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.