began, 111 students and 46 teachers have taken advantage of the program. So far, math teachers have seen the most student traffic.

“The idea and implementation of Office Hours has brought enthusiasm and excitement from both teachers and parents,” says Douglas Szcinski, Principal at Glenwood High School. “I even had a teacher state that in such a short amount of time she met with more kids during Office Hours than she did the entire past school year.”

In previous years, the time before school was often used to hold meetings with fellow staff members. Now those meetings have been rescheduled on Monday and every other Thursday mornings. “The teachers came to me on the last day of school this past May with their wish list for the 2018-19 school year. A set, scheduled time to meet with students was a priority on their list,” says Szcinski. “So we looked at the hours in a day or week, and restructured those to accommodate both our professional meetings, and Office Hours with students. After all, if we agree that it’s a priority to commit to specific times to help our students, why wouldn’t we? It is exciting and a great way to help kids succeed and learn!”

Original source can be found here.