Tutees in abundance

25 October: Getting someone to tutor was not going well at first. I had someone lined up, or so I thought, but they just flaked out. That is when I was connected with PR. But it didn't stop there. I have also been contacted by three others to tutor, and I can't say no to someone who wants help. Now I may have more tutees than I know what to do with. Given that I don't know how this will all work out, I am just going to go with the flow for the time being. I will see how it all turns out. No matter what, I am excited to be able to help them - hopefully. I want to actually help and not just fill a time sheet with hours spent. I also have to be realistic and not expect too much either. The three others who have requested tutoring are also working construction and that can be exhausting work - so I don't know how much they will feel like doing. I'll just wait and see!☺

Session Two with PR

I don't know about such original titles. Today is 19 October and PR and I met again today at Memorial Library, which is where I think we will likely always meet. I use the ERC because it contains the Global Learning Lab and is where the Educational Resource Center is located, which keeps Jaida entertained. PR has already surprised me today - he had pronounced a word yesterday that contained a /z/ and it didn't come out like a /z/. He used the website I had shown him and had already been working on it. He said his pronunciation suffers more when he is in casual talk, but he is going to work on it. Today we worked on intonation issues a bit. I decided to use Laura Numeroff books for this (and guess who my inspiration was for this!) as they have a lot of variation in intonation. PR and Jaida seem to like each other as well, which is good for me. Anyway, I read the book, to model how it should sound. Then he read the book. As the book progressed, his intonation started out good and then dropped off. I realized what the problem was. We started again, and this time I would read a page and he would read the same page right after me. This worked much better. There was simply too much information at one time before. It feels kind of weird using children's books for an adult who is obviously reading farther in advance than that, but for intonation, I really like these books. He later e-mailed me to let me know how much fun he had and that he was also enjoying using the website I had given him. I am amazed at how grateful ELLs are for any amount of time that can be spared for them. He was feeling guilty, but I assured him that this was helping me too! I haven't had time to do the diagnostic analysis from the taping, but I am anxious to. I will also be looking for information on the Nepali language, as it is always helpful to have some basis on knowledge of the native language.

Session One with PR

Although I am only now getting these posted, I will be writing from my log, and in that time frame. Therefore, today will be 18 October, because it is MEA and I don't have to work. I met PR at Memorial Library and we were together for two hours. Today was getting to know each other and since we had so much time I recorded him as well. He has had English language instruction in his own country, Nepal, so he is bi-lingual. Although he is bi-lingual, he has pronunciation and intonation issues to work on. I also showed him a website that I really like, because it is for pronunciation and shows how the mouth moves and how the sounds should sound in initial, medial and final positions in a word. He thought this was really cool. The more I know about someone, I feel the better position I am in to help. I don't seem to have a problem establishing trust, and we both seem comfortable with each other. My youngest daughter, Jaida, was with me today, as she didn't have school either. Given that most of the time I will be tutoring on the weekends, she will likely be with me a lot. Fortunately for me, she is very self-entertaining. We will meet tomorrow and begin working on intonation issues. I don't have a solid plan yet, obviously, but there are a few things I have already picked up on.

Tutoring PR

PR is a freshman electrical engineering student from Nepal that I am tutoring, and he is so very nice and so appreciative of whatever time I can give him. The first time we met, we talked about what he wanted out of the tutoring and what issues he felt were most important for us to work on. Although he has pronunciation issues, the intonation is more of a concern for him. His vocabulary and grammar in English appear to be quite good. It is the spoken communication that he wants to work on most. I feel the first session should be more about becoming comfortable with each other to set the tone for the working relationship, as I want my tutees to know that mistakes are part of the learning process and that I am only here to help. I am not here to scold, but I might teasingly (with proper caution) let them know if they are not working very hard. I meet with him tomorrow when I will record him and do a diagnostic analysis afterwards. I am excited to finally be tutoring.

Motivated Learners

Wow! I had my first meeting with Rodrigo and Walter today and I was very impressed by how motivated they are to learn. Rodrigo is braver than Walter, as Walter is somewhat shy. We were very conversational today, because I want them to be comfortable with me. We talked about what needs were most important to them and they are at different levels, so their needs are different. We met on campus, which they had never been to before, so I did spend some time touring them through the library and the student union. They were impressed by how much MSU has to offer. We all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to the next meeting. After the semester is over, I agreed to let them help me with my Spanish. This has honestly been the highlight of my week!

Tutoring concerns

I tutored over at East High School for an ESL classroom on Wednesday, after I had finished with conferences over in Waseca.

The kids were really great. I met a student from Mexico and one from Guatemala who were working on English sentence structures and doing quite well. There was a third student from Sudan, but he was having problem with his eye and went to the nurse's office.

After seventh hour was over, I worked with several students working on their science. The focus was chemical reactions. I left a little disturbed, as most of them could copy information from the book to the worksheet, and some with difficulty at that. However, none of them seemed to really understand the information they were covering. This concerns me a great deal. They were great kids and very polite and appreciative, but I don't know that they are really learning anything about their content subject. Is anyone else encountering this?

Test Blog

This is a blog test. This is only a blog test. Had this been an actual blog, you would have read and responded to this blog. This is only a blog test. You may now go back to what you were doing before.