There's a kid in the math II class, his name (I think, not sure) is Dimitri. Mostly he just doesn't get it. He raised his hand and asked for help, but he couldn't even ask me what it was that he wanted help with. Miss Villani talked to him and asked him if he wouldn't mind working with me one-on-one, so for the rest of the period I sat with him
We didn't do the problem the rest of the class was doing, but we backed up and talked about finding X- and Y- intercepts and slopes of lines. I walked him through it, I tried not to just tell him all the answers. And I'm almost possitive he gets it now. He seemed so apathetic before--I wish I could show him why math is so exiting. I wish I could give him my passion for it, because if he loved it he would be more willing to work. He looked exhausted and he was so lethargic that I doubt he had gotten more than 6 hours of sleep. (Granted, I got about 4 last night, and I'm nearly always chipper until 5; but then, I'm Molly, and crazy) What frustrates me is that I could tell he knew what to do when he didn't think too hard about it, but then he became unsure of himself and reached for his calculator and just wanted to make the technology do everything for him. I watched him do the correct steps twice, and then the third time he just got stuck. So I asked him, "How would you want to get X by itself?" and he kept saying things that almost made sense (but really didn't.) So I finally asked him how he had done it before, and he looked back and said he had divided by three. I think it might have been the negative sign throwing him off. He knows what to do; he just doesn't know he knows.
The funny thing, was that even though it frustrated me, I really felt that that was the best part of my whole day. I want this kid to have hope. I don't want him to fail this class and have to retake it because he couldn't ask the right questions. I don't want him to think he's no good at math when the truth was that he was never shown that he is--or that it can be interesting.
I don't know how much I helped him, but I feel like I really could. I would love to do that.
You are on your way, then.
ReplyDeleteWhat you did, was encourage and support him, and let him struggle through it. And you accepted him where he was at, and didn't push or demean him. And, yes, it's really frustrating to watch someone else struggle, and to watch them think less of themselves when you know they can do it...been there. But you stuck with it.
Way to go, Molly! Keep it up!