Miki's Problems Become My Problems

It's been a slow week, so there hasn't been much to write about. That, plus the cable internet has been out for several days (damn you, Time Warner!).

My students haven't had much homework. The teachers have been giving them a break to prepare for EOCs or have been assigning projects (which the students can complete during class time). I found myself completely unprepared for this down time. Had I known, I would have made a lesson plan, but I had to wing it. That works well with Yosuke, luckily, because there's a lot of things we can work on. The problem arises with Miki; she gets bored and tired easily, so I need to come up with something to catch her interest.

Also, the past two times I tutored her, she seemed to have something bothering her. Yesterday, she suddenly seemed like she was going to cry while we were reviewing some math topics. I thought she might be getting frustrated because she keeps making the same mistakes, or perhaps there is something else making her sad. I switched to English anyway just to be safe, and she seemed to get better.

The time before that, she seemed to be having a fight with her mother when I arrived, and she sat down at the table sullen and on the verge of tears. I had no idea what I should do. I decided to let her relax a bit before we started learning anything and just talked to her a bit about school. Then I transitioned into the topic I wanted to review, and halfway through the tutoring session she seemed to be back to normal (whew!).

The past week has just been exhausting! I'll need to make a lesson plan for the sessions from now on since they will no longer be dominated by helping the students catch up with homework. Once I've got a structure to follow, things should be a bit easier for me.