Shaleena Campbell
3rd
Draft
Starting in the
ninth grade I started tutoring a second grader named Bryanna Gomez, a little
girl who lived in the apartment next to me. Prior to tutoring her, I had never
talked, let alone seen her or her family in my building before. So it was
surprising when her mother asked me to help her out. In the back of my mind I
was unsure of ability to help another human being with their homework. I was
worried because I was not the kid in the class who had all the answer, the
person who even passed test with a high grade. Despite the my average school
work I decided to tutor her for two years straight every other day of my ninth
and tenth grades school year.
The routine for me
every day was go to school, then to Harlem Children Zone, and then at six go to
her house to tutor her. Walking into her home, I was always emerged in a blast of
heat and the look of appetizing food that was always being cooked. Day after
day we would sit on her couch doing her HW; she had the basics reading,
writing, and math but you couldn’t tell her that she acted a like her teacher
gave her pre-calculus math homework instead of second grade math. It would be
agitating at times because her parent’s barely spoke English and it was
difficult for me to communicate with her parents about things she was having
trouble with. Not being able to communicate
played a big part because
information would get mixed, up but by the time I was finished working with her
I solved our communication problem with patience.
During this time, I
had a lot to do between juggling HW and extracurricular activities. I
considered quitting, but I couldn’t because if I was to it would eat me up
inside until I felt bad enough to start tutoring her again. So I stuck with it
and made a plan to start doing my homework before I tutored her so that when I
got home I would have time to relax. My plan work and I was able to get my HW
done and it no longer was a problem.
At the end of the
school year, Bryanna took her state test and she failed. I felt horrible
because I considered it to be my fault because I was the one helping her with
her school work and I didn’t realize she was having that much of a problem. I talked
to her teacher and found out that Bryanna only answered six questions in the
whole entire test and was getting left back in the second grade. I thought that
her mom was going to fire me. I was so scared that I avoided talking to her for
a few days, but she understood that I can’t be there to take the test with her.
It was up to Bryanna to use what she learns with me on her school work. After
finding out she was getting left back, I decided to reevaluate the way I was
tutoring, I wouldn’t let this set me and Bryanna back. I found ways to
efficiently tutor her during the summer by using the recourses around me to
find worksheets and flashcards to further help her.
Experiencing this
failure with Bryanna taught me to revaluate problems and figure out ways to fix
them. When Bryanna failed I avoided the situation but I’ve learned not to do
that because it would not benefit me or her. That I should tackle problems head
on to overcome it. Also taught me how to juggle different things I have to do
and that has come in handy numerous time this year with my school work and my
job.
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