Tutoring

I really enjoy my Rotary Club's tutoring program at a local school. It's fun to do and it makes at least a small difference for the kids and the teacher.

Fortunately, I get to work with the same teacher as I did last year. You can tell the difference a new year makes in her face. A little more makeup and a little less stressed. We'll see how long that lasts.

She sent me this last week after the assignments were made:

"hi chat! i was so happy to see that you were assigned to me, and hadn't requested to change rooms. my kids did fantastically on last year's spring testing, thanks in part to you. 92% passed the math portion, and 76% scored Advanced! that's what i like to see.
unfortunately, this year i have a very low bunch. however, they are low not because they are not capable, instead because they are very, lazy and uninspired. so, just to give you the heads up. i have made some inroads, but is is drudgery.
your son is in 4th this year no?"

Yikes. Forget about the compliments, but a teacher describing a room of 4th graders as lazy and uninspired!? Now, it is entirely possible that this description is spot on and with 30-some students she has a big job. I think it shows the challenges that LAUSD teachers face. Still, the lack of optimism is troubling. I would think that an effective teacher needs to have on at least slightly rose-tinted glasses. Not in terms of a students current ability level, but when viewing their potential to succeed.

I worked with a girl today on negative numbers. She's interested in science, so we did examples of adding and subtracting temperatures to help her understand how it works. Though, I think when we used examples of owing her parents allowance money because she borrowed some to buy a game made a little more sense to her. She seemed genuinely excited when it stated sinking in.