After reading Jared's post, I became inspired to share my first, "yay!" moment as a tutor. I stumbled upon one of the best tutoring experiences I could have hoped for during my very first appointment as a tutor. The tutee, "Amy", shall be her name, came in wanting to brainstorm on an essay she had to write on the ABCFamily show "Pretty Little Liars". We first discussed the essay's requirements and then, since I had never seen "Pretty Little Liars" Amy filled me in on the need to know information. Amy already had some ideas and she seemed focus in on the the prevalent issue of bullying within the show and today's society. Amy then told me that she was having trouble starting her essay; she was having trouble finding direction. After these discussions, it was pretty clear that if Amy came up with a thesis she would be able to write out her essay pretty quickly (she basically had the essay written in her head and had unknowingly already shared it with me, which I told her). I discussed with Amy what a good thesis usually maintains: it is interesting, concrete and specific, and focused. I asked her if she could think of a way to frame the issues she wanted to discuss in a sentence or two, that encompassed what she wanted to say, and that also tried to follow these guidelines. She threw out a few ideas, but didn't seem to confident in them, second guessing herself. I then tried to illustrate for her how good her ideas already were and that she just had to fit them in an order that explained their purpose. Discussing how a thesis should make an argument or a case and giving examples like: [ "This" reveals "this" and "that"] or [Although it seems like " this", "that" actually proves "this"]. While discussing these points, something clicked with Amy, she wrote down a thesis really quickly and asked me what I thought? After reading it I told her I thought it looked great and conveyed basically the whole message she had been explaining to me at the beginning of our session. I addressed an issue of the use of "I" in a thesis and asked her if she could rework it to say the same thing without using "I". After she thought about it for about 10 seconds she rewrote it and was extremely pleased. Our session was about two minutes from it's limit and I asked her if she felt better about the direction of her paper and if she felt like she could start writing it now. Amy said she was very excited about it now and when she left the RWC she was going to start writing it. I wished her luck, told her I thought her paper was going to work out pretty well, and that she was welcome to make another appointment after she had written some of it. Amy then thanked me and left. This is what I thought the tutoring would be like and I loved it. I learned and shared my knowledge too! It was fabulous! Obviously, there were a few things afterwords I thought I would have said differently or thought of later and wished I could have shared with her, but don't you feel that way with everything sometimes? Since this session, I have experienced quite a few sessions not as smooth flowing as this one. On a couple of occasions I felt out of my league and wondered if I actually helped a tutee. But each time, I seem to learn something and I end with a smile on my face looking for a smile on their's (at the same time hoping that doesn't come off weird....lol), and each time I find it. :) Although, I am sure one day I won't find a smile on their face and I might not have helped every tutee with exactly what they are looking for, that is my goal and I will keep working towards it as best as I can manage.
Staying Positive.
I expected nothing less from "The Kati-Morgan 9000!!!!"
ReplyDeleteWe really need to start figuring out how to mass produce this model of tuttee/ teacher,its the future! lol Sorry for the silliness, I'm just loving all the positivity going on in this blog. You and three of our peers' blogs are what inspired me to write my own, in fact.
Let me begin by saying that I think your pedagogy is on point. I had a great window into how you approach tutoring because you were very detailed when describing this session. As you know, we are both involved with Education and I really do see a lot of cool strategies being implemented in the way you speak to your tuttees and how you address their strengths and their weaknesses.
On an awesome note, I actually see a lot of our classmates do the same, and so I feel as though our class really compliments education overall really well. Though teacher and tutor roles are different, there is no doubt about the fact that they share many aspects. In some ways, teachers have to be tutors a lot of the time, and tutors have to assume teacher roles every now and then. Being comfortable and effective in both of these spaces really grants the person a whole lot of versatility and tools with which to help students with.
If you read my own post, or my reply to "Feeling needed and getting comforable" you will see that this is a great topic of interest to me. I am really glad you went through some of the same uncomfortable instances as I, feeling useless and all that jazz. It goes to show that we are not alone in this, that we cannot be perfect right away, that it's ok to not be the best we can be sometimes because we are still growing and learning. But what I like the most is that it reiterates the wise idea that we must remain positive, that we must persevere. Positivity all the way. Good job Kati-Morgan!
I loved reading about this great session that you had. It's encouraging to know that it is out there. ;)
ReplyDeleteI also am so with you on the thoughts after a tutoring session. I am forever watching a tutee walking out the door and thinking "Oh I wanted to tell you this," and "Man, I should have said this and not what I said, even though what I said was valid, I don't think it was clear enough."
You always have such a great attitude too, and I love it!! Looking foward to hearing more!