Felix, the kid that loves to read. Unfortunately on our agenda for today, reading was listed last and boy was there a good deal of work to do. First we worked on his math, in particular, multiplication and division. He wasn’t too thrilled that he had to other subjects before reading because reading is his favorite.

We first worked on  2 x 1 digit multiplication, which means you need to comprehend how to “carry over” the tens number.  A few weeks ago, Felix and I first began this type of multiplication, and he had trouble figuring out which number to carry and it took him a good deal of time to figure out the answer.  After a few weeks of practicing general 1 x 1 digit multiplication, Felix began to master these answers. By mastering the 1 x 1 digit multiplication, he has prepared to improve at 2 x 1 digit multiplication.

When we worked on the 2 x 1 digit multiplication, Felix figured out the answers much faster than before. He was also reciting the 1 x 1 digit multiplication to me quickly. I can tell he has been working really hard to memorize the 1 x 1 digit multiplication. For most problems, he remembers which number to carry over. Occasionally he would switch the numbers but I would ask “which number do you carry over?” and he would realize his mistake. I’m really proud that he’s been making improvements in math. Last year math was his worst subject, now he keeps telling me he’s keeping a consistent B (grade) in math.

Next, we went on to division. Felix somewhat struggled in division because it’s a newer concept to him. I’m sure with more practice he will begin to master division, just like he did multiplication. I’ve tried comparing division and multiplication for him; the explanation seems to help him understand division better.  We worked on a simply division sheet and after a few problems he seemed to get the gist of the problems, it just takes him a bit to figure out the answer. Overall, with more practice, I’m sure Felix will comprehend and get faster at division.

Lastly, Felix and I worked on writing sentences. I would read off a word from a list and have Felix write a sentence about it. For most of the questions he knew the meaning of the words and how to use them in a sentence. He did a good job of making logical and interesting sentences. There were a few words that he got confused on. One of the words was “poor.” Felix wrote “I shouldn’t poor water over my bothers head,” or something along that line. I explained to Felix that he used the word “poor” in the wrong context and that “poor” is an example of a homophone. I used the example of the word “right” and how “write” is also pronounced the same.  I explained you must look at the context of the word to figure out which “write” is actually right. I told him that “pour” is the word he was looking for and not “poor”; we went over their meanings to clarify.

In the end, we sadly did not have enough time to read. Hopefully next week, Felix can read a story. I’m glad that Felix has a desire to read. Reading is so essential to so many aspects of life and even other school subjects. In order to find more about history, you can read about it in books or online sites. When making a cake you need to be able to read the instructions, to actually make an editable cake.  Felix sometimes struggles with pronouncing words but he still has the urge to continue reading.  You might think Felix would get deterred from reading but since he loves it so much he keeps trying. Determination that Felix demonstrates, reinforces my opinion that all children want to learn. Thus we as a society should continue to teach/tutor each and every child.

tutoring on 3/29/2012

Math time, something Anna hates, but something Melissa loves. Both girls started off the tutoring session with you guessed it math, more specifically multiplication. Melissa worked mainly by herself and only needed help on a few problems. On the other hand, Anna tended to have a little trouble with math. Occasionally, she’ll tell me she doesn’t want to do math, or says “math is stupid.” I usually respond by saying “No way! Math is a blast!” or some cheesy line.

Consequently, I had Anna do the easiest problems first, then we work our way up to the harder ones. Basically zero times some number is the first problem we do. After doing simpler multiplication Anna became more confident. When I ask her an easy question she quickly responded and she seemed happy. Towards the end, when the multiplication got harder, Anna seemed somewhat against the idea of proceeding on. I kept giving her praise when she would work through a problem and I would help her with the questions she didn’t think she could figure out. In the end, we got the worksheet done, and Anna put a great effort in. Melissa also finished her multiplication worksheet and got all of her questions right! Woohoo!

Melissa could only stay for a little bit today; she had a dentist appointment to go to. She left shortly after finishing her multiplication worksheet. I was glad she came, even if we only did one math worksheet, it’s something! As Melissa walked away, Anna watched her leave. When I asked her what she was doing she said “I’m making sure Melissa gets safely in the car.” Now that’s a good friend, I can tell Anna really cares about Melissa and vice versa. As Anna and I watched Melissa get in her parent’s car and drive away, I could tell Anna was slightly sad to see Melissa go, nevertheless she worked hard throughout the rest of the tutoring session.

For the rest of the tutoring session Anna and I did more multiplication and worked on reading and writing. We read a simple poem and then was asked to write another poem similar to the one we just had read. One of the lines said something along the lines of “If I ruled the world, I would get rid of ________.” Anna filled in the blank with the word underwear, which we both found slightly funny. She then erased underwear and told me she’d think of a better answer later. I’m really glad Anna can joke with me. I like that she feels comfortable asking me any question. As a kid I could be slightly intimidated by my professor and not ask questions. Consequently, I try my best to be a friendly, approachable tutor, so far so good. I’m going to try and keep working on multiplication with Anna and try to see if I can get her to improve her confidence. She can be a hard worker, I know she can figure out the multiplication problems with more practice.

I patiently waited for Melissa and Anna to arrive. Some of the other students came in but not Melissa and Anna. Valerie came up to me and told me both, Melissa and Anna are going to be talent show and had a meeting, so they wouldn’t be coming today. Darn! I asked Beth who I should tutor instead and got placed at another table. Shortly after sitting down, who do I see enter the door, but Melissa! She looked a little out of breath, and came in saying “I’m here!” Beth looked at me and I got up and was instructed to tutor Melissa since I was her regular tutor. Sweet! I love tutoring Melissa and have created a friendship with her, so I always look forward to tutoring her.

When I asked Melissa where Anna was, Melissa told me Anna went home after the meeting. Melissa also said she did not want to miss tutoring with me today. I told her thanks and that I really enjoy tutoring her. It was a Kodak moment so to speak.

We begin tutoring by reading short stories and answering the questions on the work sheet. Melissa seemed to enjoy the stories and figured out the answers to the questions pretty quickly. We proceeded to work on math. Melissa’s multiplication skills are improving every time! It’s great to see her hard work is paying off. I know it can be tiresome to keep doing the same type of math problems over and over again but the problems help her memory. She still needs to devote more time to multiplication, but she has definitely come a long way.

Throughout doing work, Melissa kept asking me about music. We initially discussed music we both like then she went on to ask if I have seen the LMFAO music video for the song “Sexy and I Know It.” I have seen the video and it’s definitely not appropriate for a nine-year old. If you go on YouTube, the video is age restricted; you must be 18 to watch the video. Melissa asked me questions about the video and I answered them the best I could and told her she shouldn’t watch those types of videos, and that were for older audiences. I told her Disney songs from the movies are the best and that my favorite Disney was Pocahontas. We then sang part of “Colors of the Wind” because that song is awesome.

I remembered last class discussing the introduction of “Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets” by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. In the paper, what assets people, neighborhoods and communities bring to help one another is discussed. I think Melissa brings her upbeat attitude and determination to succeed to tutoring. She also gives me great feedback. Whenever she doesn’t understand something, she’ll tell me. Additionally, she discusses how the important her family is to her. She always talks fondly of her parents and brothers. Overall, I would say Melissa and I had a good tutoring session. We laughed, learned new things, and succeeded at finishing work.

You be the judge! Appropriate for all ages? Link to “Sexy and I Know It” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6JDQCslE&ob=av2e&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3DLMFAO%2B-%2BSexy%2Band%2BI%2BKnow%2BIt%2B%26oq%3DLMFAO%2B-%2BSexy%2Band%2BI%2BKnow%2BIt%2B%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3D%26aql%3D%26gs_sm%3D3%26gs_upl%3D7697l7697l0l8492l1l1l0l0l0l0l54l54l1l1l0 

For those who might to reminisce and sing along to “Colors of the Wind” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i0HDygKdLM

As I walked into Bezanian Library, I found Melissa and Anna waiting for me. They were saying something in Spanish I couldn’t understand. It’s times like these I wish my Spanish was better, since the girls tend to switch between Spanish and English throughout the tutoring session.

For the first time, Melissa and Anna had the same worksheet to work on. Score! The worksheet examined the different shapes of the moon throughout the month. I was happy that they both had the same worksheet for once, because I figured we could all work together on it, or so I thought. Starting out both girls seemed to want to be tutored by themselves, which I found to be really weird. The girls were always inseparable. If one girl needed a drink of water, the other girl would say she also needed water and together, they would go get water. If one wanted to color, the other would also want to color.

Later, I found out that the previous day both girls felt they were not given enough help and felt somewhat neglected. It can be hard to split your time between two students, especially when the two students have different work to do. This was usually the case for Melissa and Anna. I always try to divide my time equally but it can be a challenging task. For future lessons, I plan on paying more attention to dividing my time equally.

Since the girls wanted their individual time, I would do one problem with one girl then do the same problem with the other. Though this probably wasn’t the best decision, since it took longer, but the girls would not cooperate otherwise. I feel like this is a type of “thin” engagement Morton describes when discussing civic engagement. Since the problem wasn’t completely resolved and merely had a quick fix, it can be concluded that the resolution was due to a “thin” engagement. Hopefully, I can get the girls to work together as we continue to work on their cooperating skills.

After finishing the worksheet, Anna said she had a coloring sheet she needed to do and didn’t need my help. So I worked with Melissa on her math, and reading. Melissa has a good grasp on the multiples of five but had trouble with other multiples. Sometimes there isn’t a short cut to figuring out the multiples, instead you must work at memorizing the answers.

Occasionally one of the girls would say to the other girl “you wanna fight?” and of course the other girl would say “yes!” and so they would begin to “fight.” Since I sat between Melissa and Anna, I was consequently in the middle of the action. The “fighting” was in reality the two girls getting rowdy and jokingly flailing each others arms at one another while I was stuck in the middle. Eventually, after they quieted down, I talked with them about their rowdiness and they stopped trying to “fight.”I think next week I will discuss with them, the importance of staying on tasks before we start the tutoring session. That way I can remind them that we can have fun and take small breaks but at the end of the tutoring, we want to have some work done.

Towards the end, Melissa had finished almost all of her work, so she was allowed to color. Anna, on the other hand, did not do to much work. She and I worked on math for a while and got to color for a little bit at the very end. I told both girls in the beginning of the tutoring lesson, if they complete their school worksheet, and math then they could color, but if they didn’t they couldn’t color. Well, I held true to my word. Only after Anna completed most of her math sheet did I let her color. I think it’s important to be honest and clearly state directions to help kids realize in order to get what the desire, they first must accomplish their tasks.

Walking in the rain while its cold out is always a pain. The one day I don’t wear rain boots, I accidentally stepped in a puddle. Having wet socks is about as fun as listening to my aunt discuss politics.  I seriously need to start paying attention to the weather report or at least check my Facebook to see Tom Skilling’s weather report. http://www.facebook.com/TomSkilling

After stepping out of the puddle, I quickly walked toward the “L”  in hopes to avoid the many wind tunnels on Loyola’s campus. I was on a mission to get to the Bezazian Branch Library on time so I could tutor Melissa and Anna.

Success! I made it to the library early and patiently waited for Melissa and Anna to arrive. Melissa arrived first and we began working on her math homework before the official start time of tutoring  session! Talk about determination. Melissa and I worked on her fractions and I’m pretty sure she is a pro at them now.

When Anna came she was put with Diane, another volunteer, since there was so many tutors again.  After finishing the fraction homework, Melissa and I read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, which was a great read! Melissa really liked the book. Before Melissa would turn the page, she always asked me to do a drum roll and then she would gasp after the page was turned. The book had detailed illustrations to go with the story; Melissa was quite fond of them.

photo from Google Images

During this tutoring session, Melissa, once again worked through some hard concepts.  For the most part she is determined to get her work done and always asks questions when she doesn’t understand something. Sure, she has days where she is tried and sometimes loses focus, but regardless she always tries. Each week I see improvement! Her pronunciation of certain words has definitely improved. Together, we will continue to work on her pronunciation.  I can tell she really is thankful for the extra help.  Sometimes, she’ll bring in a drawing she made and give it to me as a way of saying thanks. I’m really glad I began to tutor at Inspired Youth, it’s been and will continue to be a great experience.

As I walked into the Bezazian Branch Library, I could already hear the kids. It was Thursday, which meant I got to tutor Melissa and Anna. Despite being in different classes and consequently having different homework, Melissa and Anna managed to be patient while waiting for their turn asking me questions.

They seem to be best friends, and always asked to be tutored together. They work pretty well together and make a great duo to tutor. Occasionally they will help each other out with homework. In general, when Anna has trouble with math, Melissa and I will try and help her learn her multiplication a different way. Sometimes Melissa has trouble pronouncing words; Anna will help Melissa with her pronunciation.

Today, Melissa and Anna were especially rowdy; perhaps they had too much sugar. It was slightly difficult trying to get them to focus on their homework. A lot of the other students were also being rowdy, which distracted Melissa and Anna. They asked if they could color today, so I told them they could if they finished their homework and one assignment from their folder.

Knowing they would be able to color later if they completed their tasks made them suddenly quite determined to do their work. Oh, the power of negotiation. With Melissa, I helped her complete her worksheet about the Eiffel Tower and a worksheet on figuring out volume by using cubes. At times it was difficult to figure out the volume of the object because you can’t see every cube that needs to be accounted for. I tried finding blocks to use to show her visually but could not. Instead I had cards, which sufficed.

With Anna we worked on her multiplication and some reading. Since Anna really dislikes math because she tends to struggle with it, I started her off doing the easier problems. We worked on the multiples of four; I asked her what four times zero was. She responded “zero.” I saw the exact same problem on the page and asked what four times zero was. She responded quickly “zero!” We continued on the multiples of four with four times one and so on. Since we went in chronological order, it was easier for her to figure out the multiples of four. I also gave her plenty of high fives and “Yeah! Good job!” By doing the multiplication problems over and over, Anna’s memorization skills were improved.  In no time, we finished the worksheet.

After Melissa and Anna finished their homework and extra work, all of us drew pictures and colored. Though my artistic skills are quite limited, I can still draw a pretty darn cute bunny. I drew a bunny for each of the girls and they each made me a cute picture as well. Drawing and coloring was a nice end to the day.

1/30/12 tutoring