Prompt 5- Me and the Parents

The students that I am tutoring, one in particular, seem to have a big problem with understanding math. The one student I am going to refer to is named Carlos. He is a good student, and one who does his work, but in this case has trouble doing certain math problems, and what he is learning about right now is fractions. I remember when I was learning fractions it was a tough time, but I eventually learned it. Carlos seems to not fully understand math at all. He has a difficulty knowing what to do and it is hard. I do not know how to teach him this. He always asks me how to do an easy problem. I ask him all the time if he understands the curriculum and he says yes, but in the end he does not get it. It is tough, because there are students in the classroom that have a much worse case than Carlos does. Some do not even get math at all. Math has always come easy to me, but in Carlos’ case he needs more time to understand the curriculum in general. He needs extra time in this subject, but he cannot get any because of the way the curriculum is set for the classroom. With looking at that I look at the problem of the children’s learning capabilities. Not all children are same in learning styles; all students learn in different ways and understand it differently than others do. When collaborating with parents about their children I would have to compensate for their own learning styles, and what they need to learn. There might be a chance that I may have to suggest to parents that their children receive outside help, ask for their children to stay after school to get some extra help on the subject. They might have to be put into an IEP program where they can get the extra attention to learning that they need. When asking myself this, of how to talk to these parents about their children’s problems, I also look at the different ethnicities within the classroom. Most of the classroom is either African American or Spanish, with exception of at least two or three white children. I have to look at these students all as equals and give them the same amount of time I give all my students to help them learn. Allan Johnson, who wrote “Who’s Me? What it means to Be involved in Privilege and Oppression”, writes about how certain students get more privilege over others. This is because a teacher favor them, and reminds them of the teacher, it might be more prone for the teacher to give them more of an advantage, and that is something I cannot do. I have to treat all my students the same, and when talking to their parents have to tell them why their student is doing great or poorly. They have to understand that I am doing my best to teach them and there is not favoritism with in the classroom.