Contemplations of a Complex Universe

I have a lot of stories from today. And they start from the time I got off the bus to walk the ten minute distance to the school. It was raining today and windy too! And to add to the excitement, my umbrella is a piece of junk. About a week ago, the handle broke off, and one of the metal braces broke. On top of that, the actual umbrella is so wobbly on the pole that it is hard to have any control over where it goes. Anyway, so when I was walking to the school, I was walking into the wind, and the umbrella did not stop the rain from getting onto my legs. When I finally got to the school, the whole front of my jeans were SOAKED! It looked and felt like I had jumped into a pool! But it actually gave me a conversation starter when we were waiting in the hall for class to start. I feel like I'm starting to get to know the girls a little more so it's fun to have a normal, not math related, conversation. I also tried to make normal conversation with another girl and commented on her ring. She then told me the story behind it how she lived in Nashville, Tennessee last year and her cousin/friend she was staying with gave it to her to help her remember her. Then I told her I was going to Nashville in a couple weeks, and she told me how beautiful it is. (It probably sounds funny that I'm describing this in here as being exciting, but I don't get to talk a whole lot to the students about their personal lives because I'm helping them so much of the time on their math homework. So it's just fun when it does occasionally happen.) Anyways, I was once again unable to get to everyone, but I feel like I am getting a lot more calm when overwhelmed by the people who need my help.
The second class, Hassan handed me the worksheet and told me to teach the class. All of a sudden I got really nervous because I looked at the worksheet and couldn't quite remember how to do it. (It did finally come back to me, but I definitely didn't feel adequate to be teaching a whole class). But it went okay. I messed up once but the class pointed it out to me. Hassan said he was sick so couldn't talk a lot, explaining why I had to teach the class. Then, he left the room and left me with all the students, who were kind of rowdy. I sure if they were really understanding what I was trying to teach them, but when I asked wasn't if they had any questions, none of them spoke up. In the end, it is kind of fun to be able to look back and say that I have taught math at an ESL high school! It definitely got me out of my comfort zone!

Posted by Michelle Stein at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I had a good time this week trying to help the students. Nothing extreme happened and I think I did better at trying to help more people. I feel like I'm really starting to get to know the students. I feel more comfortable talking to them and they feel more comfortable talking to me. They even say "hi" and smile at me in the hall. One guy always calls to me "hey sister!" when he sees me, and some of them even remember my name. Most call me "teacher". I feel really bad because I cant remember any of their names. I know a few of them have told me, but they are so different than ones I am used to that its hard to remember. But I remember their faces. Very clearly. Each one has a uniquely beautiful face, different from the others, and I can remember that. (to be continued)

Posted by Michelle Stein at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two things happened today that I want to be sure to mention.
I always have a hard time helping everybody that wants my help. As I'm helping one person, another will say "teacher, come help me!" and I'll have to tell them "one second". But I feel bad if it ends up taking longer than a couple minutes or if the bell rings at the end of class and I haven't even gotten to them. Anyway, today while I was helping one girl, another girl asked me to help her and I told her as soon as I was done with the one, I would help the other. They started bickering back and forth in Somali. I obviously couldn't understand them, but I knew they were probably arguing about who was going to get my help. Hassan, the teacher, all of a sudden said to them "speak in English so Michelle can understand" and he went on to explain to me that they were fighting over me. I thought that was kind of fun to think about. It made me realize how much my help is appreciated among them.
In the second class, I ran into a dilemma. I had been working through a problem with one of the students and then Hassan went through it with the class on the board. However, he did it wrong. He made two big mistakes. First of all, he misplaced the i for a 1 and so his answer turned out completely different than mine. When he asked me if I got the same answer, I had to say no and told him that the 1 was actually an i. But when he redid it, he made a mistake in a different area. So when he asked me a second time if that was what I got, I again had to say no. I wasn't about to lie about that sort of thing. I felt really weird as a volunteer correcting the teacher and felt it wasn't my place to do so. However, I didn't feel it was right to let him continue in the future to teach his class the wrong way of doing a math problem. The problem is too complex to write out and explain here, but it was a basic algebraic formula and I knew that what he did was wrong. After class, I tried to point out the way I did it, but he "corrected" me showing me why he had to do it the way he did. I felt like it just made the whole situation awkward and didn't want to make a huge deal of it so I let it go. I hope I dealt with it okay. Maybe I should have tried to show him the way I did it. But on the other hand, I was just a volunteer and he was the teacher. I did not want to make him feel inferior. It's hard to know what to do in that sort of situation.

Posted by Michelle Stein at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today was overall really fun. I enjoy this work a lot and love the students I work with! When I got there today, the halls seemed unusually quiet. I know most days they have prayer time until 1:50, but I saw a note on some other teacher's white board that prayer was until 2:00 today. So, I had to wait ten minutes. But at 2:00 there still wasn't anybody there. I think we ended up starting at 2:10. I always feel somewhat intimidated before class starts, but it always ends up turning out okay. Today, quite a few of the students who came in to the first class gave me a friendly hi! how are you? which was nice. It makes me feel welcomed that they remember me. (even though I haven't been there the past two weeks cause of spring break). Anyways, it was fun to help them today, and I think because I wasn't so tired that I had more energy to work through the problems with them. Sometimes I feel like my advice doesn't go through to them, and that they don't understand me, but today I felt like they were really understanding a lot. And they always welcome my help which makes things a lot easier. The second class was equally good. I got to talk with one of the guys before hand, which I always enjoy. Its really neat to hear about their personal background. He said he came to America two years ago and moved around a little bit. This is his third location in the US that he's lived. He is now living with his mother and brother, and hopes to stay in this location for good. At the beginning of this class, Hassan (the teacher) came up to me and handed me the white board marker and asked me to go through the problems with the class... (He'd done this on a couple occasions last semester, asking me to teach the class while he substituted in the class next door) But today he stayed in the class for mostly the whole time, just sitting down and watching. Maybe he just needed a break :) Anyways, I went through problems on the board with the class for the whole period. At first I was nervous because I hadn't seen what they were working on today. (It's always interesting when I find out what they are learning about because the first few problems I look at I have to refresh my memory... Luckily the memories came quickly today) It was fun to be able to go through problems on the board. Normally, the students have the pencil in their hand and I have to explain through words what they need to be doing. Instead, I was writing, so it seemed easier to explain the problems.

Posted by Michelle Stein at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not a whole lot of excitement happened... Just the usual hard work of trying to understand what the students are saying and trying to help them understand what I'm saying about math... it gets kind of frustrating sometimes because I feel like I am explaining the math problem to the best of my ability but it doesn't process in their minds. (I am not trying to belittle their potential abilities, just trying to emphasize the difficulties in communication.) The first class is especially difficult, at least moreso than the second. They are at a lower level, doing basic math skills, yet they can't seem to wrap their minds around the simplest concepts. Sometimes I wonder if they are even trying... However, in a way, this almost adds to the excitement when they do come to understand something. I love when this happens, because I feel like my work there means something and I'm actually able to help them. The second class is really fun to work with because they really seem to understand what they are doing. They seem to really enjoy math... these two things could be in direct relationship with each other though. I unfortunately had to leave early from this class because I had a meeting to get to... oh well. Although at times this work can be tiring, I think I'm not emphasizing enough the fun that it has been. Despite the frustrations, I really enjoy interacting with a different culture and love being able to use my abilities to help others.

Posted by Michelle Stein at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay... So I rode the ten minute bus ride, walked the ten minute walk all the way to MNIC. When I arrived, I tried opening the door, but it was locked. I tried all the doors, but they were all locked. Then, luckily, someone was leaving the building and I was able to get in. But when I entered the building, it seemed unnaturally dark, and unnaturally quiet. Right away I realized there must not be school today, and somehow I was not informed of this. I did manage to come across three people and they confirmed my hypothesis. So... I just went back home. It was an extremely short day, and I don't really have much to say about it since I didn't actually volunteer. And I did check my email to see if I had missed a notification that there wasn't any school, but somehow I didn't get one. Haha... Oh well... Life goes on :)

Posted by Michelle Stein at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Class #1:
This is the smaller class. Today, Hassan didn't even give them directions, so I just figured they were supposed to work on their assignment from an earlier day. Only two girls were actually working on it though. Everyone else was working on English homework. Of the girls that I did help, one of them was really difficult to work with because she didn't even know how to do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. That makes it hard to teach someone how to add fractions, because that requires addition, multiplication, and division. The other girl I was helping was the same one as last week. She was very nice and seemed to understand, for the most part, what she was doing. I had an interesting conversation with her this week. Some of the other girls were talking and laughing and both of us just smiled. She asked me if I knew what they were saying. I said no. She explained that they weren't speaking Somali, but rather Arabic (at least I think that's what she said). She couldn't understand them either. This was really interesting because I realized I wasn't the only one who couldn't always understand what was going on. There were multiple languages being spoken throughout the class period.
Class #2:
Thankfully, class had been split up this week, so only half the group from last week was here this week. This made the class period so much more manageable. When class first started, a young lady that I had never seen before began talking to me. I felt bad because it was really hard to understand her, more so than most people. And on top of that, she talked really quiet and really fast. I did what I could to follow her and when I couldn't understand her after the third time of saying "what?" I just nodded my head and smiled, hoping she hadn't asked a question or said something that required a response. She asked where I was going to school and when I said the U of M, she said I was lucky. I think most people here would LOVE to go to college, but to many of them it probably seems like a far off dream. I think she said she wants to go to college when she graduates next year from high school. I asked her what she wants to study and she said English, writing, art... She seemed to want to do everything. I thinks it's great that she has those goals! I went around the room and helped as many people as I could for the class period. Then, at the end, this same lady asked me to sit down again. She asked if I was single or married. I said single, and that I'm only 18. I asked her if she was married wondering if maybe she was. She said no, and that she was too young (18 as well). But she said something about Somalia. I don't know if she was trying to say it was tradition for them to get married young or what she was saying. But she did add that she might get married next year after she graduates. This was another surprising thing I learned today. Two in one day! That is one of the things I like most about volunteering here. Everyday, I have such a great opportunity to immerse myself in a unique culture and learn from these students.

Posted by Michelle Stein at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tutoring today was a little different than last week. After the first class, I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything to write about. It was a pretty uneventful class. Although, when I came in, there was a “throne�-like chair that they told me to sit in. (It wasn’t really a throne, but it was a cushy chair, unlike the desk chairs everyone else sits in.) Anyway, Hassan (the teacher) told everyone that I would be helping in the class like I do every week. But this time, he told people to come over to me if they had any questions. Most of the time I walk around the room and help whoever needs it. Because he said this, I ended up helping the same person the whole time. She came over and sat by me and had me go through her whole worksheet, even though she seemed to know what she was doing. There were plenty of other people in the class that I’m sure had a lot more trouble than her, and I felt bad because I couldn’t help anybody else. I probably could have gotten up and walked around, but this young lady kept asking me questions. By the end of class, I think I had helped a total of three people, which is NOT normal.
The second class was quite a bit different. Whereas the first class consists of mostly girls (maybe one or two guys), the second one had mostly guys and only a handful of girls. For some reason I felt a LOT more intimidated than I ever have. This group of guys came and sat down right next to my chair. (Many of the guys are very nice, but these ones swore a ton and were a lot louder and more immature. This one guy kept asking me questions and talking to me, but he was mumbling so I pretended not to hear him. When Hassan saw them trying to talk to me, he said, “don’t talk to them�. So I tried not to. I’ve never been in the class when they’ve taken a test before, but today they did. Because the class was so large, he wanted to split the class into two groups by level of skill. I felt a little awkward because there wasn’t really anything for me to do while they were taking the test. I just sat there and watched them struggle with it. Hassan strictly told them NOT to use calculators, but for some reason, I thought he said they could look off each other’s answers. Maybe I just misunderstood him. All of a sudden, there was a huge commotion in the hallway. Somebody tried to close our door, but Hassan told him not to and rushed into the hallway. Then, the whole class raced after him to the doorway to see what was going on. My chair was right next to the doorway, so they all were running past me. There were only like two other people left in the room including me. It was chaos. Somehow, Hassan got everybody to come back into the room, but he did not. People resumed taking their tests, but they were using calculators… A guy, who I think was taking Hassan’s place while he wasn’t there, was monitoring the room and told them to put their calculators away, but they did not. It was kind of funny because one girl was using a calculator that made a beeping sound every time she pushed a button (Very secretive… ☺) When Hassan came back and found out, he took their tests away. After people finished with their tests, Hassan had me grade them. It took forever cause there were so many people in the class. I was surprised at how poorly they did. Most of them got 2 to 4 out of 10. Only one person got a 10 out of 10. Only about 3 people got above a 5. This surprised me because I looked at the test, and it was very simple math (Order of operations). And they are supposed to be in Algebra 1. When I was grading the tests, my hands were shaking so bad because the creepy guy next to me kept talking to me. I was actually pretty scared… I also felt pressure because everybody else was waiting for me to finish, or so it seemed. Today was a lot different than many days. I realized I definitely like working with the smaller classes, so I am looking forward to this class to be split up.

Posted by Michelle Stein at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Friday, I went to volunteer at MNIC my first time this semester. I had talked to Amy Libman about coming at the same time I did last semester because I had really enjoyed working with Hassan in his math class. Math is one of my favorite subjects, and I am not required to take it anymore, so I miss it a lot. I had fun being able to help others in a subject where I feel comfortable, and Hassan was a great person to work with. This combination made for a wonderful experience. By continuing in the same class this semester, I am hoping to have an equally great time. However, I got an email from Amy saying I may not be in the his math class, but rather his science class. Thankfully though, it was his math class. But it did end up being a different group of students. It was fun last year as I got to know the students. I began to feel more comfortable with them and had fun working with them. At the beginning of class, as people filed in, I felt slightly uncomfortable because I did not know anybody. It was also a different experience because I am the only white person there. (This was the same last semester too, but as I got to know the students, our differences began to fade). It was interesting to be the only white person in the midst of Somali and Ethiopian immigrants who were speaking in a language I could not understand. I have always enjoyed listening to them speak, wishing I could learn their language so I could somehow join in with them. Although this has not been as easy as I would like it to be, I have sort of learned to sense emotions in their voices, and it has been fun to observe them interact with each other.
As the class started, I began to get intimidated and worried that the students might be difficult to work with or that they wouldn’t want my help or that they might be harder to work with than the other classes that I helped last semester. This was NOT at all the case!! As soon as class started, the students began asking for my help with their assignment. Lucky for me, it was on a topic that was fairly easy and I was able to help them quite a bit. A few of them asked my name, and I obviously said “Michelle�. One of them said it was like the Hindu name “Misha� (I think that’s what she said). They apparently thought my name was pretty unique because they kept saying it over and over again. I had a great time working with them, but it was really tiring. The students are sometimes hard to understand because English is a second language for them. They have really distinct accents that sometimes make it hard to understand what they are saying. I think I have gotten pretty good at deciphering most of their words, but occasionally I get a little confused. It is also difficult to work with some of them because they are pretty low level math students. It is hard to explain some of the concepts to them when they can’t even understand the most basic ones. Last semester I was talking to a girl, and she gave this illustration: She told me to imagine going to France (I took 2 years of French in high school) and going to school there. She had me imagine what it would be like to learn about science or math in a different language, French. That is what it was like for her. She was trying to learn all these subjects in a language she barely knew. (Although the word barely doesn’t accurately explain how well she did know English. She was actually pretty fluent.) Anyways, that really helped me to put all of this into perspective, and it has helped me when I become impatient with the students. I had fun working with them, and I was glad that they really took advantage of my help. It made the time fly by, and before I knew it, the hour was over. As a few of them were leaving, they asked me where I was going to school, and what I was studying. (These are questions I seem to get asked a lot there. I think many of them are looking into colleges right now and trying to decide what to do with their lives.) They always seem intrigued when I tell them I go to the U of M. One of the asked how old I was and when I said 18, a few of them said that is younger than they are. (The students there are anywhere from 16 to 20 years old.) Sometimes this makes it even more intimidating knowing that I am trying to help people that are older than me. Also, it is hard to relate to them because I know quite a few of them have been through difficult situations in their immigration to America. But I have really enjoyed seeing life from a different perspective and look forward to learning more from the students this semester!

Posted by Michelle Stein at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)