Day nine: April 2, 2015

9:15-10:40

12 hours and 45 minutes

      Today, James was not in class. Throughout the semester, it's been pretty common for him to not be in class which is definitely causing him to get behind in class. I talked to Mrs. Clark about this and she said that he's not always absent the whole day, he just often misses first period and thats the period I always come and tutor. Today, Mrs. Clark gave me the option to either go home and still get hours or go across the hall and try and tutor there. Mrs. Clarks class was not very full and for the students that were there, they didn't need tutors and they were all just doing work independently. I decided to go across the hall to see if anyone needed me in Mrs. Rooks class and she told me that no one needed a tutor and that her attendance was low today as well but she said that I was more than welcome to observe her class.

     I observed her class but she was not up and teaching today. Everyone was working independently on their computers. She did tell the students that if they needed any help on their math that she would be coming around periodically to see what progress was being made. So I just sat in the corner of the room watching the students work. Mostly they were doing well and working diligently but every once in a while the students would begin talking about something other than their math and Mrs. Rooks would just get up and go ask them if they needed any help on their math and they would just say no and stop talking. She did end up having to move one student because she kept talking to her friend and when Mrs. Rooks moved her the whole class kind of laughed but they all calmed down shortly afterwards. Overall, the class itself went really smoothly and it was interesting to see how Mrs. Rooks kept her students under control. She was very good about keeping the classroom quiet since all the students were to be working independently. Instead of getting onto the students for talking, she would just walk over to their computers to let them know that she knew that they were getting off task and for the most part that made the students get back to work. I do wish that I would have been able to tutor today but it also was very insightful to be able to see how Mrs. Rooks ran her classroom when everyone was working independently.