Monday, November 14, 2011

After school tutoring?

So I had big plans to write this post on Sunday and a few more to get caught up for the week, but my sister called and told me my grandmother was visiting. So I spent the day in Knoxville with my grandmother, sister and adorable niece. I know I'm a little biased but my niece is definitely the cutest kid out there. She's 14 months old and I'm amazed at how much language she is acquiring. She's a little sponge. It also makes me see how those little ones I get in Kindergarten with no language really must never be talked to. Sophie is a lucky girl because my sister stays home with her and she has a kindergarten teacher aunt and a primary principal grammy. So she gets talked to and taught all the time. Anyway, back to my post (that I am writing at 7:23 in the morning instead of being at school because my car won't start and I'm waiting on my bf to come get me:( )
Friday for Veteran's day we had an inservice day. Those are really not my favorite. I would rather be teaching my kids. But my administration does try to provide us with professional development and time for collaboration. One of the things we were looking at Friday was our students who just missed being proficient on "the test" by a couple of questions and trying to target them to move them forward. This got me thinking of my kids that are on the cusp of getting it. They are almost reading but just need a little extra help that they don't seem to getting at home. Another topic of conversation for the day was our economically disadvantaged kids. (Such a great name right). These are the kids that seem to be struggling the most. Not that we needed a test to tell us that. I think most teachers know. It brought us to talking about language and how kids just don't seem to have the language they should. (which made me think of my brilliant niece :)) So all this talk got me thinking about doing some after school tutoring. I looked at my class and where they were and which ones could benefit from extra help. One group that stood out to me was my ELL kids. I have a few that are starting to put things together for reading and I think if they had a little extra help they might just get there. The other group that stood out were the ones that are so eager to learn but just need a little extra one on one time.
We don't have any kind of tutoring program at school. I was curious if anyone out there in my blogging friends did? I think eventually we're going to try to write grants for some funding for after school tutoring but until then I'd like to do some on my own. I would love to hear about any kind of programs others do. How do you help those kids that need just a little extra push?

2 comments:

  1. We don't offer after school tutoring, but I tutor a child and get paid for it by his parents. But as a teacher, I WISH we offered tutoring free of charge for my struggling first graders!
    Jennifer
    First Grade Blue Skies

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  2. We don't get paid for tutoring, but it is an expectation. I tutor 3 students in the morning twice a week, and 4 students after school once a week.

    Shelly
    projectqn@tx.rr.com

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