During the remaining visits we only visited the special needs class once.  The students were working on a future career paper.  My partner and I mainly only assisted in reading off the questions to the students and explaining to them how to right down their answers.  Not a whole lot happened during this visit.  The biology classes also did not have a whole lot of interaction between us and the ELL students.  One class we watched a movie and at the end of class helped the students answer a few questions about the movie.  The next was mainly a discussion class between the teacher and students, with my partner and I’s help just being kind of here and there.  During study skills, we began to get more interaction with the students.  I got to help the students with math a lot.  The level of math that many were on was surprisingly low to me.  I helped one student learn simple time tables and a few tricks for easier multiplying.  With a different student I help him with a less than, greater than, or equal to assignment (<, >, or =).  Again I was very surprised that he was on a level of math that most Americans are on in the 5^th grade.  Another event that stood out to me was when a group of African girls tried to teach me one of their native languages.  I felt that I had formed a relationship with them and achieved one of the goals I planned to get out of the service project.

            My perception of the ELL students had a big impact on helping them with math.  My perception was that the students would struggle with math at a high school level, such as algebra or geometry, but not with what seems to me as simple math such as multiplication and division.  This error in my judgment comes from my lack of acknowledging their cultural background.  These students may have never been to a school before coming here because of the potential atrocious conditions that they came from.  Also math skills or any math may not have been valued in their culture so this could be a contributing factor as to why they were not on the same level as others their age.  The students were very willing and eager to learn the math though, making teaching them easier and enjoyable.

            From this experience I have learned that my perception of things can be very wrong.  I now know that it is easy to have an error in judgment if you have limited knowledge or understanding of the background of those the perception is made.  I have learned that I should not assume that people from other cultures will have what seem to me as common knowledge because my culture has taught it that way.  I will take what I have learned about perceptions and apply them in my future intercultural communications.