Adieu

As I headed into my last tutoring session with Gerardo, I couldn't help feeling a little sad that this would be my last opportunity to help him. We greeted each other with smiles and questions about our Thanksgiving break, and settled into the cafe area of the library as usual. I asked what he would like to do for fun since it was our last meeting. He said he was almost finished with his puzzle workbook, and that he'd like to work on that. We did a few word searches with topics such as amusements and hobbies. He had never heard of jigsaw puzzles so I explained that they were puzzles where a picture is jumbled up and by moving only one piece at  time you had to put the picture into place. We then moved onto more word searches with doctor and dentist terms, with words such as ambulance and toothache. We moved onto the last section that was labeled "Challenging Puzzles" and did two crosswords with animals and another with plants. The time pasted quickly as we continued to unscramble and crisscross words. When we walked out of the library into the cold chill of the darkening day, I commented on how fast this semester had passed. He agreed, indicating the cold weather, and thanked me for helping him. I told him I enjoyed working with him and we parted after wishing each other a Merry Christmas. I felt an empty sadness as I walked against the wind to my night class because it was like I was abandoning someone who I had helped and seen improve over the last two months. It made me hope that the program will continue, so I know that there will be someone to take my place next semester. 

Castles

Gerardo and I met on Monday this week as it is Thanksgiving break on our usual meeting day this Wednesday. I read him a short fairy tale and had him correct his mistakes. He had me read each sentence several times and was confused by several words. When he corrected his mistakes, he had me explain what castles and dangling from meant, as in castles being the buildings in fairy tales, giving examples of what they can look like, and if something is dangling or hanging from something, as I explained to him. He said he had more mistakes this time than in past dictations because of some of the wording. The story had longer sentences and I know he needs to work on listening and knowing when one sentence ends and another begins, so I think he learned a lot in this lesson and with this story. Afterward, we did a few word scrambles about sports and some crosswords that gave the verb and you had to fill in the past or present tense, such as to sleep, he...sleeps. The time past quickly because of the story taking a while to read and then me explaining some of his mistakes. Overall, I think he does a good job at seeing his mistakes and remembering them, and I have seen an improvement in how fast he writes after I read to him, stumbling on a few words here and there. When the time was up, I told him next week would be our last meeting and to bring something fun for me to read to him and other things that he wanted to work on during our last session. He said he couldn't believe it was almost December and I said this semester had gone really fast. We wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and headed in our different directions.

Puzzles

I came prepared today with more things to dictate to Geradro and have him write them down. However, he came with a new workbook which we used for the entire session. The first part we worked on was a list of scrabbled letters pertaining to a category, which was restaurant words in our case, and the words were scrabbled in one column and described in Spanish in the next. He would describe the Spanish word to me, as I do not speak Spanish, and them I could better help him understand how to unscramble the word, though I am excellent at scrambles, so I was able to get most of them before he said what the Spanish word meant. After a few of those puzzles with other categories, we moved on to traffic and building terms which were located within a crossword. Again, the words were described in Spanish and the English equivalent was located in the crossword, though some were pictures illustrating a word as well. When he was unsure of what word the Spanish word translated into, as they were very specific and there were many choices, I would suggest the right word and he would find it in the puzzle. I liked this activity because it made him think how to spell it and then find it and circle all of the letters in the words, which I sometimes had to tell him to include an extra s or e onto a word. Overall, I think this was a great session that passed quickly and I think it was refreshing because it made learning and practicing words like a game and more enjoyable. When we left the library, I reminded him that we would meet next Monday, not Wednesday like usual, and he assured me that he would not forget. 

Making Things Up

Today Gerardo only wanted to work on his writing. Since he did not bring another children's book, he told me to read from one of my books. All I had was my French notebook and a Shakespeare play, so I improvised and told him a fairy tale that was sort of based on a few of Shakespeare's plays, though in words I knew he would understand. And since I could not have him check his work like last time, as I did not have a hard copy for him to refer to, I looked over it and explained his mistakes to him as we went along. I then asked if he brought his verb workbook and he said no, so I did another dictating exercise. I told him that I would either say a statement or a question and he would have to write them down. They were all unrelated and I thought of them as I went along. I asked questions with words that I knew he had had trouble with in the past to help him improve even more, such as the word evening, which he spells iving, so I asked What are you doing this evening? This was a great exercise because he often has trouble knowing if something is a question or a statement when he hears it, so this helped with that and he ended all of them with the correct punctuation, which he was really excited about. After twenty-something questions, I again reviewed them with him and afterward we still had time, so I made up another story about people preparing dinner on the weekend. We had a lot of progress this week because he had a lot of questions about words that he was confused about and I think he is improving a lot with what we have worked on in past sessions. One of the things he has had trouble with is the spelling of when as wen and while as wile, though he did not understand what these meant. I used the example of When I left today, you were not at home and While I was gone, you came home, emphasizing that when is a time period whereas while means during something. So today was a productive session. We discussed other meeting times for the week of Thanksgiving and the week after when I will not be able to make our session because of a doctor's appointment. We are scheduled to meet on Monday of those weeks at the same time. I'm glad the timing worked out because I feel that it is extremely important for us to meet every week and make it up if we miss a session. Practice, practice, practice....

Story Time

As usual I arrived at the library on Wednesday afternoon to meet Gerardo. He was in good spirits and ready to start our studying for the day. He had me proofread a paper he'd written that was a story for his daughter and another short paper that was about his past vacation to Mexico. I brought the Daily Skiff and USA Today like I promised last week to use during our dictation exercise. I asked if he watched the election results and we started discussing the news and the voting process. He asked how they decided which states were blue or red as detailed in the newspaper's illustration. I told him that they broke it down by county majorities (like one picture explained with several square marks in the state shapes) and that by majority that state was given to the favored candidate and the votes added from there. We discussed voting and he said he was glad Obama won since he voted for him and I told him I did too. We looked at the rest of the paper, trying to find something non-election related (I think everyone has heard and read enough about the election for a long time) and when we were unsuccessful, he produced a children's book entitled Time for Bed, which describes a little bear's sleepover birthday party and all the games his friends and he play until they practically fall asleep. I read it to him and he wrote it down. Though it sounds long, it was relatively short for a children's book and it took up a little more than a page of notebook paper. When I was finished, I had him look at the book and correct his writing, as I think it sometimes helps people to see the mistakes they make and correct them rather than have someone correct them for them all the time. I watched him erase and replace words and correct his grammar, answering questions and offering clarification as he went along. By that time it was time to part and he said he preferred books to the newspapers as they usually had words he did not know. I told him I would look for articles that would work for him at his level so he could learn about the world while practicing his writing and he said he'd bring another book next week as well. When I asked what he wanted to focus on in these next few weeks he said his writing, so I think I will continue to dictate and bring things for him to read and work on to improve his writing and grammar skills.

Truth vs. Fact

After reading this essay I felt like crying. There was this intense sadness that enveloped me, and while I thought the act of crying itself would not help, and while I do not cry often, there were shadows of tears in my eyes, threatening to spill out. When Pico Iyer says in his interview that "a writer has to be accountable to the truth, and catching the truth of any situation is his first mandate" I think this is understood, while being vague at the same time. Non-fiction, and writing in general, should be truthful, as well as factual, though the two can be confused, like Iyer goes on to explain. "But the truth is not the same as the facts...I think the writer has to be true to the mystery as well as the clarity of life." I adore the second part of this statement, finding it invigorating and completely capturing the task of a writer. The Karheef follows Iyer's criteria in the way he describes the places and people as accurately as possible, yet still gives the essay more. This is where fact is not enough, and the idea of being true to the situation is realized in its entirety. He creates a world were he allows himself to fit into the reality; instead of focusing the piece on himself, he folds himself into the story. Also, when he tells the stories of the ticket clerk and the old man driving him to the capital, there is a subtle truth to his writing that allows the reader to be drawn in and see the reality within the reality. You can write about the reality of a situation, but the thoughts, feelings, and senses that create the truth capture the reality within the reality. The conclusion of the piece is the final attempt to be truthful with the reader, as his statements are true, but his comments on them are even more so. The facts are that "less than six weeks later...two planes flew into the World Trade Center" and "Aden, everyone now recalled, was the site of the most recent terrorist attack on America." The truth is when he reflects on the people he encountered and how their lives were impacted and how we now are "wishing destruction on them all." I think Iyer's meaning is that facts take the story a long way, but truth is what makes it extraordinary and creates something for the readers to hold onto and apply to their reality. I can apply this to my reality and see that, like Iyer says, we are them and they are us, and that people are people everywhere. I know that this piece made me think and reflect, taking more away than if it were just fact. Indeed, truth along with fact make a piece complete.

Verbs, verbs, and...French?

This week Gerardo and I continued our journey with verbs. He came with a few paragraphs prepared for me to edit that he'd written during his lunch break. As I read over and corrected his writing, he studied another lesson in his verb workbook. When we went over the corrections I'd made on his paper, he understood his mistakes and I told him he was doing well and improving. He has trouble with spelling in his writing, as he tends to write words like they sound, which does not always work in English. Afterward, we worked through two lessons in his workbook, completing the have and had and have got and had got sections. He struggles with questions, such as Did you have fun?, and gets confused when the present form can also be past. I explained that it is I have, I had but it is Did she have fun? Yes, she had fun. We worked through some similar sentences and he started to understand better when I explained further. I hated the have got lesson as I kept hearing a certain English professor that I have this semester saying in the back of my head that there is always a better verb than got. When I asked if he wanted to start another lesson, he said he was tired of working with grammar in the workbook, and wanted to practice his writing. He told me to dictate to him and he would write what he heard, which is a great learning technique that I have used in all of my language classes. Since I did not have a reading book, which he asked me to read from, I took out my French textbook, which has stories about people and different things that they have done or like doing; it's mostly culture based, but I thought it would suffice. He chuckled and playfully asked if I was going to read it in French. I said that I would read it in English, translating as I went along. And so I read a few paragraphs about this one guy and what he likes to do on the weekends and then about how he was going to go camping for vacation. It was from chapter one in my book, so it had simple words and ideas for our first dictation. As a correction tool, I marked his paper, and rewrote the paragraphs with the corrections below his writing, so he could have the two to look at later. We discussed next week, and I asked if he had practiced typing yet with the website I'd given him. He said he hadn't since the internet was not working at his house, but that we could work on it during our session next week. I told him I'd bring a newspaper to read to him for another listening/writing exercise for next time, so as not to have to resort to my French textbook again, and we left it until next week. I enjoyed this week because I felt that I was helping him improve his writing, as I have seen the improvements he has made. For instance, the things he struggled with last week still give him some trouble but I could tell he'd studied his notes. I know he really wants to improve and I see this every time I meet with him. I know that it is the end of the day for both of us, and 4:30 on a Wednesday is a hard time to meet, as it is in the middle of the week and the weekend seems far off but still close enough to wish it were Friday. Anyway, I am beginning to get a better sense of where he is in his studies and how to help him better. I liked reading while he wrote what I read, and I think this is a good activity we can continue in the weeks to come.

Meeting #3

This week seemed to pass slowly; the lesson seemed to drag on and on. I think this was because I was tired and it was simply one of those Wednesdays that really needed to be a Friday. So pushing aside my mental distractions, I focused on writing and verbs. Gerardo came with a few paragraphs about a singer he liked, and I politely read through it and corrected his grammar, explaining as I went along. When I asked why he did not e-mail it to me, to practice what we went over last week with e-mail, he said that his typing was slow and he needed to practice. I gave him a website (www.typing-lessons.org) so he could practice and we agreed that we'd discuss his progress next week and maybe even go through some typing exercises during our session. After we finished going over his paper, we worked through verb exercises in his workbook. It took awhile and I felt like we didn't accomplish a lot, but I think I did a good job in finding the balance between letting him work through a question and me giving him the answer. I waited a little bit, watching his face concentrate, until I decided the time was enough and I should explain the sentence further or help him with the answer. This is probably why I think it took a long time, and compared with my tiredness and it feeling and needing to be Friday, it made the session feel like it lasted longer than our other meetings, which have always passed quickly. We made it through one lesson and started the second when the hour was up, and we discussed preparation for next week. He said he would finish the current lesson and the next so we could go over it next week, and that he would also practice his typing and write another short paper for me to review. All in all, it was a slow, yet productive meeting, and before we parted, I asked if he thought this was helping and if things and concepts were getting easier. He smiled and said he felt more confident and that he was learning. This made me feel that while I sometimes think I am an insufficient teacher, I am helping him a little.

Meeting #2 with Gerardo

I would like to start by being negative. I shall begin with my faults, as my partner, Gerardo, does not have any faults, being attentive, eager to learn, and always engaging in his lessons. However, I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have asked "Does that make sense?" after I explain something. I must stop it because I am so repetitive and have caught myself every time I say it, and think to myself not again. It is important because I know I said it numerous times in our first meeting, but then I continued to say it today. Anyway, in spite of needing another phrase other than "Got it?" which is something I would never say, I think I often feel awkward in my sessions, in that I cannot always explain to the best of my abilities, as I am thinking on the spot. For instance, in today's session, Gerardo and I worked on the verb list we had started last week, by me explaining a word (verb) and its use and describing the meaning in terms and examples. Then he would write the Spanish equivalent on his paper for future study. While running through this process I stumbled on some words because there are many similar words as far as meaning goes, so I had a hard time explaining why there are words that are alike, yet different also in usage. I would like to note, however, that it is a nice challenge because I think it helps me further understand how words in my native language are used, and I also love English, and words obviously, so I enjoy explaining them to Gerardo, and he is such an excellent partner to teach. During the last part of our session, when we had completed the verb list, I asked if he wanted to go over the exercises in his workbook, but he asked if I could show him how to send an e-mail instead. I felt two emotions at this point: shocked and pleased. Shocked because how could someone not know that, and pleased because I could help him with such a detrimental part of our communication these days. He knew his log in name and password, and had checked his e-mail in early October, but had several e-mails that were unopened. I walked him through the e-mail process (i.e., clicking on New, typing in the recipients e-mail or looking them up with our system, selecting a subject, the attachment and copy someone options, and then typing the message and clicking send) and then he sent two e-mails of his own. When the e-mail disappeared after clicking send, I told him that it had sent it, and he was so happy that he had sent an e-mail. I was smiling along with him because I felt that even though I might not always be the best at coming up with synonyms and explanations of what the verbs we are working with mean and how they are used, I had just showed him something that is important to everyday life and his job, as he needs to know how to send e-mail through the TCU system. After he sent e-mails, he checked his ten or so new e-mails, and then it was time to say good-bye and discuss preparation for next week. I asked if he would practice sending more e-mails and suggested that he write a short paper for next week, since I hadn't helped him with his writing yet. Then I suggested that he e-mail it to me, and his face just lit up. I said that there was no pressure with the writing assignment, and if he did not have time we could continue to work on other things, but he was excited and said he wanted to do the "homework," if you will. All in all, this was an exceptional session and I hope all the rest are just as productive. So I guess I ended on a positive note after all.  

New Partner

I haven't blogged in while because my partner kept canceling on me due to doctor appointments. About a week ago, she had a friend call me to explain that she could no longer continue in the program and that she did not call because she could not explain herself. Anyway, I was assigned a new partner, Gerardo, who I met with on Wednesday. He was sweet natured and eager to learn. I told him for the sake of time, as he had brought things to work on, that we could quickly introduce ourselves. I told him I'd lived in Texas my whole life and that my major was Journalism and English. He told me that he'd worked at TCU for 16 years and loved it and that he took care of the flowers around campus. Then we discussed what he wanted to work on during our sessions. He had told me on the phone when we set up a time to meet that he wanted to work on verbs and reading and writing. I found some websites that have verb worksheets and grade them instantly that we might work with in the upcoming weeks, but he had brought a list of verbs to work on and a book that he had recently bought. Like I said, he was eager to get started. We went through a list of verbs that I explained what they meant and described as far as actions and usual meanings and usages go, and he wrote the equivalent in Spanish so he could study them later. That took up most of the time, as it went by quickly, and I skimmed some of the exercises he had begun in his verb book. Then it was time to wrap it up, having almost finished the list of verbs he was working on learning, and we agreed to finish the list next week, as well as start to go over the exercises in his book. Overall, it was a great first meeting, and I feel like we accomplished a lot. I'm looking forward to working with him in the future weeks. Stay tuned.

Service Learning Day 1

I met with Clemencia for the first time this week. We met in the library and sat and chatted, learning more about each other. I told her about my hometown, family, major, activities, and so on. She told me that she was married and 8 months pregnant, but had not yet picked out a name for her son. She's lived here 9 years, living in Mexico beforehand. We talked about travel and the places we had gone in the U.S. She has been to California and Arkansas to see family and I touched on a few vacations and road trips with my family growing up. I was nervous because I didn't know what to ask; I felt like I was playing speed-get-to-know-you, thinking of topics and questions in a hurry. She asked a few questions about me, mostly when I simply talked and left out pieces. I wish she would have spoken more because I was at a loss for conversation starters and felt awkward. However, once we started talking, it went more smoothly. I asked what she wanted to work on in our sessions, explaining the service learning concept that we will learn from each other when she asked what I'd get out of this, and she said she wanted to learn more English words, suggesting I bring a book next week. OK. We exchanged pleasantries again, and parted, ending 15 minutes early. I felt overwhelmed as I walked back to my dorm, having this assignment seem to hang over me like a dark cloud. Where do I go from here? I thought. I'd told Clemencia I'd taken 3 years of Spanish in high school, but now was taking college level French, so most of the Spanish was gone. So now I have to teach her English words when my once-poor Spanish accent is  nowhere in my brain storage, having been thrown out last fall to be replaced with French 101. Basically, I felt unprepared and had little hope for the weeks to come. I thought about walking around campus and saying the names of things, but my ideas stopped there. Other than having her read a book out loud to me and help her with pronunciation in the following weeks, which seemed like it would get boring for her and me, I didn't really know how to plan for next week. I still am at a loss for creative ideas on my "lesson plans," but I know I'll figure something out. Anyway, it was a good initial meeting. Clemencia is nice and appears very eager to learn. I think we'll work great together, teaching each other along the way.

The Street I Grew Up On

So you turn right, heading straight. You pass a childcare place on the left, where I used to rollerblade on Saturdays and after school because they had a smooth concrete parking lot with slanted driveways. After you pass the second street on the right, continuing straight, mine is the third house on the right. It's one story, red-pinkish brick, with a medium-sized pear tree on the right side which bore little edible fruit, opposite the driveway and garage, which was always messy and a weekend "project," but never got completely cleaned out. The houses around are equally quaint and cheerful, with flowerbeds and small trees and bushes lining the fronts. The street continues and curves to the right, circling with a choice of two streets to turn down, and then you can head out back onto the simple main street from which you turned. Nothing of too great importance, but this is the street I grew up on, knowing the handful of kids that lived on my street and the two surrounding it. The man across the street has too many weenie dogs to count, as he loves them so, and the neighbors next to us have younger children that are too polite for their age. I used to ride my bike around this small, barely-able-to-call-it-a-neighborhood place and it would take minutes. It was a small and quiet street, with the small friendships of a small, but growing town, that will last until we all hit middle school age, and our families start to grow and move, and we lose contact, but remembering the street that we somehow grew up on along the way.