This job can be extremely frustrating. I found that more often than not, most of my effort was fruitless. I did have success teaching math at Willakenzie elementary, the kids there are top of the line as far as kids go. They are clever, they catch on quickly and they are cooperative and enthusiastic. All that was necessary for me to hold their attention indefinitely was for me to act in the manner that I most enjoy acting. If I cracked math related jokes, and turned my hat backwards I could get them to listen to anything that I had to say. In this situation I found that a casual atmosphere was ideal for learning.
All of my students felt comfortable with each other and with me. None of the children I worked with at Willakenzie were particularly talented at math, in fact I was working with a low math class; nevertheless, I think that my time there was highly effective. At Willakenzie I was part of the class, the woman who was supervising me always included me in her plans. We taught the class as a team and the children always knew that we were both available should they need us. I found teamwork to be extremely affective. Not only does teamwork create an atmosphere of cooperation, but it also puts you in a position equal with that of the teacher: this is extremely important. Often when a tutor is introduced into a classroom they are seen as an outsider. The teacher in charge is often unused to having help and is unable to integrate a tutor into the class in an effective manner. When a tutor and a teacher don't work well together small power struggles can arise and this undermines someone's authority, be it the tutors or the teacher.
While being casual and laid back worked wonders at Willakenzie it proved basically useless at Roosevelt. My success at Roosevelt was minimal. I wouldn't discount the methods that I attempted to employ as useless, I feel that the situation I was placed in was a useless one from the start. I realize that this is a very negative outlook, but after months of working with one student it is frustrating to see little to no improvement.
At Roosevelt I worked primarily with one student, "Gary". I was able to establish a report with Gary, this was valuable because it helped me communicate with him better than most of his teachers were able to, this was my one small success at Roosevelt. I was able to get Gary talking at times, but I was unable to get him to do much in the way of academic work. In the entirety of the time that I worked with Gary I was able to get him to read one short book and write one short poem. I tried to get him to address his feelings. Gary carries a great deal of mental baggage around with him, I felt that it was important that he get in touch with these feelings. For weeks Gary and I looked at various forms of poetry. It was my hope that at the end of this time I could get him to write his own poem. I wanted Gary to understand the feelings behind poetry, but most of the time we looked at poems I spent more time giving my interpretations than listening to his. It isn't that I spoke to much for him to keep up, he just generally doesn't speak much at all. When we had spent weeks and months analyzing poems I asked that Gary write a poem. The response I got was a piece of paper with some short sentences scrawled on it. The poem read as follows: