So this is how it all began: September 2011, at the GEMS World Academy
THE WRITING CENTRE: Modeled on similar facilities available to students at most Universities, the Writing Centre has been designed to offer one-on-one support with writing needs to all Secondary students. Students are encouraged to make appointments for one-on-one conference time during any period of the school day with our carefully selected and trained peer tutors or the Writing Centre teacher.
Help is available in all areas of writing: college personal statements, literary analysis essays, creative writing, history research, science lab reports, Grade 10 personal projects, DP internal assessments, IB extended essays and more! Our talented tutors are also happy to work with the students on oral presentation/public speaking skills.
Tutoring “take-out” has been offered to teachers of English, EAL Social Studies and Foreign Languages. While our primary focus continues to be support of English, assistance in foreign languages and Math is now also available. A number of peer tutors are “subject specialists” and are capable of helping students within the classroom setting, under the direction of the subject teacher. Such in-class support can be scheduled on a regular basis or as and when additional help with specific writing assignments is required.
In its effort to promote a love of the written word across Secondary grade levels, the Centre has run several exciting initiatives to encourage good writing. The 101-Word Short Story contest for students from Grades 6-11 was followed by the popular Write Right Homeroom competition; sought-after prizes included the Lift-Pass for a week and the Dress-up-with-one-friend-for-a day Pass!
More recently, Writing Centre hours have been extended to accommodate MYP students. The Centre is now open each afternoon from 3:45PM-4:45PM and on Thursdays after school.
Amongst the highlight of our year would be the comments made by some of the Peer tutors and student-visitors who have come in regularly to get help at the Writing Centre.
Help is available in all areas of writing: college personal statements, literary analysis essays, creative writing, history research, science lab reports, Grade 10 personal projects, DP internal assessments, IB extended essays and more! Our talented tutors are also happy to work with the students on oral presentation/public speaking skills.
Tutoring “take-out” has been offered to teachers of English, EAL Social Studies and Foreign Languages. While our primary focus continues to be support of English, assistance in foreign languages and Math is now also available. A number of peer tutors are “subject specialists” and are capable of helping students within the classroom setting, under the direction of the subject teacher. Such in-class support can be scheduled on a regular basis or as and when additional help with specific writing assignments is required.
In its effort to promote a love of the written word across Secondary grade levels, the Centre has run several exciting initiatives to encourage good writing. The 101-Word Short Story contest for students from Grades 6-11 was followed by the popular Write Right Homeroom competition; sought-after prizes included the Lift-Pass for a week and the Dress-up-with-one-friend-for-a day Pass!
More recently, Writing Centre hours have been extended to accommodate MYP students. The Centre is now open each afternoon from 3:45PM-4:45PM and on Thursdays after school.
Amongst the highlight of our year would be the comments made by some of the Peer tutors and student-visitors who have come in regularly to get help at the Writing Centre.
Our very first training session...
...with pizza, of course! So here we have some of our Seniors of that year: Amanda and Eric, Mitch and Jasmine, Reece , Waleed, Jake and Malachi - our loyal Grade 11 students!
And it grew.....
And it grew...
Very soon, our Writing Centre became the hub of activity...peer tutors tutored, seniors came in to relax and chill over free periods or to eat lunch together, we moved into the classrooms to introduce the support available to our teachers and students