And The Adventure Begins

Although I have already been to the elementary school in which I will be tutoring, today was the first day I began working with a forth grade student, two for that matter. When I walked into the classroom the teacher was not expecting me however, when I told her I was there to tutor students she was overjoyed and said “perfect timing, were working on math.” She then sat me at a table and gave me a math book and informed me on the sections in which I will be working on with the students. It seemed as soon as I opened the book the two students were at my table, a male and a female, for the sake of privacy we will call the Sam and Sue.


First I will talk about Sue. She seemed very interested and wanted to know everything about me. I told her I was a student at MSU and I was here to help her with anything she needed help with. She then informed me that MSU is where she wanted to go to school to be a lawyer or judge; this was also her mother’s goal before she dropped out of school. After we got acquainted with one another I began to review with her some common mathematic procedures. However, that was the last thing she wanted to do. She kept changing the subject and asking unrelated questions and telling me unrelated stories. This to me shows that she is not very confident in her math skills. She had a very hard time understanding the material regardless of how I presented it to her and how many times I repeated myself, she was just not interested. The most interesting comment she made to me was regarding the tutoring session. She asked “why are we working with you? Is it because we are stupid? The other kids always say when you have to work with someone special or go to another classroom your in special Ed.” This caught me off guard but what surprised me more was Sam’s comment after Sues which I will get into later. At first I was not sure what to say so I just continued on with math until I realized what I was teaching her the same thing the class was working on. After realizing that I told she was not stupid, she was on the same level as the other kids and learning about the same things. Once I pointed that out she felt somewhat more comfortable. Sue seems like a bright student because when she did pay attention she understood the material. I think it is just a matter or her getting more confident in herself and more comfortable with me. Once these things happen I think she will feel better asking me questions about school subjects she does not understand.


Sam is the male student I also worked with. He, unlike Sue wanted to learn math. Although he didn’t want to tell me much about himself, it seemed he was very eager that someone was going to give him the time of day. He did make a startling comment through which was also the first thing he said to me that was not math related. When Sue made the comment about being stupid Sam said “yeah, my dad tells me I should be in special Ed.” I could not believe these words came out of hi mouth. It just seemed shocking to me because I was raised differently, with my parent’s support 100 %. Besides that Sam caught on very quickly which is another reason I think Sue felt uncomfortable, because she did not. Sam is very bright I think if he has more one on one help he will just continue to get smarter. A reason why I think he was happy to work with me and get one on one time because it seemed the teacher of the classroom was not very concerned with the failure or success of the students. As she would stand in front of classroom talking she was pretty much talking to herself. The kids were fooling around and she did not once stop and bother to say get in your seats. Yes I know it most likely would have taken more than just a simple get in your seat but the point is she didn’t even try that.


Hopeful my tutoring sessions will get better and the children both will open up more so I will be able to help them in all of the areas in which they need help.