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.