It’s mid-September of freshman year and the first English essay assignment is introduced. There are nervous glances all around, rubrics are distributed and the deadline is set for one week from today. You begin with a blank Google Doc. It stays blank. But, there’s hope. There’s the English Help Center, where teachers are available to help you brainstorm, draft and revise papers.

In the past, the school had a funded program called “The Writing Center.” The English Help Center was established this past year by the high school’s English teachers. Now, teachers are available to help students Mondays and Tuesdays before school and during X-block at 22 Tappan in room 216, and Mondays and Thursdays after school at 115 Greenough in room 318.

Future World Literature and True Life Stories teacher Talmadge Nardi said that the Help Center should be used for times when students need help and can’t get it from their own teachers.

“When there’s students who might need help with something and their teacher’s not available, I could be helping them, so that’s why we made it. It’s in the spirit of helping more students and having a community. Sometimes a teacher is absent or students need help, there’s no reason why a colleague [at the Help Center] can’t help them with the same paper,” Nardi said.

Alison Whitebone, who teaches Responding to Literature Honors and College Prep, said that the English Help Center extends the limited time and support provided during class for students.

“Because English teachers assign so many papers and extensive books and go through about 12 draft papers per year, there’s not really enough class time to give people that individualized writing coaching,” Whitebone said. “It’s really important to talk with [students] as we believe in revisions, so that takes time.”

With the many different help centers available at the high school, some are more popular than others. Nardi said she wants to see more students come to the English Help Center, which she said would only contribute success to the high school’s overall academic community.

“I’ve walked by and seen a lot of students at the math and science [help centers],” Nardi said. “The [English Help Center] should become more well known, and students should feel more comfortable to attend it. I think that would be a positive thing for the whole building.”

Whitebone said that she wishes more students would feel welcome to attend the help center with questions about their creative writing in addition to their academic assignments. Most creative writing classes aren’t available until senior year, making the Help Center a special opportunity for all students to practice their non-academic writing skills.

“I would like more students to take advantage from a creative aspect [of the Help Center] so it’s not just, ‘please help me, I have a paper due tomorrow.’ But [instead], ‘I’ve been working on this poetry. The poetry fest is coming up, can you just look at my poems and can we practice reading them out loud?’” Whitebone said. “Students should feel comfortable coming to the English department teachers to work on their craft. Craft of writing is such a popular class but it’s a senior class – but we still want to offer that element within our school even if you’re younger.”