Oh boy! I got to play teacher last night with a few Chemawa students, all but one of whom were very reluctant to do anything that had anything to do with anything related to math! That said, we did alright. By the time we finished 12 problems together on the board, Yollie was making a little "swish, swish" motion with her pencil, which meant "move the decimal over." Ryan was multiplying (correctly!) out loud before I had to prompt him, and it seemed like Tonya understood the process even if she was too shy to talk me through an entire problem out loud.
Anna asked one student to leave just after we had started working on the assignment. I can't remember her name, but the student had jokingly (I thought) replied "no" when I asked her if she wanted to talk me through a problem on the board. I was prepared to laugh a little and then remove the "want" from my question and try again. Anna said that if she was going to interrupt and distract from the process, she could go back to her dorm with a note on her pass. While I understand her reasoning and I'm sure she knows the student better than I do, I was disappointed. First, it was tricky because I felt like I had been assigned to a task and then had my authority to handle the group taken away. We had a groove going, and I think that as tutors we have some room to be silly and have some fun while we work. If I can get students to laugh with me, learn a little bit about them, and then have their respect when it's time to do homework I feel the night has been a success. Second, I'm confident we would have made progress and the student would have warmed up to doing the work; sending her back to her dorm is almost like a reward, in that she got out of doing work and being stuck in tutoring. But, it is contrary to the reasoning behind having this system for academic probation. She could have worked with her peers, she could have dedicated a full two hours to catching up on her homework, and I could have gotten some one-on-one time with her to find her strengths and areas for improvement. Sometimes it takes a little convincing to behave well and care about ones studies, especially when one has already been convinced otherwise.
Anyway, I get it, and next time I'll try to speak with Anna to find a compromise. We had some fun, Ryan had two or three problems left of a long assignment, and Yollie and Tonya better understand the process. And I got to play teacher.
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2 comments:
You are a very calm and considerate person my dear. It's good that you were able to see Anna's side of things, but I wish she (the student) would have been able to spend some time with you. I know she would have benefited from that time and you enjoy a challenge!
I hope you get another opportunity!
Blessings my dear! I hope you had a fantastic weekend with your Eric and nature.
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