Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Anthony Mahfood

March 29, 2011

Understanding Literature

Dr Juniper Ellis

Reality

This Monday I went back to Higher Achievement. I spent the first hour helping the children with their homework. This week not many children came but the ones that did were quiet and knew what they needed help with. I felt proud of them because they seemed to be on top of their work. That hour went by pretty fast and I thankfully I was able to help everyone who needed help. The next two hours I spent mentoring students Devon and Kyle because for some reason Evan and TJ were absent. I planned a math session for my students and going through I found that it was too easy for them so I had to think quickly and made up problems on the spot for them. They were having fun learning new things. Towards the end I made three easy problem five medium problems and two hard problem and made them race to see who won. The winner got two lollipops and the second place got one. I bought these lollipops for them because I though some form of encouragement would be good. They really appreciated them and thanked me several times. I am glad that I have the opportunity to get to know the students and help them do well in school.

The story “Serving up Hope” by Stephanie Shapiro from the Baltimore Sun is about overcoming bad habits that you have had for a long time. In the story the couple try to help people from taking drugs. They essentially provide jobs for people, a place for people to eat and hang out to get away from the drugs. I believe that Higher Achievement after school program that I mentor at is similar because it provides a place for the children to go and be supervised instead of going out on the streets and causing problems.

In the story “A Father” by Bharati Mukherjee, the native Indian father regrets moving to America because it goes against what he sees as an ideal life. He believes that he has raised a good daughter but she is too Americanized. When he notices how much his wife and daughter are fighting he suspects something is wrong and he is right. He soon learns that his daughter is pregnant and she received donor sperm to get pregnant, his reaction is shocking as he beat the daughter so the baby would die. This story is very sad and scary to think that this kind of thing happens everyday around the world.

In the poem “Directions for Resisting the SAT” written by Richard Hague is very inspirational even though I have taken the SAT and never need to take them again I could relate to the hours I spent studying and all the Saturday mornings I wasted studying for the SAT. The last line “make your marks on everything” sums up what I have learnt so far in college and is something the SAT doesn’t teach you. The last reading is a poem written by Gary Gildner named “First Practice” is about a mentor pushing an athlete to become the best they can be. I related it to me pushing students to be the best they can be but I use encou556ragement as my form of push.

I found the reading very interesting especially “ A Father” because it really open my eyes and reminded me the things that are going on in this world.

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