One on One Time with Students

During my last few visits, I spent a significant amount of time working with one student. This young woman has had a significant amount of trouble in school. She has told me that she is taken medication to control her moods, doesn’t really enjoy doing anything in life, and generally gets in a lot of trouble at school. In our initial interactions, she was very reluctant to attempt math problems. After working with her for three or four days, doing some one on one teaching, and providing some encouragement, she has been much more willing to try problems. She is very bright and definitely has the ability to learn the material. One day, while talking as the class was ending she mentioned that she just needed a mentor. I agree with her completely. It would be wonderful if a lot of these students had someone to work with them personally and hold them accountable for their own success. This would require a significant personal investment and time commitment on the part of the mentor, but I am sure that it would have a great impact on these students’ lives. This idea kind of goes back to what I discussed earlier about helping these students connect their current actions with future results.

In Mr. Sowder’s class, I am still doing a lot of observing and looking for a better way to get involved with the class. This week, a student was sent out of the class for being argumentative with the teacher, so I decided to join him in the hallway and have a discussion with him. I felt that since I am not the teacher and I don’t discipline the students, I might have a better chance at connecting with him and helping him understand why he was asked to leave the class. We briefly talked about how often it’s important to have a tempered reaction to situation particularly when they involve someone who is superior to you. I asked to try to use restraint the next time he disagreed with the teacher. I am not sure what impact this had on the student, but he seemed to understand that I trying to help him get through life with less confrontations.