A Day With Kevin

I worked with Kevin this Friday! He is always so nice when we work together. I feel really lucky because some of my fellow classmates seem to encounter students who don't want to interact with their mentors, but the students I have been fortunate enough to work with are always so nice and welcoming. Even when they are having a bad day, they are willing to open up to me and explain what is going on to make them feel poorly.

 This week Kevin was working on USATest Prep. I was REALLY impressed with how many of the questions Kevin was able to get right without even having to discuss them with me. He is so smart! Some of those questions are tough, and there is A LOT to read for one test on USA Test Prep, but he just kept working and really got a lot accomplished. I was really proud to see him working so hard to get his work done.

So far I feel like USA Test Prep is that best online program that the students at Classic City work with. The questions are challenging, but not impossible, and it requires them to actually read through the questions in order to find the answers. This type of online practice questions are very similar to questions that I remember seeing on my standardized tests when I was in school. I think there really is a benefit to the Classic City kids working with this program. The one downside is that one test is very time consuming (again a good preparation for standardized tests, but frustrating to work with everyday).  I'm not sure if there are shorter practice type tests on the program or if they are always 50 question practice tests like the ones I have seen Kevin working on.

Surprise Surprise This Friday

So I showed up to mentor this week and when I walked into the front office to sign in, I was told that it was Parent Conference day and the students were about to be released for the day. So sadly, I did not get to mentor this past Friday.

Another New Student!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post this, the crazy that is Midterms has forced this blog to sit--finished--but unpublished!

I worked with another student this week, we can call him, Sam. Sam was really behind on some assignments but REALLY did not want to work on them. After finding him paper, lending him a pen, and helping him understand what he needed to be doing, he got to work. It was hard for him to not put his headphones in and keep focused. We finally did get a lot accomplished, but he flat out told me that when I left he was going to stop working, which made me a little sad, but I was glad we were able to get stuff done.

I would really like to work with Sam again. He was really nice and seemed to enjoy talking to me about  his family and he and his father's fishing trips. I really enjoy when the kids at Classic City talk to me about their lives. Sometimes I can't help with their academics as much as I'd like to, but when they open up to me about things that are bothering them, I can at least be there for them and try to give advice.

Productive Day at Classic City

This past trip to Classic City was a refreshing change. I was back working with Kevin and we were working on USA Test Prep. This was a nice change of pace because the students actually have to read through the material and answer the questions (unlike E2020). The material is a little more difficult as well so I actually really felt like I was able to contribute and help Kevin. I noticed toward the end of my time working with Kevin on Friday that he was beginning to stop reading the passages and just guessing because he knew I would point him in the direction of the right answer. To combat this tendency, if he got a question wrong, I would go back into the passage and show him how to arrive at the right answer. I think this frustrated him a little bit ( I think he thought he could fool me!) cause for awhile I thought he was just getting stuck and I was just watching him guess. I was really enjoying working with Kevin this Friday and was motivated to keep working to try and get as many tests finished as possible. Unfortunately, there was an assembly on Friday so we didn't get to work for as long as I had hoped. Kevin really impressed me with just how many questions he was able to get on his own. He really only seemed to start getting questions wrong when he lost focus and started getting tired. I hope we work on USA Test Prep again together in the coming week.

New Student, New Excitement!

So this Friday I was told that a new student would need my help instead of Kevin. This girl, "Sara" had just started at Classic City. She is still working at a 10th grade level, even though she is technically in 11th. I was asked to work with her on some of her E2020 lectures to try and get her caught up.

This was my first time working with E2020. It is a computer based program in which students logon, listen to a lecture and take notes, then complete questions based on the material covered in the lecture. The benefits I noticed working with the program is that the student can pause or rewind the lecture at any time if they need to hear something again, or just need more time to write something in their notes. However, I didn't think E2020 provides a students with enough concrete examples of a topic. It just kind of spit the information out at the student and expected them to remember how the concept works. I'm also not sure students who really need extra attention for instructors should  be sitting in front of a computer fending for themselves.

"Sara" was very focused with me there and we worked through an entire lecture. She was working on Plot and Setting. She was struggling with finding the answers in the reading passages. I told her how I work through comprehension questions like that and how to use the questions as clues to be on the look out for as you read. It seemed to help her a lot. She got a 100 on her assignment!

I also did some mentoring while I was there this week. This girl was sitting next to me and she opened up to me about how another girl was gossiping about her. These rumors had gotten back to the boy that she liked and now he didn't want to talk to her. I was really flattered that she was willing to open up to me about something so personal and I tried to give her some solid advice about what to do in those kind situations. It reminded me of "The Bully Society" that I am reading for my book discussion right now.

Day Two: Finding a Balance

My second day mentoring "Kevin" left me feeling a little..well..deflated. I really thought he and I made a connection on the first meeting and I was so excited to work with him again. He was a little late to class and I was anxiously waiting for him to get there because his teacher said he had a lot to do. When he finally walked in..he didn't even recognize me. I finally had to go up to him and say "do you remember" me before he realized that it was Friday and that meant I would be there to help him. After a little bit of a rough start, we began listening to the lecture about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I was surprised to hear that only a few of the students were able to recognize the significance of January 21st. I assumed that most of the students, being primarily African American, would be familiar with the significance of the day. But most of the students only knew that they didn't have school that day. Our first assignment was to research the significance of the events of January 21st. The next part of the assignment was to find out information about Medgar Evers and what he had to do with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I helped "Kevin" narrow down his google search so that he could find the information more quickly. After the lecture "Kevin" and I went to the media center so we could finish his paper on "what it means to be American".

I struggled to find a balance with Kevin during this visit. His teacher stressed to me that he had to finish his paper that day because it had to go in the grade book that day. I was really feeling the pressure to make sure we finished, but if I left Kevin to write the paper on his own, he wouldn't have even made a dent in it. I struggled to find the balance between telling him what to write and guiding him in the writing process. I tried to give him ideas that he could expand upon, but it seemed that he was only able to type out the idea that I had said, and he couldn't go any deeper on his own.

I want to help Kevin to succeed and get his assignments turned in on time, but I'm just not sure how to do that when he relies so heavily on my input.

Kevin says he is still working on the drawing he promised me, hopefully I will be able to post a picture of it next week!

Day One: A Whirlwind

I started my first day of mentoring at Classic City High School! I honestly didn't know what to expect when I walked into the school. I didn't know how on earth I would be able to relate to a kid who has experienced true hardship. My school experiences were sheltering to say the least. One or two kids had a "story" but for the most part we were all pretty fortunate. There wasn't a significant bullying problem, poverty wasn't an issue, and one of the most tragic events of the week was if the cafeteria changed "Chicken Tender Tuesday". Needless to say, I did not know how to process a place where every student has a "story".


I wanted to start the day out well. I wanted to look presentable and professional. The hair looked good, the outfit looked nice, my bag was packed and I was ready to face whatever Classic City had to offer me. I walked out my door... and into the pouring rain. So with hair ruined, shoes wet from the puddles I couldn't avoid, and a twisted ankle from slipping out of the car, I took a deep breath and walked into the school.

After getting assigned a student to work with, the coordinator showed me around the school. Classic City has an open campus policy that I wasn't expecting. The students seemed to have a lot of freedom to roam the school. My first impression of this policy left me kind of curious. It appears to me that these kids need structure in their lives, and school would be the place to get it. But for all I know, structure could have been the very thing they rebelled from in a mainstream school. I will have to watch and see how the students respond to the freedom. The students seem to do a lot of their work on computers, which kind of makes me feel old! Classrooms are getting more and more technology based, and I need to learn to adjust my thinking and be open to the benefits of using technology (she said as she typed her blog...on her laptop...).

I was very nervous to meet my student. I was told that some of the kids are trouble makers, some don't want you to help them--for various reasons-- and some just don't even care that you are there. Well was I surprised when I met...lets call him Kevin. Kevin is maybe one of the kindest people I have met. He is in 11th grade and I am helping him with his American Literature class. He was nice to me when we met, he seemed interested in getting to know me, and he was open to telling me things about himself.

Things I've learned about Kevin so far:

• He loves art and drawing (I was promised a drawing next week, I'll upload a picture!)
• He wants to one day go into the music production business
• His favorite artist is Eminem
• He is incredibly motivated
• He wants to learn
• He wants to graduate
• He likes playing chess

I know these things seem pretty surface level--and I will agree that they are. But the fact that I was able to learn those things about him meant the world to me. He wasn't afraid to ask me for help, he wasn't embarrassed or mad that I was there, and he was able to have conversations with me and also remember that we had work to do.

The things that broke my heart about Kevin:

• He knows exactly what he wants to say in his papers and work, but can barely put a sentence together on paper...as an 11th grader.
•  He was continuously asking me if I was going to come back again.
• He offered to miss an assembly to stay behind and continue to work on his assignment with me.

I will be working on test prep for Kevin's English Graduation Test, and I hope we can really make some progress. This kid wants to learn, wants to do well, and could really do some good in this world. It would break my heart if someone so talented and kind wasn't able to pursue the life they wanted. Here's to hoping that Kevin and I can get some serious work done together!