Since that time, in November of 2009, I have had a lot of interesting experiences. I realize that at this point in my life, I wouldn't enjoy a classroom full of students, spending 1/2 of my time doing classroom management. There are so many hoops to jump through, not to mention the standardize testing! I am perfectly in my element using lots of creativity, finding what works to help my students learn. I see the results because I am with them one-on-one.
My first two students were brothers for whom English was a second language. They were pretty fluent, but their parents weren't, so that was a challenge. Luckily, I was originally a French & Spanish major, so I muddled through. Their tutoring was agency funded, so they had to be approved every so often. By May, they had finished with tutoring-their grades were up and they were working on grade level! What a high!
Since that time, I have had a wide variety of experiences! Our company had the Title I contract for private schools for a couple of years and I was assigned to an inner city Christian school. I grew very attached to my students there. A very interesting group! One morning, I arrived to find two police cars with officers leading one of the students toward the cars. When they opened the back door for her to get in, she went limp and dropped to her knees, so they had to pick her up to put her in. Another time, one of my students had punched a hole in the hall wall before I arrived. One of my other students had 3 fights before I got there another morning!
Right now, I have two brothers that I have been tutoring for 2 years, another brother and sister, a 19 year old with Down Syndrome who wants to read, a brother and sister with autism, a student with aspergers, and another who is out of state with ADHD and some eye focusing issues. My out of state student and I Skype tutor! I'll save that for another post. It's a hoot! I'm doing a test of the Skype tutoring for our company.
I never thought I had the ability to work with children with special needs. God had a different plan for my life and He gave me the tools to meet this new challenge! I love tutoring!
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