Challenging Day at School

This past week, a young girl came to tutoring in tears.  I could tell she was trying to not cry or let me know she was upset.  She had a rough day at school.  This child has made wonderful progress in tutoring.  It took half the tutoring time for her to be able to function well. She could focus to the side but struggled to focus facing forward. My opinion is that she tried so hard in school to do what she was told she was exhausted. Therefore, her skills to focus forward had been severely taxed. She also could walk better backwards than forwards for the same reason. Mom stayed in the same room where we tutored, as the child needed mom's presence for support. 
As we were struggling for her to be able to learn, I had her take deep breaths to let out her anger, hurt feelings and fustration out. I had her take deep breaths as she lifted her shoulders and let the air out in a noisy whoosh.  Her mom spoke up and said she does this sometimes and Mom did not realize why.
Many people think tutoring is helping a child with their homework.  My tutoring is helping a child have the skills to be able to learn the work rather than helping them with the work.  When the learning skills needed to learn are underdeveloped learning is such a challenge. 
This is a child with ADHD and she had lost recess privileges and two stars for not having her pencils out for the lesson.  This needs to be addressed with an IEP meeting.  An IEP is an individual educational plan for this child.  In my opinion to take recess away from an ADHD child is like punishing someone on crutches for taking too long to open a door for themselves instead to helping them open the door. Have you ever seen anyone act impatient with someone in a wheelchair or on crutches because they slowed them down? Having been on crutches myself for two years and in a wheelchair for a time; I take the time to be thankful I can walk, as I take the time to smile and help. 

How much tutoring is enough

Today, a young lady, who was not reading when we begin tutoring two years ago, returned to tutoring.  Compared to where she was when we began two years ago she reads well.  Mom and I are ready for her to fly educationally.  She will be in the 4th grade next year.  She has an IEP. This is an individual education plan written to help her succeed. However, when she was given a test, the IEP was not used.  She was recommended for summer school to support her learning for next year.
Mom decided to tutor here instead of  summer school.  She has not retained her balance ability as well as I would have thought.  She quickly picked up the balance and tutoring should help.  I will increase the balametrics portion of tutoring. Also, I will modify the go fish word game so she will recognize the words more independently.  Instead of showing her the word as I call it, I will call the word and have her spell the word.  I was surprised how well she can do this. When she gets stuck, I give her the vowel spelling.  An example of this is the ea sound as in eagle.  We will also work more on making sentences with the words to help with understanding the different meanings of each word.
We will only work for one day a week for 6 weeks to see if this is enough support.  If not hopefully, we will work one day a week when school starts to give her the support she needs.  Some students just need more support to maintain their ability to learn efficiently.  People of all ages just have different learning needs and often our society wants everyone to learn like everyone else. When the student does not learn the way the school or teacher wants to teach, the student is blamed instead of the method of teaching.

calming a learner who is too excited to learn

Today, I worked with a struggling learner.  He is a teen and I have been working with him for months.  We have read a little over half of the second grade McGuffey reader. We are using the Kindle Fire for this because I can enlarge the words. This is still low but exciting.  He had gone with family and friends over the weekend.  He is still excited about the trip.  We did the balance board, and word go fish.  He was too excited to calm down and read well. Finally, I pulled out the skipbo cards and this helped.  We play skipbo because of the pattern training it gives us. It is not my favorite game but patterning is important to teach reading as reading is patterns. Once we played skipbo he did better.  It  amazes me the routine needed sometimes to help this young man focus.  It is so exciting to see  him succeed.  As he has more success, he gets too excited to read the words on the paper and reads what the words mean.  I told him several times that he does not get to read what he wants to unless he writes the story himself.  When someone else writes the story, he has to read their words.

Whisper Day, Calming children enough to teach

Often children who struggle to learn, also struggle to calm down and listen.  Sometimes we as adults have the same struggle when we are short on sleep and/ or have too much going on.  Too many children and adults are on overload because of too much going on.  People need time to be calm to function well.  One thing I have done and plan to do with a new group of children is Whisper Day.  One day a week, I have Whisper Day.  The only problem is everyone in the house or school has to whisper.  Many think this is foolishness.  It is.  It also can help when people are too excited to learn.  Unless on the phone, everyone whispers. For a phone call the person talking, an adult, needs to talk as softly as possible and for as short a time as possible for this to work. If this is made into a fun day, it can be enjoyable to all.
Think of all the places that children attend regularly that are loud.  These are most sporting events, video games,
and even the library when children are not taught to be quiet. The public school lunch room is a good example of  loud. Also compare eating places like Rib Crib(loud) to Ruby Tuesday(quieter). There is a time for loud and a time for quiet. Quiet takes more time and planning.  Quiet takes slowing down and thinking ahead.  I am naturally loud and this is a great effort for me.  It is also benefits me.

help I do not like math, math game, addition help

I tutor several children with math struggles.  One 16 year old can do addition with a number line. In my opinion a number line teaches people that math is hard when used beyond showing why math works. This is slow and he makes a lot of mistakes.  He is working on multiplication.  As he learns multiplication he forgets his addition facts.  Math does not seem to connect to itself.  Good multiplication often builds on good addition.  For him each fact seems to stand alone.
We are playing a war or battle game with cards.  Each face card and the 10 are worth 10 points.  The numbers are worth their number.  Instead of playing one card, we play two and the total of the two is compared to the other players two cards. The highest number wins.   This works well because he can count the hearts or spades on the smaller cards and he is learning to add while playing.
If someone with reading problems is struggling with math, a tutor needs to check to see if it is word problems causing the confusion. If it is word problems, reading may be the problem. If  reading is the problem read the problem aloud to the student to build math confidence as you work to raise the reading level.  As a learner reads better have him read the word problems aloud to you instead of you reading to him. As he gets more confidence have him read part and you read part and then as he reads better have him read to himself while you listen and encourage and help with any words so he does not stumble and lose the meaning of what he is reading.

Success stories from tutoring

Today, I was able to see two children I have worked with in the past.  The oldest will be a senior next year.  She struggled with geometry and my husband worked with her more than I did.  She was putting herself down because her ACT score was not as high as she wants it to be.  I told her that her ACT score qualified her to be a millionaire.  I am reading the Millionaire Mind and many of the millionaires did not have an ACT score as high as hers.  She is planning on going to college.  I was telling her about taking the CLEP tests and she does not have the confidence to think she is smart enough to pass them.  I hope to talk to her parent and encourage the testing.  She is so much smarter than she thinks she is. Her comment today was something about who would have dreamed she would be doing so well. She was comparing her Algebra success with her struggle in geometry.
The other child was really struggling to read and is now reading on grade level.  There are several positive things going on in his life now.  I do not know how much the tutoring helped. It is exciting to see him succeed.

Irlen, Dyslexia, struggling learners, vision problems in learning

I was at soccer practice with my grandson.  This is the only time I have been all season.  Another mother was there with a young child.  She is homeschooling for the first time this year.  We were comparing ideas on schooling and she has a child who is struggling in school.  I told her about my child having Irlen dyslexia.  She and I planned a time for her to come see how I tutor.   When she looked up the Irlen online, her daughter said her words moved like the third example.  She went to an educational store, Mardel's, and allowed the child to pick out a plastic color sheet to place over her school work.  On one of the store end caps there was a magnifying glass with pink and black zebra stripes.  Her daughter asked to have one.  When her daughter put it on her paper to read her comment was, "This cages the letters so they cannot escape."   In three weeks, reading was on level.
Her mom had said many times, "I do not understand why you cannot get this," when she was teaching this child.
How many children would benefit from being able to see correctly?  How many are we labeling learning disabled or teaching ineffectively because they cannot see or cannot see correctly?