Faye and Juan
Wed Feb 1, 2012 11:43:05 pm

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How do you motivate the unmotivated?

I'm not sure. Faye is so frustrating - she refuses to put any effort in. I've asked her "when is your next test?" and she'll say she doesn't know, I asked her if she was given a syllabus, she responds that she was not, I'll ask her if she has homework, she'll respond she doesn't know, I'll ask her what chapters her teacher is covering, she'll respond she doesn't know.

So. Frustrating.

So when I started picking a chapter for her to do problems, she 'fessed up. But even still - it's "Oh, my teacher did that problem for us so we don't have to do it" so I'll say "did you understand it?" and she'll say "I'll be honest, I wasn't paying attention" and then I'll say "Let's go through it" and she basically gets an attitude and refuses.

I'm not her parent and I'm not her teacher. I do not have any power over her.

I feel bad - I am getting paid to work with this spoiled brat and keep a positive, non-condescending attitude with her (fuck, it's hard when she doesn't know simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and algebra). Things that I do in my head automatically, she has to have her trusted iPhone calculator to figure for her, instead of using her own brain. I'm sorry, but elementary school kids know 12/6 = 2. It's really painful to watch her punch it in. And then half the time she punches it in wrong. Her issue is not geometry, it's basic math. And then I'm only allowed an hour a session, which is eaten up by her lack of basic math skills. Her algebra is atrocious. 12x = 24 and she will subtract 12 from each side instead of dividing it out. What? And then after I correct her, she'll try to divide out 24 or some stupid shit. And then the next problem, she makes the exact same error. And the problem after that! How the fuck did she get a B in algebra?!?!?! I try to let her do the thinking on her own so I don't correct until after she's finished. The numbers she gets sometimes are crazy.

I helped Juan take his lecture exam and his lab exam. On his lecture exam, we got a 96%, two wrong. I wanted to see which two but we can't. Damn ego. The lab test....we did horrible. He didn't do the labs and I didn't do the labs, we were trying to rely on background information. It was too much for me and we're only allowed a minute per question - even medical school allows 80 seconds per question. Anyway, we got a 68%. I felt terrible about that. The first lab test we got an 80% without studying and on short notice...so I guess he was expecting a much higher grade like the first time. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if the labs had had anything to do with the lecture. So now he's paying me basically to read the lab manual to him and do the lab simulations with him. I don't fucking care, if he wants me to read to him for two hours, it's the easiest fucking money I've ever made. I do literally read to him. And then I explain to him in simpler English what it was I just read to him - I've always been amazing at reading comprehension. The lab we did yesterday was on blood typing and cholesterol - stuff I rock at. I probably could take this lab test without doing the labs and done amazing, but now it's pretty much a guaranteed 100%. But, he did the review quiz (it doesn't count toward his grade) almost completely on his own and got a 100%. I wouldn't let him select the wrong answer but there were very few that he stumbled on and I think it largely had to do with him not understanding the wording due to English being his second language. I said to him "see, you don't need me if you actually do the labs!" and he said that it was because of me he actually understood what was going on. He also said I should be a teacher. I freakin' love tutoring him because it's such a good review for me - of course, sometimes I go off on tangents about stuff way more advanced than he needs to know but I enjoy listening to myself talk, hehe. Imagine that - I actually learned my stuff in med school!