5th Grade Monday

Monday morning and the new material starts. I'll be in class again this week. I'm taking a math class and it happens to be filled with 5th graders. This is nothing like the math I had in the fifth grade. I don't think we hit this level of math until my senior year of school.

My attention is riveted on the teacher. Mrs. Stephens is a medium height, atheletic looking woman. She wears a pair of jeans, a t shirt and a pair of sneakers. Her thick brown hair is streaked lightly with strands of grey and falls to shoulder length. The hair is of the untamed variety. It's thickness and coarseness causes it to splay out around her head. The hairline is low leaving a small forehead. A pair of  bright floral reading glasses is used to hold her hair off her face. During the lesson she reaches up and pulls those glasses down to the bridge of her nose while her hair becomes unbound from those glasses and springs outward and down to her face. Soon she will move the glasses back to the top of her head creating a "headband" effect for her hair.
She bounds around the room, engaging  her students in the lesson she is delivering. Sometimes she speeds back to the white board on the wall and covers it with numbers. Her lessons move along quickly. She interjects stories and examples that co exist with what she teaches. Sometimes I can keep up with her and sometimes I just figure I'll figure it out when I get home.

Carrie sits a few rows away from me. I check occasionally to see if she is "getting it". Sometimes she gives me a thumbs up and at other times she waves her hand as if to say "somewhat". I know that when we get home we will compare our knowledge and together we will do her homework. She will listen as I go over the lesson of the day; she will do some problems and I will check her work.

I am bound and determined that she will become a good math scholar. It's a lot of work and frustrating at times.
This afternoon she came home and had something to eat and attempted her home work. After a few minutes she was complaining of a headache and being lightheaded so I excused her to her bedroom for a brief nap. I'll wake her in an hour or so and we will finish her homework.

My goal for Carrie is organization. Her skills in that department are lacking. I do notice improvement in the weeks I have been working with her. She now deposits her ID badge into a pocket of her book bag as soon as she gets home. Her clothes are laid out each night; she knows where everything is  which makes it easier to find when she gets to school.

I'll be at the school again tomorrow in the event the teacher has new material to present. A test on Thursday and a quiz on Friday is scheduled. We will be busy this week.
I'm off to do some homework. My own understanding of math is improving. I'm enjoying math albeit my nerves still get 'on edge' when faced with new problems I don't understand.