Dear Editor:

Dreams cannot be achieved all on one’s own without a motivation and a little help from someone who cares. Despite the stereotypical perception of teachers “ruining student’s lives,” the majority have the complete opposite intention to help improve them. The English teachers at NHS have done that by creating a Writing Center to assist students in their writing and better their chances of getting into the college of their dreams. Students are encouraged to use this center as a tool to get editing advice for their essays and papers from all classes, and more popularly, college application prompts.

Because the function of writing centers are sometimes unclear, they are often viewed as less important. According to author Ben Rafoth, “Writing centers supply teachers and tutors to assist with assignment challenges and ideas that there seems to be no words for.” It helps to view teachers as coaches and collaborators trying to improve skills instead of just teaching. Sara Roblee, an experienced English teacher at NHS, explained how it all started and is very pleased with the outcome and noticeable improvements.

“The idea for the Writing Center has been a goal of the department for years. Our goal here is to grow the Writing Center so that it is staffed all day, which will allow more opportunities for students to receive help.”

Another prominent English teacher, Jody Drake, describes her hopes for the Writing Center with eagerness, “I’d like to see it staffed every hour of the day so it is more easily available to students.”

According to Roblee, in the first nine weeks of school 58 students visited the Writing Center, which is a very good outcome considering the hours not being the most accessible. Accessibility being the biggest issue, Roblee hopes to see students stepping up to volunteer and help out their fellow classmates.

Roblee expresses the need for more staffing, “One solution to this problem is having student supervisors.  Currently, we have three students–all strong writers–who work in the Writing Center.” All have been trained on the expectations and procedures by Roblee. Although the center is doing particularly well with its numbers, it needs student’s help and involvement to keep it continually thriving.  I myself have utilized the center and worked with a teacher on my writing skills. I left feeling more confident in my abilities for future papers to come.

Although it may seem quicker to independently crank out essays for classes, the Writing Center was established to not only help with editing errors, but also better student’s skills for the rest of their lives. The NHS English staff is more than pleased with its outcome, however, they would love to see students taking more of an initiative to assist their fellow peers. Consider stopping in at the Writing Center for better results and one-on-one collaboration, because the future not only matters to individuals, but to the dedicated teachers and coaches setting aside their own time to “blast you off” into the world as a confident Rocket.

Sincerely,

Annie Czech, senior