It's the Little Things

I had my final meeting with this semester's "client," the label we are taught to apply to the kids we tutor for my practicum, this week, and it was predictably bittersweet. Teaching six-year-olds is not my forte, and when my supervisor made criticisms like, "You're using words that are above his level," I wanted to scream, "Duh! I teach high school! I have no idea how to interact with this kid!!" ("Duh" is a word that is on his level, assuming we deem it a word.) We learned all about instructing kids of all ages in the class accompanying the practicum, but not so much about relating to them personally. I muddled through, though, and while I'm happy that I won't be spending three hours of my week enclosed in a tiny space with him anymore, I was a little sad to see him go.

I was originally going to buy him a book or a notebook or a cool pen or something, but funds are tight at the moment and so I decided to just give him a bunch of the stuff we'd done over the course of the semester. Over the last few weeks, I had made several manipulatives for him with colored construction paper that allowed him to spell words by flipping pages or pulling strips of paper to reveal different letters in windows I'd cut out. I made a deck of alphabet cards and we'd play "War" by each laying down a card and determining which letter came later in the alphabet. We practiced sight words, and the ones he could read and spell automatically went on cards, which I punched holes in and strung on a ring.

I put all of this stuff together, stapled a piece of construction paper into an envelope, and wrote his name in sparkly pen on the front, which I decorated with stars.

You'd have thought it was Christmas. He was so excited to get all of these goodies at the conclusion of our session, and told me that now he could "practice at home." I guess one's mom is not the only one impressed by homemade gifts. I guess that's one advantage of working with younger kids; I can't imagine a high school student being too impressed by colored paper and sparkly ink.