Thursday, January 22, 2009

Okay, and I'll teach you

Today was a pretty good day teaching-wise. In Algebra, they took a test. No problems there. For MET, I split the class into tutorial and free time. That gave me the opportunity to work with one of my 1st period students who has fallen behind. I stayed a little after class to do some grading. Then I went to class.

Student-wise, things went okay as well. Our class for the night was dedicated to a work day. Our professor gave us the two hours to work on our own. She and our classmates were available if we needed any help. I did not get a lot done. Almost everyone was chatting and not getting much done. That is not my type of work environment. If I had known ahead of time, I probably would not have gone to class. I did, however, get a better idea of the assignments I need to complete in the next couple of weeks.

Back to the student who has fallen behind.

This student needs a lot of one-on-one. She has missed a couple of days of school which, at our school, is an entire week of instruction time. Plus, she has a hard time keeping up and understanding in class. I felt as though she was not ready to take the test. So I asked her to come to my 7th for extra help. She made me feel a whole lot better because she was actually starting to understand it and I was able to keep her attention the entire time. She even "taught" me a couple of problems on the board while I sat in her chair. She told me she needs more individual help, but she is too shy to ask for it in class.

I am glad I was able to end the day on that note. I helped one of my students get a better understanding of the material. Also, it was nice to see another one of my students take the extra effort and try to understand the work. I just wish more of them would realize that responsibility and start coming to my tutoring.

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