Awkward Much???

As I got unto the bus today, I saw one of my AVID students on the bus as well. I smiled at her and took my seat. She had obviously missed the regular school bus, and had to ride the city bus instead. I kept thinking about how fortunate she was, although she was going to be late she still had a ride to school. In Fayetteville, if I missed the bus, I would either have to miss school, or walk, and thats a thirty minute bus ride, fifteen mintute car ride, and a LONG walk.

I really did not know how to act towards her on the bus though, or how to act as we were walking side by side into the building. I could tell she had that awkward....I'm seeing someone who is kind of like a teacher outside of school feeling, and I definately did not want to make her feel more awkward! Needless to say, I kept my music turned down on the bus in case a stray "naughty" word came her way.

I wonder what it's going to be like to see my students outside of school. Will I be allowed to go out with my friends for dinner and enjoy a glass of wine, or something like that, without being ridiculed. I guess these are the prices you have to pay when you decide to change the world through teaching....along with crappy pay. = /

Changing Times

This Tuesday, I helped a girl write a thesis statement. It was pretty much pulling teeth with her, she did not trust anything I said! Her prompt was a two part prompt, and she was only answering one of the parts, and she kept thinking that because she had never done her other thesis statements like this one, that I was wrong. So, we pulled out all her other prompts and I had her underline and number each statement she was supposed to answer. Sure enough, all her other prompts only had one statement to be addressed, and this one had two.

As she finally began to trust me, and after she had written a wonderful thesis, we began talking. As tutors in the AVID program, we are supposed to encourage the kids to go to college, so we talked a little about that, and then I asked her if she lived with her mom and dad, just to get a better backgorund on her. She then told me that she had two mommies, and that she was adopted. It took me a minute to realize what she meant by two mommies, and then I realized that her moms were homosexual. I had never encountered something like this, and I was very interested. I asked her how she felt about that, and she said she did not like it sometimes because she did not like being different than her friends. I assured her that being different is always a good thing and that her particurlar situation makes her special and allows her to expierience things that other students would never be able to expierience.

I cannot wait until the day when racial and sexual orientation stigmas disappear and kids can just be themselves and learn in a prejudice free enviroment.

Not enough students = /

Last Tutoring Tuesday, there was not much to help with because the school district had a late open day on Thrusday, meaning they open two hours later, so all the teaching fellows tutors that come on Thrusdays had to come on Tuesdays instead, and we all had to double and triple up on students. Needless to say I did not get much one on one time with my student, my first girl tutee, and she was working with word porblems in math, so I pretty much just let the other tutors take over because I had no idea what I was doing! But I learned an important strategy from the other tutors, to have the student recap what they have learned and attempt to "teach" you what they just learned, this way, you know the student has fully grasped the concept.

There is No Better Satisfaction....

So, today there was no bus confusion, I originally thought I had missed the bus, but it turned out that I had not, so my anxiety was short-lived.
Today, in tutoring, I worked with the same student and another student, Deshawn. They both needed help with math-YIKES-but, fortunately it was something I could handle. Malik was having more difficulty than Deshawn, they were translating word problems-more like sentences- and making them into workable problems. I taught him a new strategy, I had him box all of the key words, such as quotient, or subtracted, or added to, or twice, and had him write the sign the word pertained to above the box, so that it was easier for him to see where the actual problem was coming from. It was SUCH a joy to see him uderstanding the problems! There is absoutely no greater satisfaction as a teacher than seeing your student grow from confusion to understanding.
After we were done with his work, I started asking Malik and Deshawn questions about themselves to better understand where they were coming from. They both enjoy athletics, and they both want to go to UNC when they grow up! Malik then asked me what I wanted to be when I "grew up," and when I said I was not sure if I wanted to teach middle school or high school, he said he wanted me to teach middle school so I could teach him. That just put an immediate smile on my face, and I had to tell him that it was probably better if I taught high school then so I could catch up with him in twelfth grade. I love tutoring!

Ugh. Being sick is catching up on me.

As you all know, I was sick last week and the week before. Late night studying and early mornings combine to make it impossible for me to rest. So, I went back home to Fayetteville this wekeend to get some much needed rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, I did not realize that this was the last weekend to do mandatory AVID tutoring, until I got an email from my host teacher last night. I absolutely hate giving a bad impression and I know my host teacher is going to think I am just a flake. I am not looking forward to emailing her and letting her know I missed the class. Hopefully there is something we can arrange. Otherwise, I might get kicked out of the AVID program.

My First Day of Tutoring <3

So, after sitting forever at the freezing bus stop waiting for the G line bus toward Briarcreek with no success, I decided to take a chance and ask the bus driver of the G bus toward Bookercreek if his bus stopped at Phillips Middle school, and of course, he said yes, meaning I had just waited 45 minutes for the wrong bus. Yay me! But, I was still really anxious because the driver seemed hesitant when he told me yes, so I waited nd waited, and finally another teaching fellow going to the same school got on the bus! I was instantly relieved, becasue since she had been the week before she knew all about the proceure to sign in the school and everything, I was really lucky!

When I got to the school, I signed in and made my way to the class. After our class filed in, they wrote their names on the board under the sibject they needed the most help in. Unfortunately, most of the signed up for Math, which is my leats favorite subject. I buckled down, however, and began tutoring a seventh grader named Malik. He was working on subtracting integers, which I am actually knowledgable in, so I just made up problems for him and we workd out the issues he was having with integers. Thankfully, he was alot like me in the sense that he did not really care why the math worked like it did, he just needed the rules and went to work! Over all, it was a pretty successful first day of tutoring and I cannot waitto go back tomorrow!