Olumayowa TP-5

Aadl and I had an emergency session in the Tea Time lounge a few afternoons ago, turns out that he had a big project that was assigned last week and he simply decided not to tell me until he really needed help. I wish I had the opportunity to observe one of his classes because I'd like to see what level he is in comparison with other students; my other TP Hamad was in the lounge and he spoke to us about the same assignment, but he seemed a lot more comfortable with it, though he speaks English on a higher level.

 The assignment is a powerpoint presentation based on "My 5 day Vacation", in which students have to hypothetically plan a 5 day vacation anywhere they want to go, presenting details as specific as the hotel they will be staying, the airlines they will fly with, activities they will participate in, and the cost of such a trip. This seems like a project that would be a lot of fun for a English learner but Aadl was seriously overwhelmed by it, so much that he didn't know where to start and had not even read the directions properly before asking me to help him.

First I had to tackle the issue that this presentation was due the next day (today) and he didn't have Microsoft Powerpoint installed on his computer, nor could he access any of the computers in the FSU libraries. We solved that by signing him up for Prezi and I showed him how to use the most basic elements of the website, I think that part was successful. Then I had to show him how to begin developing content based on his main points, which were: Accomodations, Activities, Food, Travel, Cost.

I severely underestimated how difficult it could be for an English learner to navigate through and understand the content on Google USA, Wikipedia, travel websites, e.t.c. We got an idea of how he'd handle all the categories but I didn't have time to do the research with him so that he could get in detail (i.e. I will be going fishing on a boat with Croker & Co Fishing Charters). It was when I had to leave that I began to realize how complicated it could be for him to dig through so many articles in order to find so little information. I'm at the same level in Arabic as he is in English and I can't even imagine having the same project and being restricted to doing the research on Arabic websites only. I wish I wish I could have spent all day helping him out but I had to go to class. I continued texting him through the evening to check on his progress but he said that he was doing fine, just that the pictures were hard to find . It turns out that Aadl was not telling me the truth, details on that coming soon.

Everytime I meet with Aadl, I ask him if he needs help with any homework and he normally says no. It was on this meet that I realized that he very well might be getting low scores and is blocking me out for some reason. Does anyone else have a partner who isn't really truthful? How do you go about it?