I've been working on a side project with the administration, and it seems to be bearing some really promising fruit. The background is, Roosevelt is the only metro school, and one of the only highly competitive schools in the country, that doesn't offer Forensics as a class. It's difficult to hire Harry onto the faculty A) because he isn't officially trained as a teacher and the certification process is a pain and B) because the school needs teachers more in the fastest growing academic areas, because Roosevelt's enrollment has grown so much recently. But I noticed how much coaching goes on between varsity and novice students, and wondered whether that could be institutionalized in a class period. There is a model - AP Computer Science at Central, for example, uses 2nd and 3rd year students as instructors because no teachers really understand the material.
The short of it is, we're seriously looking into creating an independent study under the supervision of a speech-accredited English or Social Science teacher, where 3rd and 4th year students will help coach novices and 2nd year students. It wouldn't be a blow-off class: you'd need to work and probably compete to get an A, although we haven't worked up a grading format yet. To schedule this, if you'd be interested in taking this as an independent study at Roosevelt next year, especially if you're going to be a 3rd or 4th year student, let me know ASAP so that we can get those names to the scheduling department (I think they live in caves under the school, but I'm not sure.)
As usual, you can contact me on Facebook, in practice, on my phone (515-371-0021), or email me at nleys94@gmail.com. The sooner we can get a list together, the better, and if your name is on it the chances are much higher that the block will fit your schedule.
Nathan
