Patricia

I have actually not seen Patricia in class for the past two weeks, and I sense that can not be good. She was one of the students that had a significant amount of change over the previous 6 or so weeks. The teacher has told me about a lot of personal problems that Patricia had gone through, and this actually was not her first time taking the class. But she was surprisingly well receptive to my offers for help during class.

Although she could be distracted when other kids are bothering her, she often paid attention to class. She does not mind asking for help if she needs some clarification, but she prefers to do it personally or when I actually ask her if she wanted some help rather than raising her hand during the lectures. On the other hand, she not always on top of her homework, and the teacher tells me that might has to do with her home situation, which I would not go in to details with. She is very friendly, and had asked me a couple of times why I was helping in class, and when I would be 'done with coming to class'. I often reply that I am going to be there if she is going to be in class.

One of the best moments came a few weeks ago during a class assignment. If you have been in a high school class, you know how fast the students get out of there once the bell rings. Well, a lot of them actually start getting ready several minutes ago. But she was very determined to finish that work. I was helping her with the remaining problems, and when the bell rang, she looked at me and said "Mr. Reda, we are not going anywhere before we finish these problems!". I, of course, was very delighted to hear that, and we ended up using about 15 minutes of her lunch time to do the rest of the work.

So, I am kind of worried that I have not seen her in class for a couple weeks now - i.e. the days I go there. The students I asked did not seem to know. Hopefully, it is a simple coincidence and she shows up soon. It would be sad to see have her take this class once again.

Azarias