Sixth Meeting 03-31

Today was a great conversational day with Elodia. She got there a little late so we did not cover a lot of English materials, but I could tell she has had a very busy week! Her oldest daughter is about to have her second child, a boy, so she talked about that a lot today. It was so sweet to hear about how much she loves her kids and grandchildren. I actually did not know Elodia was a grandmother so that was something so nice to learn! I knew she had four kids, but this will baby boy will be her third grandchild. She has been planning her daughter’s baby shower all week so she apologized profusely saying she did not have that much time to practice reading English. Then she told me that 75 people were invited to this baby shower and that she was cooking all the food, and I immediately assured her that she was incredible to do that and I definitely did not expect her to study when she has all that cooking to do this week!! We talked a lot about our families, which was nice. I grew up in El Paso so she asked me a lot about that, what Spanish I knew, and my friends. She thought it was hilarious that I will still answer to Pelona, which means bald in Spanish, because when I was a baby I had no hair and my baby-sitter gave me that permanent nickname. It was nice to laugh and talk about families and friends because in college you get so wrapped up in school and everything you’re doing that you forget to slow down and think about your family and even old memories.
She was very excited when I told her that there was a Spanish GED and I could tell she felt much knowing there was one. She seemed very confident that she could do well on a Spanish GED, and with her studying habits and work ethic I am confident she would do well. I did remind her, though, that it was good to have someone (like students) to ask questions for stuff she did not understand, to help her remember the stuff she learns, and to just be a resource. I said that because she has definitely been such an eye-opener for me, and I am hoping that she continues the program and works with others students too. We also talked about some ideas for her to work on a computer again next session we have, just because I feel as though she wants to brush up on what we learned our very first session, and also extend that into learning how to pay her bank bills online and buy certain things online. (Elodia was particularly interested in my North Face jacket because her 19-year old daughter wants one for her birthday and Elodia couldn’t find the store!) Again, it was a shorter session because Elodia got there a little late, but I think just talking, listening to her talk about her family, and talking about my family was a good thing. She was still hesitant at the end of last session so I felt that this was definitely a good session to be more laid back and let her talk more instead of just focusing on the tutoring part.

Fifth Meeting 03-24

Today’s meeting with Elodia was a little worrisome for me. She called me before our session and she expressed a lot of uncertainty about continuing the program. She talked about being overwhelmed and very stressed out about the whole thing. So I told her we could meet up like we normally do and talk about it. She came to our session and she just expressed a lot anxiety. She thought that she would have to be taking the GED at the end of the semester! She was saying there was no way she would be ready in six weeks. I told her that in no way, shape, or form did I think she should take the test in six weeks! I told her we were there to provide help for the small sections and lessons we could, but because there was so much information there was no way we could cover it all by then. Thus, I most certainly did not expect her to take the entire test at the end of the semester. She told me her daughter was saying she got her high school diploma after 12 years of learning the GED information in school and did not think her mom could take it in 6 weeks. I told Elodia that I completely agree with that! Taking the test in six weeks would not only be completely unfair (again students like her daughter and I had 12 years to learn the information), but she also would not be ready and that would kill Elodia’s small amounts of confidence in herself. She and I talked some more in a relaxed and stress-free conversation and I began to see some of her anxiety go away. So I asked her what she wanted now that we had talked some more. She told me she had signed up for this class about English that had videotapes and workbook assignments. I thought that was great, because it showed she does still care about learning, she just had a momentary panic. She took her own initiative and that was a good sign. I offered to help with anything in the workbook if the videotapes did not explain something, but I did not want to immediately shift our focus to that because I felt she would begin to feel pressured again and this was her own thing. By talking to her I knew she was still uncertain about reading and writing in English even though I, personally, thought that she reads and writes very well for the amount of schooling she has had. It showed me, though, that it is about how Elodia feels about her reading and writing and not what I say. As much as I feel that she is incredibly good for her level, if Elodia does not think she reads or write well then Elodia has to convince herself otherwise. I try to tell her how great she is, but I think she feels she has to meet her own standards. I found this to be so admirable! I can completely relate. Somebody can tell me a book they have read is wonderful, or that an essay I have written is well done, but until I have read the book and made my own judgment, or until I have written until I am pleased with the result, then as great as someone’s feedback is, I’m unsatisfied. That does not mean that the person giving the feedback is wrong. It just means that she wants this bad enough to do it right on her terms. She does know she needs the help, though; to meet her own expectations otherwise she would not have met with us in the first place. SO, I explained some questions she had about punctuation and then we decided that we would basically just practice reading and writing. I felt confident about her skills in those areas to start the GED lessons, but she didn’t. So I told her that the best way to build her confidence in those areas was to practice! Practice anywhere, anytime, anyplace! So I grabbed a few Skiffs from the library and I told her we would pick an article and just begin practice reading! At that point Spencer showed up for his session with her. I explained how Elodia was feeling and told him what she wanted and the plan. And they immediately began looking for an article in the Skiff that she might be interested in! So at this point we’re just going to focus on building her confidence with reading and writing and, hopefully, she will begin to get better and get more confident about her own abilities.

Fourth Meeting 03-10

Working with Elodia today was incredibly fun and inspiring. We started off by looking at the questions that were sent home with her about the social studies passage we read on colonialism, the founding of the United States, and its government. She had answered the questions at home and she got every single one of them right. She seemed so surprised that she got them all right because we had the GED book so she didn’t know the answers. I could tell it made her proud to see her hard working paying off. I have to admit I was surprised too. I thought she might get one or two wrong and we would have to review a little more. Her dedication, however, became very obvious. She told me she had to re-read the passage multiple times over several days to be able to answer five questions. It was inspiring because I do not think I would have the patience to re-read something over and over again until I was absolutely sure of my answers the way she did. Elodia can read better than she thought, but it is still difficult for her and I still have to help her with hard words so her dedication to read that passage until she had the correct answers was impressive. It showed me how much she really wants to get her GED and do well. It did, however, make me realize we have to consider the timed portion of this test as well. So to begin the second lesson, we looked at the questions first. I could tell, at first, that she was wondering why on earth we were doing this. During our slow reading of the passage, though, when we read something related to one of the questions I would bring it to her attention and she would react, “Oh yeah!” So then she understood why we did the reading of the questions at first, and thought it was a good idea.
Reading the second passage was really fun as well. It is strange for me to be reminded of all this history that you forget or don’t think about that often. For Elodia, though, it is brand new information. I thought that was really cool; to explain your nation’s history and have it be something that is so familiar to you, but it be totally new information for her. People forget how important things are when it is so familiar to them. Overall, it was a very good session. Elodia and I got through the entire passage on the Civil War in one hour so that was good. We even talked about her family a little more. She joked about how she truly had to do the homework on her own, because her daughters are so busy with their own school and studying and everything. It is very obvious that she loves her family. I have a much deeper appreciation for teaching, though, because it does require a lot of patience and care. I do not normally have a lot of patience, but Elodia makes it easy because she is very mature, and kind. She is very understanding and tries to help me find middle ground when I am having trouble describing a particular term or meaning to her. Each week there is something new to talk about and I enjoy listening to her and watching her get excited about new things that I am so accustomed to knowing.

Third Meeting 03-03

Meeting today with Elodia was a very interesting experience. We went over the first lesson of the social studies test. It covered a lot of American history from Christopher Columbus to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Today was particularly surprising for me. First, I was impressed with Elodia’s ability to read English. We went slowly but she only had difficulty with larger words. Once I explained those, she understood what she was reading very well. The most surprising thing, for me, though, was her lack of understanding of the geographical nature of the world. I realized how I take my understanding of the international community and geography for granted. She did not know what a continent was. She did not know about other countries and what a general outlined map of the world looked like. As an international relations major, I have gotten to the point where I almost assume people know what is going on in the world. I think also as a college-educated student I forget that there are people who do not even have even have the concept or ability to grasp what the world we live in looks like on a map. The lesson we studied talked about the Native Americans coming over from Asia by the Bering Strait and I had to draw a rough concept of that for her to understand the very beginning of the passage. She had never heard of the countries in Europe or the continents countries are a part of. It was very eye-opening. A person can try to be conscious and aware of the different people in this country and the different levels education, but sometimes you forget.
I love teaching Elodia, because when she learns something she gets so excited and thinks a simple history lesson is so interesting. Sometimes, however, I worry about offending her. She is one of the nicest women I have ever met, so sometimes I feel unsure because I don’t want to insult her by asking her if she already knows what this means or if she knows how to read something. I know she won’t get mad at me because she is sincerely kind. But I would not want to hurt her feelings and insult her intelligence. I sometimes feel guilt, as well. I was teaching her the lesson today and she exclaimed, “You already knew all this?” I’m so young comparatively and it does not seem fair that I have had the opportunities to have this great education, when this sweet and eager to learn woman has not. This has reminded me how many blessings there are and to appreciate the simple things. Normally people associate simple things such as food, water, a roof over your head, and clothes. I have never really considered a basic education a simple blessing. I rarely think of the diverse education levels here in the United States. It is easy to imagine poorly educated people in third world countries, such Haiti and Ghana. Here in the United States, though, I have never paid much attention. I am really glad that I met Elodia and am doing this. I was very concerned in the beginning. I’m still a little uncertain about my teaching skills, but I am less worried now that I have met Elodia and realize I enjoy watching her learn.

Second Meeting 02-24

The meeting with Elodia today went very well. I gave Elodia a binder with notebook paper for her to be able to put the things we learn in the binder. In our last session, I wrote down the process of logging in to my.tcu.edu to show Elodia her sick and vacation hours, but she did not have anywhere to put what I wrote her. This binder is her new reference to go over what we learn and to put homework, processes, and new information in. I also brought the GED book that was given to me. We began to go over the very beginning of the book, the table of contents. It talks about what is necessary to pass the GED. We talked about each of the five “tests” that are necessary and the scores required. I then tell her we’re going to focus on one test within the overall test. We choose social studies, because that’s what I feel most confident in teaching her. Spencer might teach her math, if there is time, because he is confident with that section. We then discuss the 5 sections within the social studies test subject. She didn’t really know what social studies was so we discussed how it was the study of history, government, economics, civics, and geography. I even had to elaborate on what some of those descriptions were. I explained that she would need to know U.S. and world history, such as the study of particulars wars and such. I explained geography was the study of land, oceans, and other natural resources and that there would be explanation of those. Spencer and I both explained economics as the study of taxes, businesses, and how those businesses work together to either make a country’s economy strong or weak. I tried to go slow and be very thorough in her explanation. She asked a few questions about how things would be taught. She was a little overwhelmed and nervous about the material. She said she only had an elementary school education. I reassured her and told her that we would be going extremely slow and just take things one day at a time. I encouraged her to ask questions and really tell me if she is starting to be overwhelmed with the information. I told her that I would rather only get through one section but be extremely solid and confident in the information, than rush through and confuse her with a lot of information from more sections and have her be nervous and not do well on those sections on the test. Reassuring her was good because it definitely relieved a lot of worry that she would not learn the information and got her excited and ready to learn. I told her that we had been through this too and we had to ask our teachers lots of questions and tell them when we felt overwhelmed. I really just wanted to know that she could express when she was uncertain, overwhelmed, or unsure of anything, because I really don’t know what I’m doing and I want her to be comfortable enough to tell me when she doesn’t understand the way I am explaining something. This definitely eased some of her anxieties. She opened up about how excited she was and talked about her daughters and grandchildren. She is ready to learn and even encouraged homework! I could tell she really wants this so I only hope I do her justice and teach her well she can at least begin to be ready to get her GED.