During the past school year, Lauri Chaudoin and Alyson Robinson had the opportunity to participate in the PENCIL Foundation's Math Partners Program by tutoring four 6th grade students at Buena Vista Middle School in Nashville. The students were typical twelve year olds: fidgety, talkative, and much more interested in music than math. But the "hands on" and interactive math lessons (provided by PENCIL) were captivating and, at times, even interesting to the children.
Alyson said "It was fun to see it in their eyes when the light bulb would come on. And the best thing about the year was watching their math grades come up to As and Bs."
As a reward for the students' math accomplishments, Lauri and Alyson treated them to lunch, video games and t-shirts at Jillian's. Lauri and Alyson agreed that it was time well spent as child after child commented that math was their favorite subject now that they had learned fun ways to solve math problems.
Alyson pointed out that, even for people who do not like math, Math Partners makes tutoring fun. She said "I would encourage everyone to try it next school year and see for yourself what it is like to watch the 'light bulb come on.'"
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Lauri Chaudoin and Alyson Robinson with their Math Partners, Brooke Brooks, Kwan Childress, Marlon Cummings, Cager Waggoner |
