LESSON REVIEW # 8ArchiveA... Let's Communicate!

Welcome, Lauren (11) Daughter to Medical Doctor Cheryl Browne of Carson.  Feb. 16, 2000..Welcome to Electrical Theory

      "Hmm. Lots of radio activity today. Wonder if those students are calling each other like the Chief Tutor told them to do."                                           

Let's get on the horn and call each other....an old custom with a new concept! It's OK to carry on "teen-talk"; just find about homework first, so that you can report the findings to Mr. Mike McAlpin.

"It was raining cats and dogs", I heard someone say. I couldn't agree more. Wednesday, February 16, 2000, 1:30 PM was a very rainy time. Still, I had to venture to Sawtelle and Sepulveda to pick up Jarrell from Webster Middle School, Bryon from Western and El Segundo, Jamise from Central and 133rd, Brittani from Drew High School on Imperial and Compton, Joshua from Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles on Carson Street (near Carnegie Middle School), Mario and Shavonn from Bellflower, California and then bring them all to my home in Dominguez Hills, California. It rained during the whole trip!

I gave the students a few minutes to stare out at the rain clouds and then it was off to our lessons on communication, graphing straight lines, mathematics, electrical theory (Ohm's Law), circuit construction and testing.

Wasting time is not an option. As soon as the first student had entered the Ford van, I began my tutoring. Jarrell was reviewed on Ohm's Law. Jarrett was asked to report on his homework and so was Byron. Brittani, Mario, Shavonn and Jamise got a lecture on the color code of resistors and on the conversion of millimeters to meters, milli-amperes to amperes, amperes to micro-amps and finally inches to centimeters. Paper and pencil were disallowed as we traveled the streets of  rainy cities. Brittani did a good job with the color code. Jamise surprised me with her understanding of  the code, something that she had fought against learning "tooth and nail". All of the students did well at "units" conversions.

James (12) was sent to the computer station #1 to go into the internet (www.cmcalsfreetutoring.com) and to print out the documents found on "Student Applications" and others on "New Concepts in Learning". The paperwork was distributed to each student. The New Concept assigned "student leaders" the task of calling several students at least 2 times each week. The leaders would then report to the Chief Tutor about the homework assignments of each student, the problems they are having, and problems in general. Each student leader would also be responsible for calling one or more Professionals during their one month's tenure as student leader. The names and telephone numbers would be supplied by the Chief Tutor. The student leaders would be exchanged each month. The leaders would receive a gift if they did a good job. The other form, Student Application, was an emergency information update on each student, a request for the schools to allow the Chief Tutor conferences with Teachers, and general information about the student. The Tutoring class spent approximately 15 minutes in deciding who was going to call whom. It didn't matter to me. I made sure that each and every student had a student leader, and that included our new student, Lauren.                                    

  Lauren and her mother, Cheryl, are very happy people. It is evident by the wide smiles and the lovable personalities. It is a pleasure to welcome both to "A Free Tutoring Service: Preparing for the Future." All of the students stood and introduced themselves to Lauren. She immediately started doing her homework and seemed at home with each of the students. I am assuming that Lauren is already an "A" student.

My new mode of operation is to give a lecture before homework and that is what I did. The lecture was on Ohm's Law and I used a Radio Shack Project kit to demonstrate the result of switching resistors in a circuit. I had the students to solve for current (I), voltage (E), and resistance (R) in a DC circuit when two of the three are known. They got an introduction to solving the equation, E = IR, and the manipulation of it to solve for current and resistance. Next, I allowed those with homework to complete it, while I took 5 of the students and had them to construct a DC circuit from the Radio Shack Project book. I noticed that Francois has an aptitude for understanding and constructing electronics circuits. He studiously went about constructing the circuit with very little help from me. 

Our Tutoring lasted until 8:00PM. The rain ended.

 My wife, Gayle had fixed pizza and salad. The pizza and salad had been consumed by all. The house was returned to some semblance of what it had looked like before. The parents came to pick up their children. I fell asleep for two hours and then it was to this computer to input this report into our Website. The time is now... 2:15AM......February 17, 2000.      Cleophas Mike McAlpin...Chief Tutor.