Tutoring 2

As I already posted some time ago I am tutoring my younger brother, who is in year 8.

This time I am going to talk about the things we did for the past week. After we covered Statistics we moved onto the next topic. Although I didn’t want to follow the book, I also asked him to tell me in which areas is he facing any issues, so that is why this time we did linear equations.

I plan our lessons the night before so I always have some tasks for him to do while I am checking his homework from last time. For this lesson I made him sketch graphs of different equations for example: y = -2x + 3 or y = 3x+4 and furthermore I explained to him that the graph of a quadratic equation  ax2+ b is a U- shaped curve. And that a changes the gradient of the curve and b moves the curve up or down. He already knew all those things but I decided to teach him one more time so that we could be sure he knows it.

During our last lesson I thought him how to match graphs to real- life situations. And I told him to look at what happens as the x-values increase by equal amounts.

During our lessons I love the fact that my brother is acting as we are not family but a student and a teacher, therefore he listens very carefully and respects me.

During this activity I have worked collaboratively with others and I have developed new skills, as I have improved my own sketching.

Pilates hurts

My mom suggested that we should go try the new pilates course in the gym which is close to our place. So we went on Saturday and I have to honestly say that I didn’t expect it to be that hard. I have a muscular fever right now, because of the many hard exercises we had to do.

Most of them are taken as ideas form gymnastics obviously, but there are some which are straining your abs. And I thought that if since I was swimming and going to the gym I wouldn’t have had any problems with pilates, but it turns out I was in a big mistake.

The hardest thing to do was the ab series, maybe partly because of the fact that my abs are not developed, but my hand and legs, I had issues with this certain type of series. But in the end I still managed to do everything correctly and repeat after the instructor.

During pilates I have undertook a new challenge and I have increased awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth.

Swimming

With the weather getting colder the risks for me to get sick after swimming are rising, but that doesn’t really stop me from doing it. The last few times I went to swim I felt pain in my hamstring. I thought it was due to a crick or something like that, but then I started having a lot of cramps and I went to see the doctor. They told me it wasn’t something serious but I sad to swim, if swim at all, slowly and to not try to reach some record but to swim just for pleasure.

That is why lately I have lost  shape and I cannot swim faster, but I am still doing it, therefore I am undertaking a challenge and I am also developing new skills, because I am working on the different styles of swimming, and as you know- not the speed is important, but the quality.

Jogging

 I have mentioned in previous posts that I have been jogging since last year but not that regularly. This year I decided to be more serious about it, so I am going jogging every Sunday morning and it usually takes place in my neighborhood as it is a closed areas so it’s the same as a park but with houses and a better route. So since September every single Sunday I have been running around the houses and jumping on the stairs ( I know it sounds funny but it is really useful, believe me!) in front of the main gates. At first I was very slow and I was thirsty all the time. I also couldn’t last more than 10 minutes, but now, after nearly 4 months I run for 30-40 minutes, with my music of course, and I control my breathing. Therefore I can say that I undertook a new challenge, I increased awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and I have developed new skills.