MIDLAND, Texas — A tutoring group made up of five retired teachers are now tutoring a class of first graders at Santa Rita Elementary.
Margaret Wade started the group after helping her grandsons out once classes went online for students last year.
“This fall I began to think not every family has the luxury of grandparents or parents or friends or relatives who can help with this unusual situation so I began to contact friends and said we can tutor," said Wade.
She has years of teaching experience, having taught Biology for 30 years at Midland College and for 25 of those years serving as the Dean of the Midland Science Department.
Wade and her group of four friends tutor Ms. Kim Beeler's first grade class at Santa Rita Elementary School.
Each tutor visits the class twice a week via Google classroom with extra classroom resources like E-books and whiteboards. Beeler said, "so I bring them out here and the tutors read half an hour with each child and it really boosts them up."
However to Beeler's surprise, this group ended up teaching her a little thing or two.
"I'm hearing what's going on and I'm talking with them and I'm learning their strategies and it's actually continuing education for me," Beeler said.
This program has also worked wonders for the kids in and outside the classroom.
"I see them making progress, I see them developing some confidence and self-esteem," Beeler said.
As for the biggest reward of them all, Wade says, "our pay is seeing these children flourish and they are beginning to flourish."