My year at Beverly J. Martin Elementary has been amazing. I met a lot of the students throughout the year and even became one of the “cooler” (as described from one of the students) adults in the room to ask questions to. I spent most of my sessions in the homework and library area because I enjoy academic tutoring and I want the students to get the most out of their first hour at A+. While some students are hesitant to ask for help, I wanted to make sure that they know how easy it is to ask, even from an adult. I found this to be helpful for myself, so if I can pass this skill onto others, I feel as though I have made an impact over the time I’ve been at the program.

In addition, I cannot quite understand why the students would not want help right away in hopes of finishing their homework before they go home. Should they finish it at A+, then they would have no work to come home with them. This is also something I tried to tell them throughout my year at BJM.

As the end of the school year starts to near, the students have less and less homework each time I arrive during A+. Some of my regular students are there and ask for help in order to finish their homework before they leave or to gain access to a laptop for gaming. Today, we played Apples to Apples junior, which to them was the most hilarious game. I would never have thought that “Cheese Sandwich” could win any round, regardless if they were playing for the most relative or funniest card in the round. Nevertheless, the short hour of giggles and laughter at Beverly J. Martin passed quite quickly.

Finally, Ithaca has shown that the sun and warm weather do exist. I was happy to arrive today and find that the homework session was converting to an outdoor hour. Although there was some light rain in the first few minutes, the students convinced the teachers to allow them to stay outside and had the rest of the hour to play on the playground. Some of the usual homework students came and asked me to play with them, ranging from talking on the swings to tetherball, which I have not played since first grade. One of the main things I took away this week was the large difference in age between myself and the students. Besides being called “old” once they figured out that I was older than 13, these students are more aware of social media and pop culture than I am at the “old” age of 20.

It is interesting to watch younger generations respond to various forms of inappropriate subjects. While playing the card game BS, both students playing made sure to alert me that the real meaning of “BS” was “bologna sandwich”. It is interesting that some forms of violence and inappropriate language are used in video games and the internet but forgotten elsewhere. For instance, most of the kids in the homework session talk about Fortnite and other games that involved taking down other players, but I have yet to hear any use of foul language. This is a good thing, but I cannot quite figure out why this is happening, especially if the internet makes it extremely easy to access anything. Hopefully, this will continue for as long as possible.

When I walked in today, one of the students remembered my name. Because the students have so many options each day for the A+ program, it’s difficult to find students that are consistently in the homework room for the first option. Especially since it had been a while since seeing this student, it was still a heart-warming moment to know that I had been significant enough to be remembered by name and not just another one of the many helpers that help facilitate the program. Now, I have a student that likes to know what I do all day as a college student and how this compares to his own student life as a 4th grader.

I’ve noticed an improvement in the work ethic of the students in the past couple of weeks. Particularly, I’ve noticed this improvement in one of the students that I have come to know quite well. The last time I had helped him with his work, he and his friend were very distracted, which made it difficult to complete all of their work in the allotted time. While this could have been due to excitement about their spring break, most of the students doing their homework during today’s session have truly started to try and complete their work before leaving.

One improvement that I feel I have made is in the clarity of my explanations. Last time, both students were unclear in the directions I was giving in a certain mathematics problem. It helped me realize that explaining things in different ways works for different students. Today,  he was able to complete all of his homework, and I was able to clarify his questions in a way that worked best for him.

I’ve never been so interested in fourth-grade romance. Today’s homework session consisted of a detailed rundown of every “couple” throughout their elementary school careers. Shockingly, this fourth-grade class has quite a romantic history. What I found even more interesting was the topic of the Valentine’s dance. I would have thought that the boys at this age would not go, but they had all decided to match each other, wearing leather jackets and sunglasses. The girls were not as enthusiastic as this group of boys, but they all seemed to look forward to the upcoming dance. While this dance was for the entire school, I assume the fourth grade will have the highest percentage of attendance.