Dream Academy

About a mile down the road from my apartment there is a tutoring center called Dream Academy. The business is operated by a Korean pastor and his wife, and there tutors are paid $10 an hour to teach students Math and English. To a poor missionary ambitious on traveling a bit, this job held a lot of appeal, especially considering that the minimum wage on Saipan is barely over $5.00 per hour. It was quite fortuitous that the Principal I work under is friends with the owners and was able to schedule me an interview.

The interview:
Mrs. Lee: "You are Faith?"
Myself: "Yes, yes and I am student missionary from the states."
Mrs. Lee: "What can you teach, and when can you start?"

That was it. I had the job, and two students. I would be teaching 4th and 6th grade math two nights a week. Mrs. Lee tried to convince me to teach high school math, but considering that I barely made it through PreCalc in college I had to politely refuse. Several times. It seems they run short on "qualified teachers."

This was exciting - I actually get to do a little teaching during my mission year! I began planning curriculum. What do 4th graders work on in math? Oh. Fractions. Not my favorite, but I will survive. How about the 6th grade? Oh. Equations. Little bit better, but I am quite rusty.

We hemmed and hawed around for several weeks with exponents, negative numbers and other basic stuff. Then one evening during tutoring my students specifically requested to learn fractions and equations. "This is it," I thought to myself. "They are going to call me a fraud and demand a new tutor. I am no math teacher! What am I doing?" I promised that the next tutoring session we had, we would learn all about both. (I said "we" literally meaning all three of us.)

Monday evening came and I was ready. I had my worksheets printed out and was strategizing how I could help them solve some of these problems with a calculator without them knowing. It wasn't until I was half way through introducing the material that something clicked. I wasn't looking at my notes anymore. Every other question they needed help on, so I worked the problem out on the white board with them, prompting them through each step. I began to recall rules and tips that I had not thought about for what seemed an age.

An hour and a half never flew by so fast. I was really excited to tell Carolyn, my housemate, all about my exciting new discovery on our drive home. I really like teaching math!