The only downside to tutoring is it's either feast or famine. Half of my students are "at risk" and are funded through agencies. All their funding ended last week, so we have to wait for renewal and new referrals from the agencies. : (  I received referrals for three of those students today, which is great, since tomorrow is our scheduled session.  I also have two siblings who are on hold until their account is current and this week is Spring Break for public schools; next week is Spring Break in the private schools. Sessions get cancelled...so, I have a whopping 6 tutoring hours this week!

At least I'm using my time productively. Not only am I tackling some projects around the house, but I've found some really cool teaching ideas on Pinterest. I am now a Pinterest junkie! I love the freebies I find on the Teachers pay Teachers website and many of these have been pinned from there. My Pinterest boards are under my name and the teaching ideas are on my Joyful Tutoring board. Come, check it out!

My favorite idea is the one I'm having the most difficult time implementing. It's an idea for teaching multiplication using "Duplo" sized Lego or Megabloks. They are practically impossible to find at garage sales, Goodwill, and Craigslist. I'm going to have to break down and buy a brand new set of 60! Ugh! I only need about 20! The worst part is I think I just gave my kids' Duplos to Goodwill last year (my kids have kids). The only reason why I donated them is because the only grandchild I have who lives locally is almost 14! Consequently, I've been downsizing my toys. Makes a case for hoarding! LOL

I can't wait to begin using my new teaching activities with my students! I'm going to make my favorite ones this week during my extra time.

There's Never a Dull Moment

Well, I faced my first major challenge with one of my students who is on the autism spectrum. I've been with him for several months and we've had relatively few skirmishes. He's very sweet and works very well for me. I usually get him through his frustrations pretty easily, but during our last two sessions, he's had major melt-downs. His class has a new teacher and the class has gone from no homework and focusing on 1st grade material (he's in 5th grade) to working on 2 & 3 step multiplication word problems and 20 spelling words/week! The homework Monday included writing all 20 words 3 times each and 10 of the above mentioned word problems. It's not a smooth transition.

I have been teaching him single digit multiplication since Christmas and he's doing well. I've just introduced single digit division and he's adjusting to that as well. He definitely needs TLC when learning new concepts. He's very creative in coming up with his own way of working through multiplication facts. He builds on the ones he already knows.

His grandmother has asked me to attend a parent/teacher conference with her and my student's dad. He's having terrible behavioral issues. Whatever is going on in school is affecting our tutoring sessions. I hope we get some answers at the conference and I can come up with strategies for our Monday sessions. He doesn't seem to be nearly as affected on Fridays.

This child is a challenge but I really enjoy him on his good days. On his tough days, he keeps me on my toes. On those days, he is so agitated and has had so much external stimulus that I readjust my demeanor and am extra calm and quiet while talking to him. I allow him to rant and don't interrupt-when he's quiet for a minute, I interject some perspective. On his good days, he enjoys good stimulus. We get a little loud and rowdy-he likes to tease and I allow him to use funny voices while reading.