By Elisabeth H.
Cougar News Blog
Cactus Canyon Junior High School is doing a thing called reteach to help students get the extra help they need in a certain subject.
Students take a test after an objective has been taught and those who need more time to master the standard get it during their Study Skills time. Reteach has helped many students master objectives they might not have learned before.
“I want my students to have a better grasp of the math concepts that they didn’t score as well on the first time,” said math teacher Marla Aehlert. “I hope that they will see reteach as a valuable tool to help them accomplish them.”
In all there are seven teachers doing reteach, four teachers in eighth grade and three teachers in seventh grade. The students are able to see alternative ways to learn the material in a smaller less distracting setting.
“They are able to focus more and receive the assistance they need to earn better grades,” said eighth-grade math teacher Jeremy Seaman.
There have been some adjustments to reteach since it’s a new program, but overall it’s been successful in getting students extra help. For example, students who don’t need reteach take classes like cooking, CSI, or modern warfare.
“I also like the fact that students who do not need reteach are allowed to sign up for interesting enrichment classes with the other teachers,” said Mrs. Aehlert. “It’s not just boring study hall. I wish it would have been like that when I was in junior high a long time ago.”
The math teachers have a shared document that has all of the students’ scores for the whole grade level.
“We filter out students who earned a score of four or five, and the remaining students will need reteach,” said Mrs. Aehlert.
Some teachers teach different in reteach than in different classes to help them understand the material better.
“Sometimes we do,” Mr. Seaman said. “We expose the students to alternative ways to think about or solve the problems.”
Students have found reteach helpful for learning better.
“I am grateful for reteach because it has really helped me improve on my math a lot,” said eighth grader Angel Meeks.
Cougar News Blog 