Five Minute Friday - Encouragement

Each week, I am trying to participate in a Flash Mob of writers.  I'm not a writer, I'm a math teacher.  :)  But, I am starting graduate school soon and will be writing papers every week.  !!!  So, I try to take 5 minutes and write to a prompt given each Friday.

This week, I wrote for longer than 5 minutes, because I couldn't stop the words.  I think this is a good thing.

So, here are the basics:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

So, here I GO:

Encouragement

 

When I first started tutoring math, my focus was teaching the math.  My first students were good students, who just needed a little extra help.  Many times, we learned together, because I had forgotten some of the intricate details of Pre-Calculus.  That was okay, because I had at least learned it, and it didn’t take long to remember it.  Tutoring was fun, I enjoyed using my brain outside of “mommyhood”.

Then, three years ago, I started getting students who were really struggling.  They needed my help in a completely different way.  This time, I knew the math, but what I didn’t know was how to teach.  So I learned.  I read blogs from teachers.  I found websites that offered practice problems.  I looked at different math books to see how topics were explained.   But, it still wasn’t quite enough.  Some of my students still struggled week after week.  I’d teach a concept, we’d do the homework, they’d understand it – and then fail a quiz.  I just couldn’t figure out how to help them. 

Then, during one Sunday afternoon full of tutoring sessions – I think there were 7 that day – it hit me.  We were reviewing for mid-term exams.  One young man was wrestling with an Algebra problem that we had solved 20 times already.  He was frustrated, I was frustrated.  He was ready to give up – and I refused to give up on him.  I sat up straight, looked him in the eye, and told him, “YOU CAN DO THIS!  You are smart, you are capable, we’ve studied this material, we’ve gone over it and over it.  You know this.  Stop, take a deep breath and think!”

And he did.  And he got it.  And the next problem, and the one after that. 

It was that day that I realized my job as a tutor was not just helping with homework and explaining difficult concepts.  I was a coach.  My job was to offer encouragement from the sidelines, not run the play for them.  Encouragement.  Show them they had the skills to tackle that difficult problem, with me sitting right there.  I’m not doing it for them, but giving them the power to do it for themselves.

 

Sounds a lot like parenting.  We give our kids the skills to survive without us, from the first step to heading off to college.  Hmmmm…

 

Sounds like our relationship with our Heavenly Father, too.  He’s there, all the time, encouraging us, showing us the Way, but we have to take that step of faith.

Encouragement. 

STOP.

PS - that young man - I'm still working with him.  Math isn't his thing, but I can tell you that his confidence in his abilities has soared since those first days.  He's a great kid and I treasure being part of his life.