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.