The Joys of Tutoring

I’m posting this to say thank you to FLOC for the opportunity to be a tutor.  I’ve been tutoring at FLOC for nearly two years and it is one of the most enjoyable things I do.  I am delighted when I see my student’s eyes light up as he gets enthusiastic about what we are studying, when his mom says his grades are improving, and when he enjoys writing so much he takes a story home to work on.

The tutoring room is less formal than a classroom – just a big open space with tables, chairs, bookcases and file cabinets; but it comes to life during class.  I get there 15 minutes before the students, pick seats, and review feedback on what we accomplished last week and the plans for this week.  When Christian, my student arrives, we spend a few minutes catching up on events of the week and then get down to work.  We are working on language skills, so time is spent on vocabulary, grammar, structure, reading, etc.  There is a lot of back and forth as we think of new ways to use the vocabulary words or expand on the stories.  There are breaks for snacks and activities like trashketball – essentially catch with points for answering language questions.  Recently, a lot of our study time has been devoted to writing, Christian’s favorite.  He is writing a story about how a janitor in a museum was attacked by robbers and then practiced and became a karate legend.  It has been a lot of fun to see the story evolving as he works on it.

The other tutors are having pretty much the same experience.  By this time in the year, relationships are established and the students are no longer shy about asking questions or making jokes.  It is so fascinating to see how differently the children see the world and how much more open their view is from an adult’s view.  When I look around the room, I see the other tutors and their students smiling, joking, and congratulating each other.  At the end of class, everyone seems grateful for the time together and looks forward to next week.

I found out about FLOC when someone in my alumni group sent a recruiting email.  Much earlier in my career I had taught one class at a community college.  I almost didn’t cash the paycheck because teaching was so much fun.  Unfortunately, the paycheck was too small to make a career of it. Remembering how much fun that had been, I signed up with FLOC.

I’ve had about eight students so far and they have all been different and enjoyable.  Both the students and I have increased our self esteem.  They are happier because they are doing better in school.  I am happier because I have helped them become better able to contribute to society.

I have enjoyed volunteering at FLOC so much that I signed up for a Masters in Education program at the University of Maryland so that I can be a teacher in my next career (I’m semi-retired now).  I hope to use my background in science to show students both the marvelous simplicity and complexity in the world around them.  I would like to help them develop the critical thinking processes and creative negotiating skills that have enabled us to develop an ever more peaceful and equitable society.  I want to teach them that respect for one another and for nature will continue to make human life on earth sustainable.

I am very grateful that signing up as a FLOC tutor opened these new doors for me!

(Mike McAvey is a tutor in the Tuesday night Reading program.)

Tutoring for Tutors

At FLOC, there have been many good tutor-generated tips for successful tutoring sessions. One specifically helpful tip that tutors have discovered is letting their students occasionally become the tutors! Narissa, a tutor here at FLOC, has found it very useful.

Narissa and her student have been working on fractions for about two weeks. Although Narissa felt her student was getting the concept rather quickly, she wanted to approach the subject in a new way. She asked her student to take on the role of the tutor. Instead of Narissa explaining the information again, her student taught Narissa how to reduce fractions.

Narissa found this tip to be helpful for several reasons. Having the student become the tutor allowed her to become more invested in the session, therefore strengthening the relationship between Narissa and her student. Second, this strategy became a great tool for assessment. Narissa was truly able to tell whether or not her student understood fractions – and indeed she did!

Narissa experienced a very successful session by using this tip. She was able to create a stronger bond with her student, help her student feel more invested in the session, and assess her student’s progress on fractions all at the same time. Overall, switching student tutor “roles” was a perfect strategy for Narissa. Try this cool tip out with your student, and it may work great for you too!

(Lindsay Davis is an NTP Site Coordinator for the Thursday Night math Program.)

Tutoring at FLOC: A Whole New World

(Wynsome Brown was a FLOC intern and tutor this spring. She attends Howard University.)

On my first day of tutoring, I have to admit I was a bit nervous; I had no idea what to expect. Well, I pretty much knew that I was going to be one-on-one with a student helping them improve their education and learning skills. I wasn’t sure of how the student would respond to me. I questioned my teaching skills, my listening skills, and whether or not I was going to be able to identify where and what the problem areas were and how to fix them.

On my first day, I was a substitute for another tutor. My student was an eight year-old boy named Kevin. I was told beforehand that he was extremely smart and a fast learner, which gave me some relief. But there still was one problem – I was slightly intimidated by the fact that his normal tutor had already developed a certain learning pattern that I wouldn’t be able to mimic. I didn’t want to interrupt his way of learning, or delay his progress.

Once I introduced myself to Kevin, all of my nervousness quickly disappeared. I started to remember why I love being around children. We started off slow but in no time things began to warm up. He was a fast learner and extremely smart for his age. I gave him permission to choose a game. We began to play UNO, and I started to notice that he had his own rules and regulations of the game. I continued to play, and I figured the object of his game was for me not to win. We had a blast! He never wanted to stop, but unfortunately for Kevin, we had to get some reading done. It was fortunate for me though, because I couldn’t take another losing game.

We began to read the Vacation in a Volcano, which Kevin had picked out. We read until it was time to wrap up. I really enjoyed myself and all my worries were completely gone by the end of the session.

The second time I tutored, I was looking forward to meeting my new student and was excited about building a relationship with him or her. Nenis is her name, and she is the sweetest eight year-old girl I’ve ever met. It was her first day, so I could sense a little shyness. We jumped right into learning games and she also displayed a lot of intelligence. As we got more and more into the game, that shyness quickly turned into excitement. She even told me, “That game was fun.” I was glad to see her smile; it just made more excited about our time together.

Tutoring at FLOC has opened my eyes to a whole new world. It has shown me that there are children in the community who really want to learn. I simply love children; they don’t judge, criticize, or intimidate. They are filled with joy and happiness, which goes a long way.

Fractions Rap

(Tutors are always trying to find interesting and fun ways to teach concepts to FLOC’s students! This fractions rap was written by Kristin Brady, a Thursday PM and Saturday AM tutor.)

I’ll teach you everything you need to know about fractions

Fractions Fractions

I’ll teach you everything you need to know about fractions

Fractions Fractions

Everything you need to know, I’ll rap it

I’ll teach you how to get rid of an improper fraction

I’ll teach you how to add and subtract

Then multiply and divide

Fraction-what’s that

Lights camera action

This is a rap I wrote about fractions

Multiply and divide, addition and subtraction

With addition and subtraction it’s pretty cool

Because for the both of them, you follow the same rule

If it’s improper you’re gonna have to change it to a mixed number

I’ll be the one to explain that

Improper is when the top number is bigger than the bottom

You gotta take the bottom and fit it into the top

Say the bottom is 4 and the top is 18

How many times does 4 fit in between

Well let’s see that’s 4 so take that 4

And write it big on the line

With 2 left over from the 18

Put that 2 on top of the 3—and wow, it’s that easy (easy)

Listen to this song and you’ll believe me

You look at the bottom of fraction one and fraction two

Then find the lowest number that they both go in to

You gotta be fair to both the bottom and top

So if you multiply the bottom then you gotta do the top

Then you can add or subtract

Just like that

Multiplication and division the same rules go

Naaaaaw sike-I’m just playin’ but I rap for real though

The first step requires a very special action

If you have a mixed number you gotta transform it into an improper fraction

The next step is easy as pie

‘Cross the bottom and the top

Then you simplify

Division’s gonna try and be all difficult

You gotta take the second fraction and find the reciprocal

Then multiply and simplify just like you did before

Now as fractions are concerned you know we are good to go

In Two Hours, You Can Change a Life

(Jennifer Doak tutors in the Tuesday Night Reading program and volunteered to blog about her experiences.)

Two hours isn’t really that much time, when you think about it. Oh sure, it might be a long time to wait for a Metro train or listen to your boss talk about leveraging synergy. But two hours spent on the couch watching 30 Rock reruns or a college basketball game goes by pretty fast.

So does two hours of helping a kid learn. Sure, it might be hard to tear yourself away from mindlessly refreshing Facebook while Tracy Morgan does something ridiculous (…from what I hear anyway, because I’ve totally never done this, ever). But it’s infinitely more rewarding.

In two hours, you can help a sixth-grader understand the different meanings of the word “rig.” You can cheer when she aces a vocabulary test. Two hours spent over the course of several months will reward you with a measurable increase in the student’s progress.

I’ve been tutoring with FLOC for about seven months now. Over that period of time, I’ve probably missed 70 hours of quality comedy shows and NCAA hoops. Instead, I have the privilege of working with an awesome kid. We’re reading Lizzie McGuire books and learning about blended syllables and playing Boggle. She’s kicking butt on her quizzes and makes a genuine effort to learn every lesson—even though she’s already had a full day of school.

And you know what? I don’t really miss it. I have four other days to flop on the couch with mindless TV and a glass of wine. Taking two hours a week to set aside work stress and go back to the fundamentals of language is just as decompressing and far more gratifying. If your tutee can sacrifice two hours of Hannah Montana to boost her grades, then you can give up your reality shows and help her succeed.

Tina Fey and the Big East can wait for a little while. I’ve got more important things to do.

Crouching Tutor, Visible Success

(Jennifer Doak tutors in the Tuesday Night Reading program and volunteered to blog about her experiences.)

My first student, to whom I taught reading and language skills over the summer, is a whip-smart, quiet third grader. She likes learning words by drawing pictures and playing games; one time, we jumped for the nouns, crouched down for the adjectives, and acted out the verbs. We even invited her more outgoing cousin, who’s also in FLOC, to join us.
She preferred to read books that weren’t challenging, but eventually I learned to make deals: Read a few pages of this harder book—just a few more paragraphs—and then we can play a game. It worked, most of the time.

The second, who I’m working with until April, is a bright, boisterous 11-year-old, talkative and easily distracted. She knows all the FLOC staff and has lots of friends here, but it’s occasionally difficult getting her to focus. She prefers interactivity, games with drawing or lots of movement, but between her mom’s hectic schedule and my admittedly infirm grasp of the language learning program we’re using, it’s slow going. I hope we’ll be able to finish out the year having made some progress.

Tutoring takes some getting used to. It’s a matter of negotiation, reading moods and gauging tolerance for stretches of word repetition and sentence reading. It’s also a matter of translation. When learning vocabulary, for example, the first definition that comes to my mind may not be something the student can relate to. If she’s never been outside DC, farm animals or foreign countries won’t register. I’ll throw out different metaphors or comparisons until one sticks.

I’m not a current or former educator by trade. The closest I got was working for a nonprofit that advocated for a collaborative, forward-thinking teaching model to be implemented in public schools. While there, I read up on the hardworking people who are trying to figure out the secret sauce for higher test scores and engaged students. Overcoming challenges in education isn’t like the multiple-choice quizzes my students sometimes take; even “all of the above” won’t do when the options given are insufficient.

It’s sometimes hard to set aside this big picture, even when working on such a micro level. What does two hours a week matter when faced with the overwhelming issues at hand—issues that my students experience on some level every day? And if what works for one student doesn’t work for another, then wouldn’t it follow that a system that works for one school fails miserably the next town over?

Maybe. But it’s also good to know that students like the two girls I work with, despite these challenges, are getting individual attention from us when their overworked teachers just can’t find the time. It’s encouraging to volunteer for an organization that, in their own small way, recognizes the value of one-on-one time spent learning educational building blocks like literacy and numeracy. I’m probably not the best tutor, and some days I feel like nothing sticks. But I think these students, mine and others, feel there’s value in knowing that tutors are taking the time to try.

Coloring In the Whole Picture: Intern Impressed by FLOC’s Strategy

(Addie Ludwig is an intern in FLOC’s Recruitment and Outreach Department. She tutored at FLOC over the summer.)

Tutors usually charge anywhere from $20 to $100 an hour, but not at FLOC. Dozens of regular people from all walks of life sit down once a week, one-on-one with a kid and teach for free. Honing in on each child’s individual strengths and weaknesses, they attempt to strengthen fundamental skills and provide a solid foundation for later education. It’s not super specialized, and it’s not hard to train for it. Here they just try to color in all the blank spots so that the kids can see the bigger picture.

I am a proud survivor of the DC Public School system (K-12), and was interested to see people working to help DCPS kids from outside of the boundaries of the schools themselves. I had a mixed bag experience with DCPS, as many have; I attended the prestigious, public Horace Mann Elementary and enjoyed a fantastic, hands-on early education that provided a solid foundation for what would prove to be a slightly spotty education later on.

I got involved with FLOC early last summer partially out of curiosity and partially from a desire to learn how to interact with children, something I don’t have extensive experience with and I’ve never been particularly good at. I feared the worst – being unable to command the attention of a hyper child, confirming my fear that I am terrible with kids. As it turned out, I was placed with an extraordinarily bright and well-behaved girl who came to tutoring excited to learn and receptive to everything I had to say. In the end, it’s safe to say that she ended up helping me.

When I got started at FLOC, I remember being concerned that I would encounter some of the condescension in situations where the disadvantaged are assisted by the (more) privileged. I can gladly say that there is none of that here; everyone genuinely cares about the kids. They’re passionate and work tirelessly in both tutoring and behind the scenes to close the learning gaps that the shortfalls of regular schooling create on a regular basis.

The statistics speak for themselves – the program works. FLOC has formed a highly functional safety net that aims to and regularly succeeds in catching the kids that fall through those cracks that are not few or far in between. And it’s free. What more could you ask for?

A Tutor’s Perspective: “It is a life-changing experience”

(Catherine Fisher is entering her second year of tutoring with For Love of Children. She currently tutors in the Thursday Night Math program and volunteered to blog about her experiences.)

Over a year ago, I was searching for an opportunity to volunteer with a non-profit that facilitated tutoring for secondary school students in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. I had recently started a job in the neighborhood, so I thought that volunteering would be the perfect way to give back to that community. Not able to find any matches in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, I quickly expanded my search for any opportunities within the immediate area. That’s when I found For Love of Children (FLOC).

From the moment I began the process of learning about FLOC, I was impressed by the passion of the staff and past volunteers towards the program and students. Through the orientation and all the training sessions, I wondered if my experience at FLOC would be as wonderful as people had described. But what I have experienced at FLOC is more than just a wonderful experience; it is a life-changing experience.

Working with my student, David, over the past year has been an enriching experience. Week after week, I witnessed his dedication to learn and his commitment to achieve more. Even when David had “one of those days” at school, he would take the time to refocus himself on his tasks and try his hardest to stay focused. To have watched David begin the program working on subtraction and end it with fractions is phenomenal. When people say that high school students are lazy, I always tell them David’s story and explain that not only did he commit himself to learn, but he also signed himself up for the program. It is David’s dedication to his future that has energized me to commit to FLOC a second year, and hopefully several more to come.