This morning, before school, I was sitting in my classroom when I heard a knock at the door. I looked up and saw Lindsay, one of my 6th grade students, standing there. She said hi and asked if she could come in. Of course, I said she could and as she walked toward me she said that she had a question. I could see that she was a little nervous because she didn't seem to be able to think of how to ask the question. She eventually, after squirming a little, said that she was scared about math. She said it wasn't her best subject.
If you remember from one of my older blogs, Lindsay transferred to Sonlight after going to school in the Bahamas. She is a very sweet girl and speaks very good English. The problem was that the math she was taught had not prepared her for our 6th grade math. She was having a hard time keeping up and I tutored her for a few weeks, but she had to stop coming because it was hard for her to find a ride home after 4PM. I noticed that she was learning some of the new material, but was having a hard time with the new material that drew on the older material that was taught before she came. Unfortunately, there was no real way to get her caught up if she couldn't stay for tutoring. When we had visitors here, I would send her out into the hallway to work one-on-one with a visitor. She seemed to catch on pretty quickly this way, but it wasn't enough to get her caught up.
As we are nearing the end, it is clear that she will have to be retained. I talked to Mr. Thom, the 6th grade teacher, and he said that she is not doing to well in some of the other subjects; one of them being French. It's sad that she won't be able to move on with her class because she is such a great student. She is always quiet and paying attention and has a sweet smile. Whenever I ask for someone to read a problem, she is the first with her hand in the air waiving it with excitement as if it is the last time she will ever get to read out loud.
On a positive note, I will enjoy teaching her again next year and am sure that she will do much better. She is one of the students who will be retained that I have high hope for. She does learn quickly, but was unfortunately unprepared from her prior school. She had told me that they only taught, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Our third graders can do this with ease as I am sure is the case for many other schools in the US.
As I was talking to Lindsay, I reminded her of how much she has improved and how she is only having difficulty with new material that draws on older lessons. Such as conversion from yards to feet. She missed that lesson, so she has trouble with converting measures before calculating perimeter or area when two units are given. I have gone over this with her, but she hasn't received as much repetition as many of the other students.
In any case, it is always sad to retain a student, but I have high hopes for her and will enjoy teaching her again! She is fun to have in my class!
About Me
- DJodts
- I have created this blog to share the stories of my trip to Haiti as a missionary at Sonlight Ministries as I will be teaching Algebra, Geometry, Adv. Math as well as 6th grade math. Sonlight Ministries was started by Roger and Norma Alexander in 1985 after their second year in Haiti. Before moving to Haiti I have visited four times on one week trips to volunteer with anything that was needed. This mainly consisted of construction work as groups from my church, WRCC, have helped build a new multipurpose building for Sonlight which will be called SonCenter. Construction isn’t the only type of work. Some like to spend time in the classrooms interacting with the students as teachers aides or sitting in the hall with a student one-on-one to help with grammar, math, etc. Groups have also helped with numerous tasks such as painting inside houses, outside houses, and rooftops. If you enjoy helping others and would ever consider visiting please let me know; it is a life changing experience.
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