Larned High School tried something a little different to help decrease the ineligibility list this year. This was the student success seminar supervised by Mr Scheideman. In the past, the ineligibility of students has been one of Larned High School’s biggest challenges, and solutions have been presented, including Thursday School and homework help. Mr Wilson and Mr Scheideman explored a different option at the beginning of this year, and of course, this option was the student success seminar.
When LHS created the student success seminar they knew that it needed to be supervised by a respected teacher, so Mr. Scheideman stepped up to the task and is now the chaperone for the students. He stated “This seminar is an opportunity for students who are struggling academically to be in an environment where they focus solely on their work. There are no other kids distracting them, and the thing that I think has helped the most is that within the 20 minutes I had held for seminar today alone 4 teachers walked into my seminar to give the students in my seminar one on one help.”
According to a Google form sent out to students, 27% of Larned high school students have been to the student success seminar. When asked what their experience at this new seminar was, an anonymous student replied “I did get quite a bit done in the time frame. I was in Mr. Scheideman’s room and he keeps you on task. He also makes sure you are there when your name is called. After being there for one week I didn’t want to go back so it gave me a better motivation to get my stuff done.” This is great that this student has not needed to go back. This is exactly what Larned wanted to happen with this new tool. However, another student replied to the same question with “Not really, I tend to work slower under that kind of pressure, and I have more trouble understanding things.” This goes to show that the seminar might be a good solution for one student but for another, they may need a different one. In light of this, all students who answered the Google form did say that they think this is a good solution to helping with the ineligibility list for the students.
What has the high school gained from this new tool? Mr Wilson answered that question by stating, “We have tried in the past to do homework help after school and there was a problem with rounding the kids up and getting them there. We were trying to find different avenues that could get the kids on campus that were already here and have them go and get help in the class that they need help with. When we were talking with Mr. Scheideman last spring this is what we came up with. This made logistics easier to get kids the help that they were needing.” He also talked about how he thinks this is a good solution to the ineligibility issues and the seminar will continue for years to come.
In conclusion, LHS seems to have finally found a good solution to the ineligibility of students and we hope to continue to see the number of high school students needing to attend the student success seminar.
