Math Made Easy

Math Made Easy

 by

Jessica Jimenez Ramos

University of Central Florida

 

Travelogue- Week 2 (2nd hour)

My second meeting with my student went a lot better.  We talked about her homework and her expectations.  Her expectations were not what I excepted.  She wanted to make her family proud.  At first I excepted her to tell me she wanted to excel, or be noticed in the class, but that is not what she told me.  My student told me, they recently came to the United States and her goal was to help her family. What a concept from such a small child, to carry the thought and responsibility of having to care and support her family.

The culture of students who have immigrated to the United States is much different than the culture and goals of students born into Anglo American families.  I do not want to generalize but students I have worked with in the past who are native born to the United States have very different goals.  Many of them just wanted to have the assignments done.  Some wanted to learn and get a good grade, and some just wanted to get out of the house. To date I have never had any student tell me they wanted to learn Math, with the intention of helping their family excel in this country.

My student has the skill level to understand the Math assignments, she understands the instruction, I believe her issues is not Math, but the stress of her life.  She is a young girl in grade school and life should be easy. She should not be worried about the economic status of her family, or supporting her family at her age. She should be enjoying herself and her childhood.  Instead of living the easy life that childhood often can be, she has taken the stress of adulthood.

I explained to her that I understood her concerns coming from a family that suffered economically, but that she could not do anything to help them, due to her age, and that the best thing she could do is focus on her studies and take it easy.  I explained to her, focusing on her Math and her grades will help her be successful in the future.  She listened very carefully to me, and grasped what I was saying.  I explained that if she did well in her classes, she could get scholarships and grants that could help her continue her education and be successful. 

I told her lets focus on living the easy life for now, and making Math easy.  I told her she has all the time in the world when she is an adult to think about adult things, but now it is time to be a kid.  She liked that idea, and agreed she was going to focus on making Math fun and easy.

Children from other countries come to the United States with expectations many of us would not except and may not know how to address.  I felt this was a chance for me to role play and play the part of a friend as well as a mentor.  I know successful educators often play multiple roles in the classroom and if I was going to be successful in her tutoring sessions I needed to play a different role. Hopefully she continues to relax and Math is the most of her concerns.

Till Next Meeting....I hope she is making Math Easy!