One goal I had coming back was to help out at my local public schools... those poor, under-paid schools need us, ya know? I would not consider myself a genius at any given subject but for some reason I checked "tutoring" on the volunteer application when I signed up at the high school around the corner from my house. I may live to regret that decision..
I ended up in an afterschool study hall. The kids I help are "adviced... to their parents" to come to this study hall because they are failing 2 or more classes. Most of the work they are doing is class work, that they just didn't get done in class... needless to say, this bunch takes about 25 minutes to settle down before they get any homework going.
The good days are when I can work through homework assignments with 1-3 students. Even if I do know the answers, I act kind of dumb to show them HOW to work through the problems and get these stupid worksheets done quickly. I call them stupid because they are often wayyy too wordy that get the students to "discover" the phenomenom out by themselves. However these kind of kids aren't very eager to wait through all the words to find out what you want them to find out. It's confusing. It's confusing, so they just give up.
The bad days are when their bad attitude and constant indifference quiets or disarms me. I usually pump myself up with music and fist-jabs before coming in, that helps.
I really like helping. :) Too bad I might not be able to do it once I find a money-making job.
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