LESSON REVIEW # 1ArchiveA

                                             A New Student

            Welcome, Brittani, to the "House of Pain". Oops, We mean "Brain".  Ready! Begin!

                              Cleophas Mike McAlpin......Tutor 

                              Marci Rodriquez.............Tutor  

Lesson Review:    Jan 26, 2000

Brittani stood and joined hands like all the rest of the students. The circle of students looked at each other and looked at the new student, Brittani. Brittani stood proudly in the circle and seemingly had no nervousness about being in the midst of 12 "Free Tutoring" students.

The 12-year old Michael asked to lead the group of teenagers in prayer. He asked God for assistance in learning. He offered a short, but to-the-point prayer. All of the students released hands. Self introductions followed. The circle began talking. Mario, James, Jeremiah, Jamise, Joshua, Brittani, Cleasena, Kimberly, Michael, Jasmine, Andrea (parent), Gayle (Assistant Tutor), Marci (Assistant Tutor), Mike (Chief Tutor), Stacey, Tracey, Shamus, introduced themselves. Some ages and schools were mentioned. The circle took its seat.

Brittani began doing her homework. Kimberly went to the Internet to do hers. Cleasena sat and waited for Kimberly to finish. Michael began his homework. Marci gave a class on the Spanish language and all of the students who had no homework or who had completed it joined the Spanish class. Marci's lecture lasted for approximately one hour. The "A" student, Kimberly listened as her "A" student-brother, Michael, offered a comment about the Spanish language. He sat and completed his homework. Jeremiah listened to the lecture while I searched the Internet for some information on the "Venice Fly Trap". Jeremiah thought it would make a good report for his teacher. She wanted a description of a plant and Jeremiah thought that "insect-eating" plant would make a nice report.

(To backtrack a bit.) I picked up Mario, Jamise and Joshua at 3:30 PM and brought them to my home at Dominguez Hills. We turned off the "rap music" and began our tutoring. Rap music or any other kind of music is forbidden when tutoring begins and it begins as soon as one student enters the van.

The lecture was on the Federal Government. It was a continuation of our lesson on the previous tutoring day. Mario was caught up on the 3 branches of the Federal Government, the duties, the Senators, Representatives, number of members in Congress, Political Party system, Democrats, Republicans, Ross Perot, term limits, names of Justices, Cabinet members, democratic elections, veto power, number of Supreme Court Justices and terms, Chief Justice Rhenquist, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas, Brown Vs. the Board of Education, Tipper Gore, President Clinton, Al Gore, how Representatives are elected and how many from each State, overriding the President's veto, impeaching the President, trial of a President, California's Senators, and other subjects as they came to mind.

Mario sat and listened as did Jamise and Joshua. Mario was nervous about "not paying attention", because I had given him a scorching lecture about just that before I picked up Jamise and Joshua. I doubted that he would remember all of my 30-minute whirlwind lecture. I only wanted him to know what a 16-year old student should know about his Federal Government. 

Back to Dominguez Hills. I had Jeremiah to download Lesson Review # 6 from our Website and print out the examination found there. Brittani received one, Mario received another and Shamus received a third. They all began working on the examination. I knew some of the problems would be difficult for each of them but I wanted them to realize what lay ahead. I gave a lecture on basic fractions. Brittani took notes. Shamus took notes, too, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere. I gave Shamus the task of teaching the class on basic fractions. He failed his teaching assignment. I told all of the students that they would not eat dinner until Shamus knew how to do basic fractions. Time passed. Shamus learned how to do basic fractions. All of the students let out a sigh of relief. Margaret was on her way over to bring tacos, salad and soda and everyone, including myself, was hungry. Poor Shamus had to learn fractions or he would have been destroyed with those little "eye darts" from disapproving students.

Brittani watched as I downloaded her picture from our Polaroid digital camera. She watched as I entered our website and loaded it into a "Student Profile" page. I allowed her mother, Andrea, the opportunity to type a few words about her daughter and saved the file. It appears under "Student Profiles".

I considered it another day well spent. I considered it a good "learning day" for all. I considered it a day that God has blessed me to see. All of the 12-15 students happily engaged in the learning process (Francois, 11 and his brother, 14; Gion, joined in later). I considered the tutors, parents, and friends that were in attendance (Tandy, Margaret and friend, Marci, Mike, Gayle, Marie, Andrea). I considered the delicious meal of salad, tacos, beans and soda that Margaret and her friend were busily making and serving all of the happy youngsters, I considered the music that I allowed the students to finally listen to. I considered all of the fun and laughter and dancing they did. I considered the scorching lecture that I gave to Shamus as I took him home. He had to prove his expertise on the multiplication tables on the next tutoring day or face suspension. I considered it...just another day... That the Lord has Kept me.