Learning before the pandemic was a struggle for most students, this year especially poses more challenges than ever with distance learning- with free online tutoring offered by the school administration, this may be the best solution for those who want reliable answers through a virtual setting. 

“I’m glad that it’s an opportunity that Buena can offer,” AVID adviser, English 11 teacher, and event coordinator of the free online tutoring classes, Heather Arrambide said. “I feel like students need help because they have to learn and access the curriculum differently, they also don’t have the structure and the discipline that is built into a regular school day.” 

Since Nov. 2, every Wednesday night, with the exception of holidays, the school hosts an all core-subject online tutoring session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Zoom code and link is sent to students’ VUSD email from the administration- anyone is free to join to receive help from teachers. When students enter the Zoom meeting, the student will tell the host, Arrambide, what subject they need help with. The student is then sent to a breakout room with a teacher, district tutor, and/or peer-tutor, that can help you in said subject. Students can even get help with more than one subject by going back out into the mainroom and asking to be sent to a new breakout room for a different subject.  

“I really expected there to be maybe two or three kids showing up [for the first Wednesday night tutoring] but we ended up having 26 students. That told me that this was needed,” principal Bobbi Powers said. 

There is also an online tutoring session for math only, which you can use the code or link sent via email from the school on Mondays from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Fridays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“It is a great way not only to improve their grades but for them to be connected to others and the school,” Powers said. 

There is a “nice variety of different types of support” to choose from, according to Arrambide. Students, if they wish, can choose which type of tutor to study with. If Arrambide mentions that there is more than one teacher offering help for a certain subject, students could ask if they could have that teacher. If there is a district tutor, a college student offering time to help, or a peer-tutor offering to help in that subject, students can choose from them as well. 

This isn’t the case for every subject during the Wednesday night tutoring classes. Some subjects only have one tutor, so students would have a limited option. However, whatever help is being offered, the tutors there “are offering their time to help” according to Arrambide. 

There are even ways for students to help their peers as well. If students wish to help other students, earn community service, or simply feel more connected to the “Bulldog Nation”, students can email Arrambide for more information and offer their help. 

“I sometimes think that students work particularly well with peer-tutors because there’s a little bit of a social aspect to it and a fellow comradarity with a fellow Buena student that’s there too,” Arrambide said. “There’s a beauty and a benefit to that as well verse just a traditional student-teacher type of dynamic.”

During this age of distance learning, it is “critical for students to take every opportunity to have additional support, whether it’s going to the tutoring meetings on any of the days they can, attending office hours [provided by their teachers],” Arrambide said.