After not having many appointments in the past couple of weeks, twiddling my thumbs in Johnston was getting pretty boring. But today, I felt so busy; we were borderline overwhelmed in there, but it was awesome. It felt really good to be needed during my time slot. I had three back-to-back appointments and they all went really well. Some people have been mentioning on the blog how good it feels when you've had a really successful tutoring appointment. I can definitely attest to that after my experiences today.
First, I had an hour long appointment. This one was the hardest because the tutee was so quiet and it was really hard to get her to communicate with me. Thirty minutes into the session, I finally felt like I was getting somewhere with her because we were talking about different ways she could words some sentences and where she could add more examples from the film into her paper (She was analyzing a movie in terms of race or gender for a multicultural film class). Before she started to really engage with me, I felt like I was just line editing. But then she started asking me a lot about how to cite her sources and she began coming up with the corrections as I read aloud instead of me doing by myself. At that point I felt like the non directive facilitator as she improved her own paper.
My second appointment was my best one yet because those thirty minutes were so much fun. This tutee was writing a personal essay/narrative about a trip to Paris. He had a very short rough draft, so I made the decision to only focus on higher level concerns (no sentence level stuff). I read through the two pages he had so far out loud. Then we just talked about where he could go next with it in order to expand and lengthen the piece. We had a really relaxed, fun conversation about his trip. He told me what he did, what he saw, his experiences, why this trip was important to him, etc. A lot of his writing was "telling" instead of "showing," so our conversation helped him realize all the details he could include in his essay. I felt really comfortable and confident during this session because I had a lot of ideas to help him with his paper. When he left, he was really appreciative and said that I had helped him a lot, so of course that made me feel pretty good. Tutoring is really rewarding in that way. I realize not all appointments may go this smoothly, but I'll hold on to this feeling and use it as motivation to keep improving as a tutor.
Loving the positive attitude!
ReplyDeleteI guess I am the only one who hates 30 minute sessions, huh? You did well, I am proud!
By the way, doesn't it feel great to be one of the first people to introduce the concept of, "show, don' tell" to a student? He must have been a freshman or something to that effect; so I am sure you have made a big impact on his future writing, thus his grades. This is our role, and you served yours fantastically. Keep being comfortable, because you are definitely needed. Huraayyyyyy!!!!!
Positivity!
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one who hates thirty minute sessions. I understand that sometimes they're needed, especially when its a person who already feels pretty confident on their material, but sometimes, you get those people who need extra help and huge documents (I'm talking eight pages here!) and schedule on a half hour basis due to lack of availability.
This week I tutored this girl who was really open and friendly, possibly the friendliest one I've had to date, and she was pretty expressive with her ideas. Her problem was that she was weak in grammar and made constant tiny mistakes regarding spelling. I wanted to help her out, but we only got halfway through her eight page paper when time was up.
I'm so glad you're feeling needed, as well as what I'm guessing is Walter commenting above me. I've gotten some enrichment on myself as a person and meeting all these different people with different needs is so fulfilling! I'm so sad I've only got one more tutoring session left at this point, since I've gotten so used to this! I think I want to do this as paid or as an internship next semester, if my schedule works as well as I'm hoping it'll be.
I remember us talking about how you weren't getting any appointments perhaps because of your location or maybe because of the time so I'm really glad you finally had your day! I tutor in the Williams building so I feel like I never stop moving, but I totally love it. Almost every thursday, I have at least one appointment scheduled in my hour and a half time slot and somehow I usually end up tutoring for the entire hour and a half. I'm glad the tutoring is growing to be more well rounded and you are getting the time slots I know you deserve. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that I just made a post and read yours and we pretty much said the same thing about how we'd just been in here twiddling our thumbs until that hectic day. Over the last couple of weeks we have talked and expressed the same sentiments about this location and time. I do think that the hectic day we had was a great confidence booster for both of us. It's nice that we went through this together because I knew someone else was feeling what I was feeling at the beginning of the semester and how we both feel better now towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that it must just be certain times of the day which aren't convenient for the majority of students to be tutored. There always seems to be an abundance of students coming into Johnston while I am there, which I'm grateful for. But I'm so glad you have had the chance to experience some really great tutoring sessions and it sounds like you are doing well!! I can completely relate to your hour long appointment. I always feel like I'm really getting somewhere with a student when either I read their paper aloud or they read it and realize their mistakes on their own before I even say anything. It's such a great feeling to see a student recognizing what needs correcting in their paper because then I feel that they will be able to apply what they have learned in this experience to future writing assignments.
ReplyDelete