Over summer, administration and Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) worked together to develop a new system for tutorial on Wednesdays. ILT, a group of twenty teachers, implemented this new system with a set goal to maximize and ease students’ workload.
“Eventually we will be connecting ILT staff meetings with students to gauge how it’s going over the course of the year,” assistant principal Shawna Torres said.
The new process has students use Edficiency, a software program that allows students to choose their preferred teacher for the tutorial period. Edficiency assists in achieving the administration’s goal of giving students time and offering help to complete work.
Unlike the Google Form system used in previous years, Edficiency algorithm determines where students go based on how students’ rank their teacher preference, or if a teacher requests a student.
“I think being able to create sessions for a limited number of students is great, and it’s a little bit easier for students to request and teachers to request,” math teacher Jayne Flynn said.
Admin has reported to be pleased with Edficiency as opposed to Google Forms. This they say is especially because the IT department of Edficiency is easier to contact for technical support.
“It has been pretty smooth because the Edficiency representatives have a very good responsive IT support department,” Torres said. “Any time we have a question or there
is clarity that is needed, they are always quick to respond and are available to meet via Zoom which is great.”
Students must submit their teacher preferences by 11:59 PM the Tuesday before the tutorial period. Their classes are then selected by the algorithm and sent to students via email
the next morning.
“I think that the new system is a lot better, although a little complicated, it is intuitive enough,” senior Jonathan West said.
Student resports not only welcome the new format, but tutorial as a whole.
“Although it’s a short period of time, you can do enough quality work during it,” senior Carlos Ramirez said.
