Education at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy during the Pandemic...

RES News - Tutoring Team

Education at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy, during the Pandemic…

“Hybrid Learning” has continued at our School, through the end of this past school year. The students were there for in-person classes, two days a week (Mon & Tue), with remote learning on the other two days (Thu & Fri). Remote learning presents challenges (keeping students awake, alert and engaged) but the amazing DWCA Faculty has made it happen, continuing to problem solve with individual students and families, working to keep them connected.

Our RES Tutors have met their challenging assignments, during the pandemic, as “virtual tutors.” They completed approximately eight weeks of direct, virtual interaction (Remote Tutoring) with Mrs. Sanzotta’s First Grade students, on Thursdays and Fridays, when the students are at their homes. These “veteran” RES Tutors, including Jim Koon (retired from Xerox), Kathleen Hoffman (Office Coordinator, C&S Companies) and Margaret Ornelas (Scheduling Manager, LaBella Associates) have given generously of their time to support our Cooper Scholars. Each of them has commended the teachers (Mrs. Sanzotta, and more recently Mrs. Valerio) for their great effort in preparing lesson instructions for the RES Tutors to use as they interacted with their students. From these experiences… Jim Koon reports, “Yesterday, I tutored a different student. I got to meet his “Gamma”, who was working in her kitchen and helping her grandson with his schoolwork.” Kathleen Hoffman reported recently, “My tutoring with Keymoni went great; she was an eager learner and, and we had fun. These teachers have worked hard to coordinate these Zoom sessions.” Margaret Ornelas says, “I loved the tutoring with the children! It was much fun, and I truly enjoyed getting to know Aniya.”

We are hoping to resume in-person tutoring, at our School, this coming Fall. We will be meeting with Administrators and Faculty in early August to discuss the possibility of integrating the work of the RES Tutoring Team into a return to “normal” at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy.

We are beginning to assemble our Tutoring Team, for the 2021-22 school year… The classroom teachers will provide each of our Tutors with a daily plan for each of the students with whom they are working. The process is quite simple; tutors could be supporting teacherconducted classroom lesson activities, working with small groups of two or three students, or (more likely) working with just one student at a time, on a prescribed learning exercise.

Even just two hours a week of your time can make a big difference in the life of a Dr. Walter Cooper Academy Scholar…

Questions??? Reach out to RES Past President Lee Loomis and the RES Tutoring Team at… Rochester Engineering Society (585) 254-2350, via website: www.roceng.org, or via email: leeloomis46@gmail.com, (585) 738-3079 (mobile & text).