Responding to Prompt #4

Happy to announce that I am seeking progress with my new buddie Sam. The next time I went, I walked towards the classroom and he was already sitting in the hallway waiting for someone to work with him on his reading. Perfect timing I thought. I walked up confidently to him, smiled and said, "Hello Sam", and he just stared at me. I laughed a little inside, mostly from nerves but then asked him if he remembered me and he nodded yes. That's when I knew that I had to pull some tricks out of the bag. I put my stuff away and walked right up to the teacher and asked if she would like me to work with Sam again and she thought that would be great. I received my instructions on what we should be doing, grabbed a chair and went back to the hallway. First, I told him my name once again and asked him to choose a book of his choice to read. Sam apeaks very clear English and from what I can tell he understands it just as well. As we read, the word 'hutch' used in a sentence was a stopper for Sam. I explained the word as it was used in the sentence and then pointed it out in the picture as well. I asked him if he ever heard of it and that was it, I was in. He started telling me a little bit about him and his uncle back in Puerto Rico. I used my boyfriend and his family as a crutch because they are from Pueto Rico as well and I think this made him start to trust me. After that, Sam whizzed right through his pre-primer and primer words and I excitedly gave him a thumbs up or told him great job. At the end I gave him a high five for doing an awesome job that day. It was time for Sam to go back his class and on his way out he smiled and waved at me. I felt that I connected with my student because I was able to bring in my own personel history which gives me and advantage with his cultural background. I think that I am very close to acheiving the goal of getting my student to trust me. I noticed that Sam is reading louder than he was the first visit and gets more excited when he does a good job. Some challenges as a future teacher will be trying to connect with your students on all different levels because they are unique individuals with very different family life. I have been exposed to many different cultural backgrounds growing up in Providence and although my expereinces are helpful in the classrooms, I still have a lot to learn.