After Sixth Visit

After Sixth Visit:

After my sixth time with the Taft kids it had gotten a lot easier to work with them. I have been able to really get to individually know each of the kids and their strengths and weaknesses. Having the ability to really have a connection with each of the kids makes the experience overall much more enjoyable. They are more accommodating with us because they know that if they misbehave we won't be happy and get angry and if they are good they know they will get to play games and have fun with us. They now are much less timid around us and get excited when they come to Menlo because they are more comfortable.

I have really loved getting to see them grow. For example there is one girl named Jennifer that was very timid at first. She kept to herself and it was very hard to get her to talk to me. Over the past few weeks I have been able to get her to open up to me. I joke around with her and try to talk to her about things she likes to make her more comfortable with me. It feels great to know how far she has come from the beginning when she would slowly walk into class without any enthusiasm, trying to not look at me to where we are now where she runs up and gives me a hug whenever she sees me. I can now really get her to open up about what she doesn't understand in class and with her homework to help her get better. I’m excited to keep working with them and see how much more they will grow.

After Third Visit

For my PACT project I am helping at the Taft Tutoring Program at Menlo. Fourth and fifth grade kids from Taft school come to Menlo once a week. It is a little bit intimidating at first when they show up because the kids are all either running around uncontrollably or look very unhappy to be there. Ever since the beginning of the program, it has gotten easier to control or related to the kids. The reason the kids are mostly in this program is because they are falling behind in their math classes. This is either because they are timid and quiet about not understanding and really don't have much confidence in the subject or because they don't pay attention in class and are not able to understand the material for the homework. When they come to Menlo I get to interact with them and see where they are. Some of the kids actually are great at all the math and just need a little push of confidence, but some kids really struggle. This is a challenge because a lot of the time the kids that are confused convince themselves that they are terrible at math and completely unable to do it, and the fact that the kids that were able to finish their homework are running around and getting to have fun doesn't help very much.

There was one boy named Aiden that especially was having trouble. We could barely get him to sit still and even try one problem. All he wanted to do was play games and hangout with his friends. He was very unmotivated to even try to do his math and kept saying that this was because there was no point and he was terrible at it. I tried many times to get him to work on his homework, but he just wouldn't cooperate. Finally I found a way to get him focused and engaged by making a math tic tac toe game. Since he liked playing games so much he really enjoyed this. Playing interesting math games that I made up for him really made him become so much more confident in himself.

It can be hard to balance the spectrum of the ability of all the kids, but the more we see them and the more I get to make one on one relationships with them, the easier it gets to understand what they are going through and how I can help them improve. I love getting to know them and see their understanding, and enthusiasm grow each visit.