Tutors help K-12 students

The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute recently expanded its K-12 Homework Hotline to the Bloomington-Ellettsville area. \nA conference was held in Bloomington for local teachers, administrators and the Indiana Board of Education Wednesday to kick off the extension of the system.\nRose-Hulman began the Homework Hotline in Terre Haute in 1991 and gradually expanded to Clay County. \nThe biggest expansion was in 1999 when it was extended to Indianapolis with funding from a $1 million grant from Eli Lilly. \nThe Bloomington-Ellettsville project came from the remaining funds after the Indianapolis expansion.\n"We're just real excited to be expanding this program," said Susan Smith, director of the Rose-Hulman Learning Center. "We think that it takes a lot of people working together to make a difference; we want to work with K-12 educators to make that difference."\nThe hotline is a source for students in grades K-12 to get help on their homework. \nThey call a toll-free number during the business hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and speak with one of 20 trained tutors. \nThe students can ask questions about their homework, or work through the homework with the tutor over the phone.\nThe tutors have the required textbooks that the students use at the telephone with them. \nThe tutors must go through six to eight weeks of training. Each night that the center is open (Sunday through Thursday), there are 20 tutors manning the phones. \nThese tutors are paid for their time, and work with teachers in their community to receive proper training for this position.\n "Our tutors are trained to help students, and they will always refer them back to their teachers," said Michael Timmons, assistant director of the Homework Hotline. "We train them to go along with how the teacher teaches. We try to keep along the same trends that they are learning in class."\nWhile the hotline is mainly for science and mathematics help, the tutors will not refuse students for any reason. They will help students outside of the grade levels and subjects as best they can.