Student Union volunteers adopt sixth grade classroom

As of the beginning of March, 15 Oberlin students and one administrator are returning to the sixth grade.

Student staff members of Wilder Student Union, as well as Assistant Director of the Student Union Chris Baymiller, launched their first "adopt a classroom" project last week. They now volunteer weekly in one of Langston Middle School's four sixth-grade math classes, helping students and acting as reinforcements for teachers.

"We came to the conclusion that education is a community responsibility, not just the responsibility of one teacher in one classroom. That's the central thesis of our project," Baymiller said. "We've taken a very humble approach, putting ourselves underneath these master teachers to make their job easier and helping out where they best see us fitting in."

Volunteers work with students one-on-one, in small groups, sitting at one table or walking around helping everybody, depending on what the need of the particular class is, according to Baymiller.

"Everyone gets this sense of how difficult it is to teach in public school. It's really hard for one teacher to deal with a large classroom of children," Baymiller said. He has been substitute teaching and volunteering in different capacities at Langston Middle School since 1981 and has had three children go through Oberlin's public school system.

Baymiller said the volunteers are taking on the sixth-grade math department specifically on the recommendation of Langston administrators, who were excited about the project and hope to increase the sixth-graders' math proficiency test scores.

"Right now the real need is to get their proficiency test scores up," Baymiller said. "That's our temporary goal, and then it's back to the business of just developing a greater love and appreciation of math."

Baymiller emphasized the importance of the group of volunteers working together in one school. "We definitely didn't want to be sprinkled over different schools, whereby we couldn't talk about the same students or the same issues. This way we can work on even small problems collectively," he said.

While Baymiller said he's been known to jokingly refer to the volunin this. The great thing about this is that we all work together and get to talk to each other often about our experiences. It seems like everyone has had a positive experience."

Baymiller said the volunteers often meet on a daily basis to discuss specific issues or general feelings about the math classes. "We're a huge team and we're all equals. When we do this we're all in it together; there's no hierarchy, so to speak. At that point it's just friends attacking a problem and need in the community," he said.

"I'm just really excited about this program. I'd call it a pilot program and I'm hoping it will catch on so other departments or places or teams on campus could do the same thing we have," Silver said. "For example, a hallway in Burton could adopt a classroom, and the Frisbee team could. That way the interaction isn't just through tutoring; when they see each other on a daily basis anyway they can discuss specific students or issues."

Silver added that everyone who has participated in the program has been enthusiastic about the outcome.

Sophomore Lisa Dadabo, another volunteer, agreed. "It's been really cool so far. The kids are really eager and friendly, and the teacher has said they seem to really like the program and respond to it," she said.

Baymiller said part of the program's success can be attributed to the talents of the student volunteers. "The great thing about this is that we have students who have already done a lot of teaching. The level of community service at Oberlin is amazing. All the student volunteers are extremely talented and are willing to share that talent with the entire community," he said.