A Learning Curve

This week, I have been working with the first boy I've been assigned to, Anthony, a soft-spoken 3rd grader who absolutely loves his mom. He brought up his mom almost every five minutes somehow. First, he said his mom was a "panther," too (his teacher, Mr. Kersten, calls us service learners "Mr./Ms. Panther"). He told me his mom is going to school at UWM like myself, but he was not sure what she was studying. He said she wants to open a daycare so she can take care of him and his siblings and, "some other kids."

We began reading an online chapter book about a girl who was trying to sneak into the Olympics during ancient Greece, when girls were not allowed. We began on chapter six, so I asked Anthony what the book was about. He did not give me a good summary, but he told me the definition of a horse-drawn chariot, which I thought was adorable. He was a very good reader and took on words like "philosopher" and "definitely," which most of my previous students would have stuttered over. He also read with great speed and anytime I asked if he wanted a break where I would read a paragraph or two, he always wanted to continue reading. I took a video of him reading because I was blown away! (Unfortunately, the video I took was very short and caught him stuttering, but I did not want to continue having my phone our for much longer; also, turn your volume up).

After breezing through three chapters of this book, Anthony asked me if I knew how to write in cursive, which I did, and he asked if I could teach him how to write in cursive. He said he asks his mom to teach him, but she is always too busy. He then told me he has four other siblings, all younger than him. His youngest sister just turned one-year-old. I wrote his name in his notebook and had him trace over it. Then, he kept asking me how to make an "s" or a "u" for his notes, so I made him a copy of each letter, upper and lowercase for him to practice in his free time. He was so excited and told me he wants to work with me again next week to practice more cursive!

Anthony learning how to write his name in cursive.

Anthony looking at my cursive examples for him to try.

The "guide" I gave Anthony in his notebook so he could practice cursive in his free time. 

Writing Stories

This week, I spent a few extra hours at Brown Street Academy to make up for missed time during UWM's spring break. For the first hour, I worked with a girl I have never worked with before named Anaylisha. She was very sweet and sassy, which I appreciated. She kept cracking jokes about boys and snacks and I could not believe how smart she was. They did not have any reading they needed to work on at that particular time, so we worked on writing. The class has Chrome Books which are small laptops that have a touchscreen screen, so it is very kid-friendly. Her uncle had died that morning, which she did not really talk about other than saying she was sad. We could write a story about anything, so I asked her if she wanted to write a story about her uncle. She said she did not know enough about him to write a whole story, so I asked what she wanted to write about.

First, I helped her write a story about her teacher. She said things like, "I respect Mr. Kersten. Mr. Kersten gets mad and turns red, but he is very nice." Very funny third grader things. I was worried her teacher would be mad from her honesty, but he laughed very hard. I thought it was very cool that she said she respected him. She wrote the entire thing and I just helped her come up with ideas and spelling. Her favorite part was picking the different colors for each sentence of the stories.

Anaylisha's story

Then, she asked if she write a story about me. She did not know much about me, but wrote a story about me none-the-less. She made up the story and did not ask me any questions, but made assumptions. They were very nice sentences and it brought me a lot of joy at 9 a.m. I told her I loved the story and she said she wanted to become a writer like me (because I am going to school for Journalism). Below, I have a picture of the story, but this is what it reads: "All about Gabby. She is nice. Gabby go to school at uwm. She love coffee. Gabby is funny. Gabby is going to school to write. Gabby like the color purple. Gabby like he teacher. Gabby like swimming. Gabby like panting. Gabby like street. Gabby dress pretty." I'm not sure what some of it means (Street? Panting should have been painting) and there were obvious grammatical  errors, but i still found it adorable.

Anaylisha and her friend Love wanted to take a silly picture to send to my friends...so cute!

And It Continues...

As I continue my journey here at Brown Street Academy's third grade classroom, I am constantly shocked and in awe by the students. Unfortunately, because of their difficulties with reading, many do not want to continuously read for over an hour. To make it easier on them, I will switch of by paragraphs to help break it up. When I begin to read, they definitely zone out and lose their places in the book easily, but I just get them back on track.

My latest student, Mariah, who I wrote about in my last post and have been working with almost every time since my first positive experience with her, wants nothing more but to just have someone to talk with. She is the best and quickest reader I have worked with thus far, so usually I will let our tutoring session take about five minute or so "story breaks" so she can ask me anything she wants. She has told me how unhappy she is at her school and does not have many friends, so I'm hoping these little conversation sessions brighten her day. She usually asks me questions, but last week I tried asking her questions.

Because her name is Mariah, I asked her if she likes the singer Mariah Carey. She told me she did not because her sister told her not to and that she had a "bad name." Mariah told me that her sister said she should have been named Beyonce or Rihanna and then she would have a "good name." Personally, I do not have much knowledge of Mariah Carey's music besides the classics like "Always Be My Baby" and "We Belong Together," but I really talked up Mariah Carey for her. I'm hoping it was a positive self-esteem booster for her because I understand siblings can be outwardly mean to each other, but especially to a girl who already is unhappy with her school life, I figured I would try helping her out a little. She began getting very smiley and giggly. She said she did not know any Mariah Carey songs because her sister would not let her listen to them, but said Rihanna's and Beyonce's were probably better. She asked if we could listen to a song on my phone, so we split my earbuds (I know...potential ear infections...ew) and listened to "We Belong Together" because it's a cute and happy song and I knew a few of the lyrics so I would sing and snap my fingers along. She said she liked the song and it was very happy, but I thought it was very sweet saying the words "we belong together" to a girl who feels like she does not belong anywhere. I am well aware that it is a love song, but in the 3rd grader mindset, it was a very sweet moment. I posted the link to the song on the bottom of this post.

Thus Far

I have been truly enjoying my time at Brown Street Acadamy. I have been primarily working with one 3rd grader named Mariah. The first time I met Mariah was not a way I wanted to see her.

She was being carried down the hall by her teacher. I found out that she spit in his face after an argument about her not completing her homework and started pushing tables and chairs over. Her teacher described her as, "moody." I was not working with her at that time.

The next week, though, her teacher asked me to work with her. I was very nervous because of how I saw her the week prior. I agreed though, because I do like kids and can get along with them pretty easily. However, starting my morning by potentially getting spit in the face definitely worried me.

To my surprise, she is the sweetest student I have worked with so far, as well as the best reader. I was shocked at how quickly she read with ease. She could conquer words like "clementine" and "abundantly" which the other students would take a minute or two to dissect and sound out. It was my birthday this weekend, so we talked about birthdays a lot and she brought up her favorite birthday at her old daycare.

She told me about all of her friends at her old daycare and how much she loved it there. When I asked her if she had friends here, she said "nope."

Unfortunately, I think this girl is greatly misunderstood. Unfortunately, I'm sure her teachers do not have a lot of time to individually speak to each individual and try to figure out why exactly they act the way they do, but I think she appreciated the time we spent together. She laughed and smiled the entire time.

I received a phone call during our tutoring, and when I pulled out to see who was calling (it was just a toll free call), and she asked me if I had ever heard of Snapchat. Of course I did and she asked me if I could send my friends a picture of her. I gave her free play of Snapchat and created this picture using emojis and filters and could not stop laughing. I kept the picture and am posting it below. I really like this girl despite her "moodiness" and I really hope to continue working with her. She's a great reader, but just needs some personalized attention.

Plus, I can't get over how she was so excited to make herself Abe Lincoln...these kids are too funny!