Rochambeau Alternative High School students teach and mentor younger students

Students at Rochambeau strengthen their school community and get career experience by volunteering right at their school. In the morning, students visit the Head Start Universal Prekindergarten classes to help support their students. In the afternoon, students in Dr. Steven Chetcuti’s Introduction to Programming and Computational Thinking class have been helping teach fifth graders who take classes at Rochambeau through the Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES).

“We're just playing with them, we're teaching them the numbers, and it's very fun to see them learn stuff,” said sophomore Ayelen Elizondo while sharing her experience working with the pre-K class. “It's fun to see their progress in talking more, and they're starting to learn more English phrases, which is nice.”

Several of the students speak Spanish, and Ayelen is happy to provide the extra support. She started working with the students last April and says that the experience has opened her mind to the idea of teaching in the future. 

“The experience has been very good because the kids are very respectful,” said Ayelen.
"They learn a lot of stuff. I would consider teaching (as a future career) because I like to see how they grow, and I think they're very cute students.”

Anthony Espina, a senior at Rochambeau, worked in the pre-K classes last year, earning credits towards graduation, and is in Dr. Chetcuti’s technology class. Following his help with the pre-K students, Family Services of Westchester even approached Rochambeau Director Khali Murrell and offered to interview him for a job after graduation. 

“It really made me happy watching them,” said Anthony, who now is helping teach fifth grade students in Dr. Chetcuti’s class. “That kind of did make me interested in teaching little kids.” 

During their technology class last Friday, Rochambeau students helped their younger peers learn about coding. Using Microsoft's MakeCode program, the older students helped teach about how to make their characters say different words using inputs on their computer.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the little ones in the building and the big ones in the building to really partner with the goal of supporting and enhancing the work that is being done in the school day,” said Ms. Murrell. “The high school students are able to serve as mentors, teachers and to some extent peers.” 

Dr. Chetcuti’s class has been learning about coding this year, and this teaching opportunity gave them a chance to show and reinforce what they know. 

“I go by the old story: if you learn something, you can forget it, but if you understand it, you can teach it,” Dr. Chetcuti said, explaining why this teaching opportunity is so important for his students’ success.

“So, I try to have my students understand so that they can teach other people,” he continued. “And it also validates what they've learned in class, that it's something that's sustainable, which is a big part of education.”

Throughout the process, students have become much more confident in themselves and what they learned in class. Once they realized how much they knew and could share, they ran with the opportunity to teach it to the younger students. 

“I think that it's a good experience, a great experience, actually,” said Stefanie Torres, an 11th grade student at Rochambeau. “It kind of gives you a different point of view on being a teacher and seeing what being a teacher is. You're also able to give the students some notes and stuff like that and guide them in the coding and work with them to try to understand it and make it easier.”

This experience was even more meaningful for Stefanie because she would like to pursue a teaching career in her future. Stefany has also enjoyed the opportunity to reinforce her knowledge about coding, even joining the Rochambotics Robotics Club as her first ever school club. The team competed at John Jay High School earlier in the month. 

After working with the MakeCode program, students took the BOCES children to the hallway for a game of robotic soccer. The soccer “players” were robots that were coded by students in Dr. Chetcuti’s class. Students were able to see firsthand how the code they created can be translated into a physical machine. 

“It's a special service, and I feel like hands-on activities is what engages them with the technology evolution that’s happening,” said Maria Almeida, an assistant principal for Southern Westchester BOCES. “So I feel like getting them together gives them the opportunity to shine, not just in writing, but also in coding and learning more about technology. They love it!”

Next, students will be working with BOCES students in lower grades, utilizing more elementary programming software. As they continue to learn, Rochambeau students are taking advantage of their knowledge by passing it along to the rest of their school community!