[Note, names have been changed and details have been left out to protect student privacy. For my last log see this link.]
My fourth session with Juan went really, really well. He was ready and willing to do his homework, and I had a chance to learn a few things as well.
When I arrived at the school a little before 3:00, Juan was already being helped with his homework by his older sister. His older sister is in 5th grade, and she seems to prefer helping Juan in Spanish. I couldn't tell exactly what she was saying, but the helping seemed to mostly be in the form of pestering him to do his work. Anyway, shortly after I arrived she went on to other things. I took the opportunity to ask Juan about his other brothers and sisters, and he said that there was only him and his sister; however, there is another child expected in June. So, it sounds like Juan comes from a fairly small, well spaced out family. This is about as much as I have learned so far about Juan's home life (I guess I'm just not very good at prying - and Juan isn't exactly giving out information freely). Hopefully I can learn some more next time.
This time Juan needed help with some homework related to simple
division. He was supposed to circle counters to figure out how
many times one number went into the other and what the remainder
was. He had already answered all of the problems, but his
previous answers were all wrong. It seems like Juan has a habit
of just sort of guessing when he doesn't really understand what is
going on. However, I think this is just how kids his age tend to
learn. Anyway, by the end of the homework I think he was starting
to get it.
Aside from the division homework, which I kind of liked, I also helped Juan with his spelling homework, which I sort of dread. Once again Juan had to sort all of the spelling words alphabetically, and once again I don't think Juan really understands sorting too well. However, I think he is maybe starting to get the hang of it.
Since Juan finished all of his homework early, we had a chance to do a little reading from a second grade picture book. Actually, Juan read and I just helped him with a few of the words. The book was about a giant dog that had an itch. It was a fun book, but it made me feel kind of itchy too. It's hard for me to tell how Juan compares to other students his age in reading because I don't know second graders very well, but I thought he did all right.
After Juan finished the book I took a moment to help some of the other students. I helped out one of the kids at Juan's table that I sometimes help, and I went to help a couple of fifth grade girls who asked for my help. It is very different helping out 5th graders because they are much more like adults (not so squirmy and more self directed). Actually, I don't think the two girls really needed that much help, they just needed reassurance that they were doing the problems right (long division). I've seen this kind of behavior pretty often, which really makes me wonder if computer based homework with instant feedback for correct answers wouldn't be a huge motivator and confidence builder for these kids. All of this filled up the time until 4:00, when a group of kids were scheduled to go into the computer lab - which I wanted to see.
The computer lab was a pretty nice setup. It was setup in a
narrow trailer type space, with maybe two dozen identical computers
lined up against the walls. Although the hardware was nice, they
didn't seem to have the software part very well organized. Mostly
the kids were just told to visit a handful of semi-educational websites
from an approved list. The websites were mostly simple games of
moderate educational value. I think there is still some value in
this, because the kids were becoming familiar with using the mouse,
keyboard, etc., but I would love to see a program which is a little
better organized which had them progressing in some measurable
way. Still, it makes a nice break for the kids after spending an
hour in the multi-purpose room cranking away on homework.