Students helping students

Today was interesting... I feel like that's what I say at the end of every day.

So I do this after-school tutorial/re-teach for Geometry.  The original format of this tutorial is that there is a topic that we go over on Tuesday and then on Thursday students are allowed to do re-tests on that particular topic area.  Teachers receive their own students tests, grade those tests themselves and life moves on.  

Unfortunately, life doesn't work like clockwork.  So I end up with a room of many different students all with different areas they need help in, all coming from different teachers, all with different attitudes about math.  Also, since most of them are not my own students I don't know a lot of their names and they don't know all, or really any, of my own classroom rules.  

There are several of my own Pre-Calculus students who come to volunteer their time to help out with this tutorial.  They help everyone sign-in, get oriented with what group they want to work with, sometimes they tutor students themselves.  This definitely helps the process of what I need to do.  This also helps my own students to increase their own mathematical confidence too - a very big plus.

So even though there is a bit of a coordination-mess, sometimes my room looks like a hurricane went through it and the janitor says my students are making more work for her because they make a mess in the hallways too :( - I still think we're making progress and I have to believe that progress is success. Eventually those students will take their renewed understanding to their classes, eventually the "regular" tutorial kids will teach the others how to clean up after themselves and things will iron out.  Right? Right.  Well, one can only hope.

My only fault with this process is that even though we are meeting 1 need there are so many others we aren't meeting. What are the programs your school offers? Pros//Cons of those models?  Trying to figure out how to restructure ours so it can help those who need help with homework, remedial skills and also not-so-long-ago re-takes.