Alexandra TS #10

On Friday, June 2, 2017, from 5:00pm to 5:45pm, I met with my child tutee at his house.  Today we played lots of TPR style games.  I wanted to get all the kids involved and let them have fun as they practiced their listening skills.  First, we did Simon Says.  I focused on using different numbers and simple verbs, so they could easily identify the actions.  We tried to do charades, but it was not as successful as Simon Says.  Either way, the kids had fun taking turns and guessing the actions called out.  I think this was a successful way for them to practice listening in English.  We practiced basic addition problems and numbers.  This seemed useful because they did not know basic math very well.  Then, we practiced identifying colors around the room.  Colors are another difficult area for our tutees.  The kids seemed to do better identifying colors with each repetition, so this seemed like a good activity for us.  Overall, this fun session was useful in identifying areas to practice more next week.     

Alexandra TS #9

On Wednesday, May 31, 2017, from 5:00pm to 5:45pm, I met with my child tutee at his house.  Today we continued with the matching letters and objects card game.  I wanted to make sure Pais knew the correct letters, so this time we went slower.  We went over every pair, and then we played three or four rounds of the card game.  Pais got faster each time, and he really seemed to have fun winning the games.  Even if he struggled with a letter or object at first, by the time we finished playing the game, he seemed to know exactly which cards went together.  Like last time, I was glad to see that teaching through a game worked better than the previous activities we have tried.  Pais also seemed a lot more comfortable with a game than with me just asking him questions.  This felt like a good, productive session.  I plan to use other games next time to work on more English.   

Alexandra CP #5

On Wednesday, May 31, 2017, from 3:30pm to 4:30 pm, I met with my conversation partner.  We decided to visit the state Capitol of Florida.  This was very fun for both of us since neither of us had visited the building before.  We walked all around the building and went up to the 22^nd floor.  From there, we could see all of Tallahassee.  Our time walking around allowed us to discuss the city, its layout, and the governments of the U.S. and Brazil.  We were also able to go in Florida’s Supreme Court.  It was fun to show Gabriela such important and influential sites in our country.  One topic Gabriela brought up was American patriotism.  Unlike in Brazil, a great number of Americans are proud of their country and display flags throughout their cities.  On this note, Gabriela also asked how Americans celebrate the Fourth of July and a bit of the history of our country.  I felt like our conversation and tour were useful to her as a visitor in the U.S. and to me as an American sharing part of my culture with a new friend.   

Alexandra TS #8

On Wednesday, May 31, 2017, from 11:55am to 12:55pm, I met with my adult tutee Natalia at the CIES.  Today we talked about people.  It was a very intellectual and deep conversation.  Natalia’s first observation was that people from all over the globe, no matter what their language, think and feel similar things; our only differences are cultural.  As a result we talked about people in different cities and how people react when they are sad or hurting.  In the U.S. people seem to hide their problems, but people in other countries show and even talk about their problems in public.  We talked about the Russian language.  Natalia said unlike English, Russian is phonetic.  The letters used are the letters said.  Russian seems similar to Italian in this regard.  Natalia also told me about the movie The Pianist.  This allowed us to talk about music and a bit of European history.  I loved our conversation because it felt like a real conversation, not just a tutoring session.    

Alexandra TS #7

On Tuesday, May 30, 2017, from 11:55am to 12:55pm, I met with my adult tutee Natalia at the CIES.  Today we talked about a variety of subjects.  Natalia is always so appreciative of our time spent practicing her English.  I really am enjoying getting to know her and work with her.  I first asked Natalia how her classes were going.  She said she feels that she is learning a lot.  In our time today we discussed more differences between the United States and Ukraine.  We talked about sports, Tallahassee, and food.  She said she grew up doing ballet and other types of dance.  We talked about the people of Tallahassee and its trees and layout.  Then we talked about foods we enjoy and the foods we usually cook.  We discussed restaurants too.  Our conversation was good because we talked about common topics yet topics that require specific vocabulary.  Being able to communicate our ideas makes me feel like our sessions are useful.