Sonny Reeves
Sonny Reeves, Automotive Instructor at William S. Hutchings Career Center, Macon, Georgia.
Sonny Reeves in the centre alongside two of his students
Hutchings Career Center is a magnet high school with all academic programs focused on the student’s career choice. The auto program is one of five AYES programs in Georgia. We have the largest Work Based Learning program in the state where students go to paid internships at jobs reflecting their career choice. We use the Georgia pathways lesson plans and finish each segment of a course with a hands-on assessment of the student’s mastery of the NATEF task.
Each student is assigned a computer login for classroom or home use of Argo. Some students do not have home computers and can only use the class computers. I arrive early and stay late to allow students extra time to use Argo. Students are directed to the modules that apply to their course. They are required to log and complete a set of courses before they practice in the lab.
Since using Argo student learning has increased (based on test data). Students are able to spend more time in the lab to practice skills before being tested for performance. Argo allows learning to be constant in each student’s learning style. It allows students to revisit courses for review and to refresh information after lab practice.
I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of tracking student progress. I can take one look at the progress bar and see who needs help or remediation. The time I now have to facilitate learning has increased. And there are no grading papers or tests in class.
There have also been some challenges with Argo though – the main one being the learning curve of the instructor to adapt to a new way to teach the subject. Another challenge was to learn to stop being the fountain of all knowledge and to facilitate the learning instead of dictating it. Getting away from a paper textbook and into the internet for learning has also been a big change as well as moving to teach the students how to learn on their own and enabling them to become learners instead of memorizers.
Overall using Argo gives me more time to work with each student. I spend less time developing a stand and delivering message type lessons and more time setting up lab exercises to prove student mastery. I see more “lights” go on. I work with all levels of students in my class and see improvement in all students from the highest level to those that do not pass any other subject. Argo improves learning.
It’s also been a change for the students too: I see and document increased interest in learning and a tendency for the learner to get ahead of the teacher in the lesson plan. The students like the active virtual learning instead of a boring video with strange terms and accents.
Any teachers thinking of going with Argo should go slow and allow the student to use Argo with their own learning style and time line.
To sum up: I noticed right off the level of excitement the students were sharing with each other during the first sessions with Argo. The students in upper level classes were used to one of the top online curriculum sources. I had not seen this level of student interest in the other online resource. Now I have advanced students going back and helping new students, competing with each other to get their progress bar all in the green. I have students coming in early or giving up their break to go online to study. I have students going out to practice, returning to log in so they can review the procedure or theory before the final hands-on test.
I have been impressed since I first saw Argo demonstrated at NACAT 2008. In my quest for excellence for my students I feel Argo has a place in my plans for student success.
Sonny Reeves’s Bio
Sonny has co-owned and managed a Nissan Dealership; owned a NAPA Auto Care Service Center, and has been teaching Automotive Service Technology for fifteen years at the secondary level and two years post secondary. Sonny is currently an AYES instructor at his second Career Center in a NATEF certified program. He is ASE Master Certified (1975) and a NATEF ETL since 2000. In 2001 Sonny became an AYES instructor and was selected school system Teacher of the Year in 2003 and 2008 by two different school systems. His program was recognized by AIPC and ASE in 2003.