GREENSBORO, N.C. — The second week of school starts Monday and parents, teachers and students are hoping for fewer headaches and tech glitches than they saw during the first.
Everyone is adjusting to a new way to go back to school and two UNC-Greensboro students are stepping up to help.
Education majors Katie Porter and Elaine Lundy should be shadowing classes in their senior year but since remote learning makes that more complicated, they decided to turn their home into a classroom for five Guilford County Schools students.
They are tutoring five students aging in grade level from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.
"They all bring their book bags and pretend it's school," Porter said.
The roommates set up several different areas for the five students they are tutoring--the couch is a quiet place to listen to class Zooms or lectures and the kitchen table is a place where Lundy and Porter can sit down with students one on one.
They said even despite a statewide technical glitch, the first week of school went smoothly for their students and they're excited for another week.
"Without the kinks of the first week, as weeks to come it'll get more in the hang of things and smooth and I think the same thing from the kids' point of view once they get used to what they're doing online," Porter said.
Above their desk is a rigorous schedule, like one their students would have in school. Porter came up with the idea to tutor while on a daily walk with Lundy.
"It's a lot to take on when you're also a senior in college," Porter said.
These tutors have online classwork themselves, not to mention lectures and their internships with schools. They are both still shadowing teachers even though students aren't in the classroom.
"It's kind of hard to take all these classes, especially when they're online and, [you think] like why am I struggling through all of this? And so, to have some kids here to help them and just, you know practice teaching and interact with them really reminds us why we're doing this in the first place," Lundy said.
They will return to schools just like their students if remote learning ends in nine weeks. They still hope to help the students their tutoring with classwork if needed when classes resume.
In the meantime, they feel the teaching practice they're getting now will prepare them for careers in a new world of education.
"It's really awesome for us because we're getting this experience and we're learning it in a way no other teachers before us really have," Lundy said.
Not every family can afford an in-person tutor but Guilford County Schools is offering free online tutoring services through a site called Brainfuse. There are step by step instructions for how to sign up, plus other resources for parents on the Guilford Parent Academy page on GCS' website.