Kayla's Math

Kayla has really been coming along with her math. She's doing what they call pre-algebra. But, they're sneaking a lot of algebra in there. She gets really nervous when we have what she considers big "tests" and last week we had a unit assessment. A unit consists of about 15 lessons. So, it's probably close a month's worth of work that she's being assessed on. With over 20 problems, it was almost inevitable she'd make an arithmetic error. She gets the concepts very well now. But, she'll think one number and write another. But, this time, she got a perfect score. She aced her unit assessment. She was thrilled.

I'm hoping this will help improve her self-confidence. In a lot of things, Kayla struggles because she's simply not assertive enough. It shows up in everything from her sewing, to her math, to simple things like a couple of weeks ago when she walked into a bathroom (by herself) that had a second door after you opened the first one. Instead of pushing through the second door, she thought it was a closet. She came back to where we were sitting and didn't say a word. Then, when I went to the bathroom, she followed me (unbeknownst to me) and stood outside. When I came out, she asked me where the women's bathroom was. When I showed her the door she had been in she said "That's just a closet.". I opened the door and showed her how she had to push the second door. That was a pretty good metaphor for the way Kayla approaches things. I keep telling her to push just a little harder. She's so very much like me at her age, I can completely relate to exactly how she feels. I'm really glad that I'm here to be her math teacher. We have a semester assessment this week. I expect her to do very well.