By Molly Burken
Mr. Waterbury's QueSt class
Every student has an opinion on QueST, but what do our teachers think about it?
We usually think of QueST as 30 minutes of doing nothing, making up tests, scrambling to do homework, or potentially visiting teachers and roaming the halls with our friends. But, something we don’t often think about is how our teachers view and use QueST. Some teachers don’t have a QueST class, but they usually have kids coming in for various activities or to hang with their friends.
First, what do our teachers have to say about QueST? Do they think it’s a good resource for students?
“Absolutely,” said Bob Schwartz, one of our history teachers at CDHS. Even though his QueST is the current seniors, he has students from all grades who come in.
Colleen Flathers, CDHS’s LA10 teacher, also expressed that QueST is a good student resource. That is if students use it properly. “I think QueST can be a good resource, I don’t know that students use it the way they’re supposed to.” Mrs. Flathers has a QueST group composed of current sophomores.
Now, Courtney Waterbury, another CDHS History teacher, who has a current junior group, also expressed that QueST is a good resource for most students, but it’s different for everyone. “I would say yes. Different kids use it for different reasons, so I wouldn’t say it’s kind of a one-size-fits-all.”
Now, what do our teachers do during QueST? We all know the common phrase ‘just come in for QueST, and you can do it then’, but what do teachers actually do during QueST?
Mr. Schwartz said he uses QueST to teach students material they missed when they were gone, to make up for an absence, to reassess, or even to mentor others.
“If I have students that need to like, make up a test they missed last week when I gave the test, that’s a good time for them to come in or if they fall behind, for me to work with them individually.” Mrs. Flathers mentioned that certain QueST groups, such as hers, make it difficult to work with students individually as they tend to get out of control, therefore needing a reminder regarding their behavior, and she has to do this several times, resulting in many constant distractions. “It’s hard for me to work with them individually because those in my QueST, I have to be on them.”
“For me, I try to prioritize the kids that I either request or kids that are missing work, so if they have the desire to retake I put that on them, so I would expect them to request me if they want a reassessment, but I would request them if they are missing an assignment or they are struggling in class,” was Mrs. Waterbury’s overview of her usual activities in QueST.
The final question was if these teachers would change or improve anything about QueST such as how it’s run/used, the system we use, or anything else.
Mrs. Flathers expressed that having QueST at the end of the day would be more beneficial so “when athletes have to leave early, maybe they’re not missing as much instructional time.”
Mr. Schwartz said that he likes the electronic system we use in the high school, highlighting the simplicity of the requesting process and organization of the lists given to teachers. He mentioned that this eliminates the risk of emails getting lost in the mix.
Mrs. Waterbury also shared her liking of the system we have, but one thing she expressed was the cut-off time for requesting. “The only thing I’d probably change is being able to request past eight o’clock on the day of, because I always forget, like especially when I have second block prep,” she also compared it to when she taught in the Middle School here at DeWitt. “Cause in the middle school, which I got used to that for like so many years, we just had the document that I could request whenever I wanted like, 5 minutes before” “And I also liked that I could say like ‘I sent this kid at eleven o-five, and the teacher could see when they left,” Mrs. Waterbury also acknowledged that the element of when a kid was sent to a teacher might not work in the high school as compared to the smaller middle school.
Overall, teachers seem to like QueST. Students tend to have mixed feelings about QueST, but maybe, if some small elements were altered, we could improve our educational experience even more.
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