Starting as an opportunity for AP and Honors students to study and collaborate with teachers, the AP/Honors room was a new method for students to get help with their work. However, due to diverted funds, the AP/Honors room is no longer available.
The study room started as the “brain-child” of Andrew Cross and Brad Morelock—both teachers in the Social Studies department— to provide students with an opportunity to not only get help from teachers but also collaborate on their group work. Located in Joshua Shuler’s room (#2437), the AP/Honors ran Monday through Thursday from 2:45 to 4:00 in the afternoon.
“We didn’t start it right off the bat, it [started] a few weeks in the semester. So it ran for about four or five weeks,” said Morelock.
Students from all AP or Honors classes could visit the study room, but it was mostly utilized by AP Human Geography students who were helped by Mr. Morelock on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“It was a good environment to learn more about topics you were struggling with or if you didn’t understand a concept,” said freshman Lily Sah, who was taking AP Human Geography at the time. “It was really good to be able to have one-on-one time with the teacher.”
Because of the needs of elementary school LEAPs, Cross was asked to choose a program to end in order to give the funding to the elementary programs. Due to the low attendance rates of the AP/Honors room, which usually consisted of five to ten students per day, Cross decided to terminate the program.
“Elementary LEAPs are busting at the seams […] because there’s such a high demand for it in the after school, […] there’s a waiting list to be able to get into that after school program.” Cross said, “[parents] are actually worried.”
Even though the AP/Honors room is no longer here, there are still places for students to study and collaborate. The afternoon LEAPs program meets Monday through Thursday in the Wellness room (#2445).
After school, teachers including Cross, Alyssa Ison, Lucas Gentry, John Greer and Maddie Honaker offer help in the “core 4” subjects: English, math, science and social studies. The only downside to this is that students with specific honors or AP classes will get less focused help with their harder classes.
“The difference between LEAPs now as opposed to what we wanted to do with the Honors Room is that the Honors Room was content specific,” said Morelock.
Despite this, there are still opportunities for students who want to get some extra help after school.
“We’re still offering that help in regular LEAPs,” said Cross, “but it’s less individualized because I have to cover a multitude of different needs within the same class.”