Katherine Tutoring 2

Katherine was 15 minutes late and seemed to really be in a rush to leave as soon as she arrived. She was like this in our first meeting, she kept her jacket and purse on, like she was ready to run at any second. She is a busy woman with a full-time job, two children to look after, and now a part-time student pursuing her Master's degree. This is the hardest obstacle for us both. I want to help her with her English, but she has to be ready to take a few steps back to take the time to learn. I am not yet convinced that she is willing to do that. She's now faced with having to write lengthy papers for her Master's degree in Information Technologies and I guess is realizing she needs to really improve her English. But after living in the US for over twenty years, and already comfortable in her own skin, does she really want to improve her English?

I am concerned Katherine is looking for an easy fix to her homework. She has again asked me if she can email me her paper for her class and have me edit it then email her back. I told her she can email me the paper, I'll make the corrections and bring it to our next meeting so we can go over it together. But she wants me to email her because she can't meet before next Wed and needs revisions before then. I told her I didn't want to email her, but would like to explain it in person. Her reply was, "Ok, but dis time u exception. Next time we meet, OK?"

In our brief meeting, she showed me a first draft of an outline she had to write for her class. The writing was at a level 2. In our time together, I had the chance to help her with 2 of the sentences in her outline. Then she had to go.

I hope in our next meeting she's able to spend more time with me. Katherine needs a lot of help in both writing and conversation. I hope she is willing to take the time to learn.