In order to to help the students who are too busy outside of school or need extra help with schoolwork, studying, or community service, Rocklin High created a new class called Thunder Core.

“Thunder Core is a class in which we take students and give them skills in term of habits, organization, and service learning. The class basically is about giving skills to be successful in high school,” Ryan Spears explains.

The students start their day off by getting all their schoolwork organized. Occasionally, they go out and do community service, like helping out in the parking lot our cleaning up the campus. However, most of the time Mr. Spears spends the class preparing students for their tests in other classes, getting started on future assignments, and he even helps them edit their papers.

Mr. Spears chose to teach this class because he believes that his job as a teacher is to help and support students who need extra help.

“My favorite part about the class is some of the connections that I am building with some of the students, kind of one on one,” Spears says.

In a small class, Mr. Spears is able to gather more information about his students and let his students find out more about him. Mr. Spears is so passionate about the class that he went to the middle school and had each 8th grader who was interested in his class interviewed personally, so he could get to know each one of his incoming freshman.

Overall, it has been leaving a positive impact on their grades and time management. Initially, some of the students have been reluctant, but after spending sometime in the class, they have discovered the many benefits of having this class in their schedule.