Enthusiasm is contagious!

I had another great experience on Friday with some of my students.

The three students who I was designated to work with were all away on Friday, so I told their teacher that I would go to another class to see if one of my other students was there to work with instead.

I must tell you at this point that I have designated students at each school that I am to work with, based on their previous test results.

As I was speaking to this teacher I could see that he wasn't well. He looked and sounded terrible, so I told him that I'd changed my mind and I was going to stay in his class and be an extra body for him. Even though none of my designated students were there, he sure looked like he could do with some extra help. The look of relief on his face was something to remember.

This was a Year 10 class, so these students are not overly keen on a stranger coming in and suddenly offering to work with them. The teacher indicated to me with a glance towards two boys in particular that they could benefit with some extra support, so I casually joined them at their table. At first I got the usual grunts and "No thanks, we know what to do", which I expected, and which I understand. I've learnt quickly in this role that Year 10's don't like to be seen to be receiving help. At one school, a group that has been assigned to me openly say that they "Hate being seen as the dumb kids". Any assistance they get reinforces to them, in their minds, that they are 'dumb'. It just breaks my heart.

Anyway, they grudgingly worked through the first example with me, so I changed my approach. I asked them if they played sport, which one of them did. The other didn't play sport, but he said that he was into music and guitars. One of our boys is really into guitars, and I'm a sports nut. Great. I've got a hook already for each of them!!

We stopped the maths work and entered into a three way discussion about sport (football), guitars and music. This really relaxed them, and they started to make more eye contact, and initiate further discussion, rather than just answer my questions.

Through all this I was constantly affirming their responses and acknowledging their enthusiasm for their own areas of interest.

Now that we were confident in talking to each other on a different level, we got back to doing the maths tasks, which they did without a fuss and kept talking to me about their work while they were doing it.

Now the best part...

These two boys were unsure how to do the task at hand from the start, and were quite reluctant to do it to begin with. After our relaxed chat together this changed dramatically, and they were soon working at a rapid pace, as they now knew what to do, but just needed some nearby support to guide them where needed.

It moved from them asking me questions, to them having a go on their own and explaining to me what they were doing. We virtually swapped the teaching roles!

I was then distracted when assisting another student, but I could now hear one of the boys telling another student how to complete the task, and coaching them through it step by step.

How good is that! The student becomes the teacher!!

More importantly, he was doing it in such a way that it supported the student he was explaining it to, while at the same time embedding the learning for himself.

When the bell went to end the lesson, they didn't pack up straight away, but worked through a few more examples on their own and came and showed me that they understood the task now.

I packed up and was starting to leave for another lesson when I saw one of the boys come running back towards me.

He just looked me in the eye, and said "Thank You".

Does it get any better than this !!!!!