19.3.08 reflections!
everyone went tday! it's our first time XDD
things didnt go smoothly D:
We were supposed to leave school by 2.30, but we somehow managed to drag until 3.30..
and even though we told the centre we would reach at 4.00pm, we only arrived at 4.30!
so it was rather bad, although auntie yew hwa didnt comment on us being half an hour late..
after we reached, we found that there was another school band who would be teaching about 40 children(from all lvls).
An, whom im quite close with, was attending the lessons by the band. So i just assisted another student, jack, with his work until An came out. ^^
he was sometimes unable to do the practice maths questions, even though he understood the basics.. then i realised it was because he couldnt "see" how the questions are to be solved.. so i taught him how to draw bar models and see the differences between person A and person B.
then when An was busy drawing the bar models, i went around scouting! (i'm a guide, thats why. XDD)
everyone seems okay with their tutees, but sarah seemed to be having a little difficulty with her despondent buddy. so being the busybody, i popped over to see!
sarah was teaching maths, but the buddy wasn't absorbing anything.. and then i realised that i forgot to hold a mini meeting before the session to teach them how to teach!! so when the buddy went off to say byebye to her friend, i just roughly told sarah to use colour markers, let her choose the colour she wants, and to make the practice questions as space-consuming as possible.
then i went off to help An who was stuck, and once he was preoccupied with the question again, i popped over to sarah! and the buddy was still despondent..
so i asked sarah whether she could switch with me buddies for a little while, and she said it was fine, so of course i asked An to get his "okay" too..
i asked him whether he was okay with me tutoring another student first, and that i'll get back to him later..
An ignored my question. that was the first warning, but i didnt notice it.. so i asked him again. and then he started crying. just like that.
then i asked one of his good friends who was sitting next to me, why An was crying. he said it was because An doesnt like the feeling of abandonment and being alone, and he felt i was just using an excuse to try to abandon him..
i felt really bad and i apologized over and over to An, but he already ran off to the toilet while trying not to cry.. i really should have been more sensitive, especially since he was left alone here because both his parents were busy..
it didnt make sense to just waste time sitting there, so i went over to sarah's buddy to try to teach her how to divide.. i used a super loud voice and praised her for everything she did that wasnt wrong. haha, it kept her happy and more interested in doing the maths.. i started off with super simple and short explanations of how to find the next number to be divided, started off with very basic questions and slowly increased it until it was the standard that was in the assessment book. It worked, and she was able to understand how to use long division. and after that, we all had a bonding session over JENGA!
we got to know them more, forged closer relationships, learnt found out what they disliked, and i think on an overall, they seem to like us more and are more receptive of our instructions after that game. hopefully the next session will be as eye-opening as this one, albeit without the mistakes we made. and hopefully the effects of the mistakes i made this time will not last for long.. D:
Labels: 3.19.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, April 2, 2008
