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.