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May 3, 2011
Tuesday - The 26th was a pretty standard day at tutoring but we actually got a lot of work done with both Anthony and Matthew by the end of the day after about 20 minutes of convincing. Anthony is a really good reader but tries to take most of the time at tutoring to convince me to just sign off on his reading slips and not have him read. He always either tells me that he already read it or that he doesn't have to read but just get the slip signed. Once I convinced him to actually read, he flew threw two short books and seemed to have reasonable comprehension of what was going on. Matthew needed a bit of convincing but not as must as Anthony. His reading is slightly slower than Anthony but he still worked through a book and understood what he was reading.
Thursday - On Thursday I attended the ceremony for the end of the tutoring program. I thought it was a great way for the kids to be proud of themselves for working hard over the last few weeks and get some recognition from other parents and classmates. Anthony went home sick that day but one of his friends gave me a little card he wrote me. I thought it was really nice of him to take the effort to do that and showed that he, or more likely his parents, were actually appreciative of the time we put in to try and help the kids. Matthew was able to make it to the ceremony and seemed very happy because both his Tuesday and Thursday tutors were there, so he was getting quite a bit of attention. His mom came in at the end to watch him get his little certificate and I told her personally about what we had accomplished, or at least attempted to accomplish.
Posted at 01:05 pm by Prescott Brown
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May 1, 2011
Thursday was our last day of tutoring already. It is hard to believe how fast the semester has gone, but I wonder if the students feel the same way. Years in elementary school felt like lifetimes. To celebrate the last session of the tutoring program we had cake and a small ceremony for the kids. Of course the cake was a hit. I was disappointed because A wouldn’t sit with me, K, and Liz during the entire hour. He said there were too many girls for him. I can’t say I was surprised. He’s a third grade boy, and I don’t think I can expect much more. But I still would have liked to talk to him more. K is a wonderful little girl, but A was the challenge of the semester and the one that I felt I became most invested in. He had to be with the boy though. It was nice to recognize him at the end. He looked so nervous, which did surprise me. Mr.Cool does not like standing up in front of people.
It was nice to sit with K throughout the ceremony and cake though. I think she is eight years old going on thirty. She said she probably won’t do the tutoring program next year because she will just be too busy. She often talks about how “busy” she is, and how her schedule is full. It makes me laugh, but I also think it is somewhat sad. Whether it is that full or not, she has this constant “what-do-I-have-to-do-next” mentality. I want to say breathe. Overall, tutoring at Biglerville far exceeded my expectations from the first day. Other tutoring programs I participated in were seemed much more like a requirement, a duty. Biglerville was fun. It flew by every day, and I could see why I was there. The teachers and students wanted us there, and we returned the thought.
Posted at 09:16 am by Devan
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Apr 29, 2011
On Tuesday, Brian was more energetic than usual and it showed. While Brian worked on his math homework, Brandon read for me. Then Brian read while Brandon worked on his math. Overall it did not take them that long to finish their work. Both kids finished their work very well so we decided to work on some math flashcards to help them practice. They did well on the flashcards so with ten minutes left we played connect four as a way to relax before gym time. The kids had been doing good work for the past five weeks so I thought they could use a little mental break. We played connect four twice until it was time to go to the gym so we went over there to play. While there, Brian was climbing up these poles and every time I would get him and tell him to stop, he would run over to another one and climb that one. Brandon would stand by one, but would not climb it. To stop him from climbing, I tagged him and started playing tag. I feel like he just wanted my attention, so he kept going against what I said.
Thursday was our last day tutoring so we had a party and certificate ceremony. I wanted my kids to get as much homework done as they could. Brian and Brandon worked on their math diligently and read, but that was more of a struggle. After we finished the homework we played some games until it was time to eat some cake. Afterwards, the children received their certificates the tutors gave a few words about the child’s accomplishments, progress, and future. It was a lot of fun getting to know Brian and Brandon and I hope to be back next year working with them.
Posted at 06:39 pm by mikeburgoyne91
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This week was the party with cake and certificates! At first, N was not very happy to see me. We played a memory game, though, and once her grandmother got there, she was happier. It was nice seeing all the tutors with all the students, and the students seemed super excited.
After the ceremony-thing, I was pleasantly surprised when, as N was leaving and I asked for a hug, she gave me a huge, long and extended, strong hug. After all the times she told me how much she liked her other tutor better and said “ughhh I have to go with you?!” every week, it was very nice that she seemed to be sad to see me go. It made me feel like I actually did something, and made me feel like I helped her accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. Her grandmother, as they were leaving, said “see you again next year?” While I don’t know yet if my scheduling will work to come at all next year, it made me want to make the time, and was a good conclusion to the semester. Throughout the semester I felt like I was more annoying to N than helpful, but that hug made it seem like I did something. Hopefully I can make it work next semester…
Posted at 11:59 am by Sara Zebovitz
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Apr 28, 2011
This was my last week of tutoring at Biglerville. I told Bryan and Madison this in an effort to get them to work harder on their homework, and they didn't even know the program was ending. They immediately got concerned; Madison even exclaimed, "Who's going to help us with our homework?!" Bryan groaned at the thought. While their disappointment was a little heart-wrenching, the whole situation was really pretty funny when you consider how much effort these two put into trying to avoid doing their homework. However, the thought of me leaving actually did make them focus more than usual, which I was not expecting. Madison was done with her work early and wanted to play with the students who were in the tub. I gave her permission to as long as she checked with their tutor to see if it was okay.
With Madison gone, Bryan really opened up to me. He told me he didn't know if he'd see me again because his family moved a lot. When I asked him where he lived before Biglerville, he told me his family had moved from Texas. He wasn't sure if they had plans to move again, but he seemed worried about it. While we worked on his math assignment, he told me that he really liked going to school in Biglerville, and I could easily see why. Over the past few months he's achieved so much and has really developed his social skills.
I also saw this at the party on Thursday. Both of my students were ecstatic to see me. They gave me hugs and presented me with pictures and thank you cards they'd made. Although they were happy to be at a party and eating cake, both of them were really concerned that we weren't working on their homework assignments. I couldn't believe this and gave them such a hard time about it until they were in a fit of giggles. I showed them pictures on my phone and let them take turns playing with the camera. It was nice to actually get the chance to have fun together. The party definitely made me realize just how much I'm going to miss these students over the summer, so much so that I might even continue to tutor them in the fall. Working with Bryan and Madison has been a great, yet challenging experience, and I'm glad we got to end it with one day of not doing homework.
Posted at 01:24 pm by CateLeech
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Tuesday was my final day of tutoring C and E. I can’t believe it has already been an entire semester. C played the “I don’t have any homework to do” card again, although this time he actually didn’t. His teacher had given him a coupon for one night of not doing any homework and C wanted to use it that day. I tried to convince him to use it Thursday, since we have the party, or a night where he didn’t have me to help him, but he didn’t listen. Instead we read a book about sharks. E didn’t have very much homework to do, either. It was much easier to get him to do his work without C’s disagreeing attitude getting in the way. Since E finished his work quickly, and C wasn’t going to do his, we had some time to kill before they were allowed to go to the gym. The boys really like to be competitive against each other so I came up with a spelling game for them. We went over to the chalkboard and I would start spelling a word and whoever guessed the word correctly first, whether I was still writing or not, would get a point. They really liked this and it was an especially good game for E because he spelling and reading are two of his biggest struggles. I was really impressed with how well he was doing. It was nice to finish off the semester on a positive note since we have had our fair share of issues. I am looking forward to the party later this afternoon.
Posted at 10:13 am by LeighWeitzmann
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Apr 26, 2011
Today was an interesting day of sorts. I showed up a little late, and very stressed with the mountain of work that I had waiting for me on my desk back in my room. However, upon my entrance to the cafeteria Gage came right up to me and asked to go get to work. This shocked and confused me a little because I usually have to pull teeth to get him to get to work. So after a short walk around the room to see if Chris was there, which he was not, we went on back to the media room to get to work. Once in the media room he pulled out his work which turned out to be a sheet of times tables, another math worksheet and some vocabulary that he needed to look up in a dictionary. Naturally he wanted to start with the math sheets, and began working on them. As we were working on the first sheet Katy came over and asked if I could take Jayden, since I only had one kid to work with. I obliged willingly and got Jayden to sit down next to me and get his work out while I helped Gage finish up the worksheet. Jayden proved to be a handful and after Prof. Fee warned me that I needed to keep him within arms reach I focused on him a bit more than I probably should have. He had a very simple math sheet, as well as one that worked on his hand writing, and flashcards with vocabulary on it for him to work on pronouncing. We started with the most simple and I got him working on his handwriting while keeping an eye on Gage and his times tables. As expected Gage was very swift with his times tables although he needed some help in a couple areas he didn't normally need help with. It was interesting that everyone he got wrong he had the right multiple but had the wrong number (ie. he had 7x3=24 and 4x7=32) so at least he's on the right track. Once Jayden had finished his handwriting practice we moved on the math sheet with the Gage's expert assistance. It was simple subtraction as personified by the price of something, and what was paid, asking for what the change would be. Thankfully Gage was there, and he was probably more help than I was because I was having trouble trying to explain how the sheet was to be done before Gage came in and got him to do it correctly right away. I'm thinking it was a combination of closer proximity in vocabulary, and experience with this style of teaching and my lack of focus that allowed Gage to be a crafty little teacher (since he would rather help with some math than play hangman). Once this was done Gage was forced to go play some hangman for a couple minutes before heading to the gym while I worked with Jayden on the flashcards, although this was difficult as Jayden was having some trouble sitting still. As a whole it was an interesting day that ended up being quite informative for me in terms of teaching techniques and motivation.
Posted at 09:17 pm by Alex Dodge
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I was sick today and could not go unfortunately.
Posted at 09:16 pm by Alex Dodge
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Finally a good week at tutoring! Christian didn’t have any work and Luis had just a little math. Christian spent twenty minutes reading about soccer while I worked with Luis on his math. Luis finished around when Christian was done reading so they drew for the last twenty minutes. I still can’t believe how amazing of an artist Christian is. While he was drawing I started to tell him about how I am a studio art major at Gettysburg College and asked if he wanted to go to college. He said that he really wanted to go and play soccer. He said that his parents want to see him and his brother get a college education and that his mom did in Mexico. Luis said that they probably didn’t because they didn’t have any money. Christian got extremely offended and said that his mom had the certificate. He said that all the good soccer players go to college first and it’s good because you can get a good job after. He also knew that you get to pick what you want to study so he doesn’t have to do the subjects he doesn’t like. I was really glad I brought it up and I hope that he does some day go to college. He is a smart kid. We then went to the gym where all the kids were playing soccer, and I saw how amazing Christian was. He was better than all the middle schoolers and was loving every second of it.
Posted at 08:37 pm by Jenna Birkenstock
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Today I worked with Sam and Karla. Almost every time I go to tutoring Sam is by himself not wanting to play with other kids. Today this was true and he looked very distracted and somewhat upset. I tried asking if anything was wrong but he just said "no". While we were working Sam looked very distracted and it was hard to get him to focus, the first time ever that has happened while I have been working with him. Karla was doing well with her work and they both finished fairly early with their work so I got out flashcards to work with them on. Sam clearly doesn't know how to add and subtract as quickly as Karla and I felt bad for him as Karla kept saying "this is easy" when it was clearly a struggle for Sam. I am going to miss tutoring because I never realized until the last few weeks that we really do make a difference with these kids. Hopefully next semester my golf schedule will allow me to tutor again.
Posted at 08:02 pm by nathca01
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