My First Day: January 14th

I showed up to Classic City High School today for the first time, ready to tutor at 10:15 AM. Mrs. Mimi told me I would be placed in a second period English classroom, and she gave me a quick tour of the school before taking me to the classroom. The room was pitch black, and about fifteen students were sitting at computers, working on online English quizzes. The teacher in the classroom sat quietly at her desk, working on her own computer.

My student's a boy that I'll call Michael. Michael told me he was thirteen, but either I heard wrong or he was lying to me- I think Classic City only has students that are 16-22 years old. The first thing I noticed about Michael was that he was blasting rap music through his headphones, singing along to the lyrics. When Mrs. Mimi introduced me to him, he wouldn't even look up at me. He kept telling Mrs. Mimi that he didn't need a tutor and he didn't want one. I was a little intimidated at first- Michael clearly didn't want me there.

I sat down next to Michael and asked him what he was working on. He told me he was taking reading quizzes and he had to make a 70% on each one to move onto the next. It was difficult to talk to Michael because he could barely hear me because of the music- but for the most part he answered all the questions I asked him. I was discouraged because he told me he hated school and he had no plans of going to college. He just guessed the answers to questions instead of reading the passages, and it became clear that he did not care about his score. I tried to intervene, going over the passages with Michael and working with him on the questions. For a little bit he was working with me, but after a while he complained that his head hurt and he couldn't read anymore.

For a few minutes, I leaned back in my chair and thought about the situation. I wanted so badly for Michael to open up to me and trust me, but how could I expect that much from him? He didn't know me at all. To him, I was some random college student coming in to help him with his work. He felt singled out because I was the only tutor in the classroom. I was discouraged because I hadn't made a good connection with Michael.

There was a silver lining- at the end of the hour, I told Michael I needed to leave to go to class. He asked me why I was leaving him multiple times. When I told him I would be back next week, he seemed okay with it. I know tutoring Michael is not going to be easy, but I know if I can make a connection with him and keep a positive attitude, our relationship will improve.