Kennebunk High School students are taking part in academic service as teaching assistants in English classrooms. What is typically a cornerstone of college education has made its way to the high school.

The program started just before the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennebunk High School English teacher Beth Carlson became the adviser for the school’s National Honor Society program.

As a service-based program, honor society students are expected to participate in community service activities. But students are often overbooked between activities and academics, Carlson said, and don’t necessarily have the time to put into an after-school or weekend-service program.

Instead of taking up students’ time after school, Carlson decided to implement a tutoring program.

“Then the pandemic hit,” she said. “Nobody was really doing the tutoring program.”

When students returned to in-person classes, Carlson and other teachers noticed an “academic malaise,” meaning students were not motivated to continue learning.

Furthermore, high school freshmen had completed their formative seventh- and eighth-grade years primarily online, which essentially stripped the students of necessary social and academic learning experiences.

“There are a lot of kids who don’t sustain attention,” Carlson said. “They’re distracted.”

As both a teacher and an honor society adviser, Carlson realized that a tutoring program was simply not doing enough for struggling post-pandemic students.

It was at this time that she decided to implement a teaching assistant program for students already participating in National Honor Society. Not only would the program support teachers and students, but it would also give honor society students the opportunity to embody the service element of the organization.

“We realized that teachers were super appreciative of having an extra set of hands and eyes in the classroom,” Carlson said.

The teaching assistants are typically responsible for organizational tasks and helping students with their work, but some have taken on a bigger role, even teaching a lesson.

It’s an opportunity not only for students to fill their service requirements, but for those considering teaching as a profession, it’s a chance to see what it might be like to be a teacher.

“I think it’s great for the kids,” Carlson said.

Teachers are still learning to integrate teaching assistants into the classroom, Carlson said, but she hopes to see more teachers using the assistants as an asset and planning lessons based around having an extra set of hands and eyes.

Carlson also plans to expand the program by creating an after-school math study session, since many students and parents have expressed the need for more help in the subject.

“We want to give help to the kids that don’t always know how to ask for help, or where to go for it,” Carlson said.