It Is My Destiny!!!

It Is My Destiny!!   To teach “little biddies”  how to ADD FRACTIONS!!!

Today is Monday.  This coming Wednesday … at 9:30 AM … I meet with 4 fifth graders to “teach” them how to add fractions!!!   Seriously.   I remember … sometime in the past … I think in one of my essays … I indicated that I wanted to volunteer some help in an elementary classroom … BUT, I did not want to teach “How to add fractions.”   And, here I am:  Thrilled with the task of working on fractions with four 5th graders … from 9:30 to 10:00  on Wednesday and 4 different fifth graders … again, fractions … from 10:00 to 10:30 AM, also on Wednesday!!!

Just picture all my “fate” lines coming together at one point … the point being my working with students teaching them how to add fractions … obviously, there was no other possible endpoint!!!

Go back to about September or October of 2018 … just this past year.   Pete and I were comfortably situated in this assisted living complex.   With the help that was being given to Pete, I thought that I could do some volunteer work … just one afternoon a week.   It took some time, but I finally obtained a list of some “close-by”  elementary schools.   I set up a schedule to visit a couple elementary schools … wrote the Denver School System … just in case … and arranged for a visit to one school … Craig went with me … OK … but the office person in charge looked at me and said, “I suppose you could help in the library.”   I think I indicated I wanted to help with their math … she wrote something down, and Craig and I left.   That had to be middle of October because by the end of October, I had fallen and broken my knee-cap.   It was two days after Christmas when I was finally allowed to take my brace off!!   There was certainly not going to be any tutoring that Fall semester!!!

I was ten weeks with my knee brace … and after that, I was very weak.   The Physical Therapy helped a lot, but I was so off-balance.  Amy, our PR person, had started a program with 5th graders at Rose Stein Elementary School.   I think I mentioned to Amy about helping with some little ones … maybe helping little ones with “adding fractions” … I know there are students at any age level who can use help with fractions!!!   I had been thinking about students in grade 3 … Amy asked about using some of her fifth graders … any students and teachers if I can help.   Amy arranged a meeting between me and two of the 5th grade teachers for this past Friday afternoon.   The teachers came with their sheets of problems … adding fractions in the context of area and perimeter.   I beamed … that was perfect … they had specific problems to work — problems without answers for the students … and a key for me!!!   It looks like the fractions within any one problem have “related” denominators … and that the answers involve changing from “improper” fractions to “mixed” numbers.   (How’s that for pulling up vocabulary!!!)

So … this coming Wednesday, I begin my tutoring.  My “fate” lines converged!!!  I know it was Amy who put it together … and I am so appreciative.   I obviously have the time … I will greet the students with my cane in hand … I am so afraid of falling again!!!  The teachers did not seem to mind that here was this “old” woman with a cane who was going to work with their students.

I am so fortunate …  of course, I miss Pete … and teaching adding fractions is a poor substitute … but it gives me a connection to my past … and to my future.   It is “my destiny!!!”

Love y’all.