Where has the time gone?

Today was our second to last tutoring session and went well. I think my tutoring partner and I have developed a great relationship with Jarod. He used to be difficult with us and still has been from time to time, but it is easier to get him to change his attitude for the better. I surprised him with his favorite candy (Reese’s) today and had him write a one page essay writing about his candy and using all five senses to describe it. He wrote his essay to my tutoring partner since she is allergic to peanut butter and has never had a Reese’s. Afterwards we played the fly swatter game using synonyms and Jarod was amazing at it. He had such a blast competing against one of us and trying to find the synonym before us. I liked the fly swatter game because I wanted to help expand Jarod’s vocabulary and also have him be up and moving and active at the same time. I think it worked well and he was really into it. The last activity focused on homophones. My partner and I hid seven cards around the school building and gave Jarod clues to help him find the cards. After he found them all we went outside to write sentences in chalk using the homophones. My partner turned it into a game where she had Jarod help her correct her sentences, my sentences, and even his own. Jarod liked the activity so much he kept asking for more homophones. I was afraid we would finish the activity too soon and need to find a backup activity but was relieved to see Jarod not wanting to quit. It is a little funny that Jarod did not want to quit because it was a writing activity and one day one he said he hated writing. I guess my partner and I have taught Jarod writing is not so bad. It is so nice to see our efforts are paying off. I really hope if Jarod continues the program he finds more amazing tutors who can connect with him and keep developing a tolerance (or love) for writing.

Besides tutoring, class was a work day. It seems a lot of my classmates still have work to do on their case studies and presentations. Thankfully my partner and I have been diligent about our case study and presentation that we had no work to do in class at all.  And because my partner and I are ahead of the game we were able to receive permission from Dr. Garcia to be excused from class early. I am glad that I worked hard on the case study from the first day we were assigned it and have been diligently making changes to it each week. I think what also helped is that I split the case study into sections between my partner and I. That way it was not only one of us doing all the work.

My partner did not want to do a presentation with me, because she wants to create a poster board rather than a Prezi. I guess I am okay with that. Her reasoning was that working on a Prezi together would be difficult since I do not have a Facebook and I do not live close. However, I disagree with her and I told her that too. I said Prezi can be made accessible to multiple people to change it and it would be easy to do it together. I do not think me not having a Facebook is a hindrance. For the past seven or so tutoring sessions we have communicated weekly by email and text. But, she wants to make a poster and that is fine. I guess I am worried about it because she did not want me to put any pictures or examples of Jarod’s work on my Prezi. She wants all that on her board. And I guess that is fine but it makes my Prezi seem dull because all I have are words. I did figure out a way to smoothly use her poster board and my Prezi together though. We will present about Jarod’s weaknesses in writing, then his strengths, then move on to two activities he did well on. And that’s when my partner will show her poster board to the class. After that we will return to the Prezi presentation and finish with Jarod’s beginning IRI score and ending IRI score. I just feel like it is going to look like I did not do a lot of work with the way my partner wants to present this. Except I finished my Prezi and she gave her seal of approval on it. Also, I am nervous about it because the presentation is a group effort and if we both do solo parts in it we are not going to look unified. Maybe I am worried about this for nothing and all will be well. I have worked hard in this class and put a lot of thought into my assignments, minilessons and everything else.  However, I do not want my grade to be jeopardized because my partner will not work on a presentation with me. Maybe next week I will feel better about it, but right now I do not. And on the upside I now have experience in working with a partner who has a different personality than I am used to.