Tutoring @ TJ’s

Look in the journals tab for the full journal prompt as this one disappears down the page. Or click on the journal 3 tag…to see this and everyone elses.The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (think Clint Eastwood, and Enrico Morricone’s musical score).  As we started to do in our staff meeting on 3/26, reflect on what makes a tutoring session good? bad? ugly (really frustrating…)? Things to think about when writing your post:a. your student clients: (more…)

Here I am at the Association for the Tutoring Profession conference at the historic Hyatt Regency, Union Station, in St. Louis, Missouri.  This morning I presented our listening/questioning/learning styles/problem-solving triads module that we do for common training.  Seeing all these tutor trainers trying out the 3 roles and having a great time doing it was very gratifying.   So you all are a hit!!  I encouraged them to get onto this blog and comment…so maybe they will. In a couple of years, the conference will be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, so maybe we could have a convoy up I-95?  See you on Thursday when I return to work.  No meeting on Wednesday.  Keep up the good work!!  Your ears should be burning b/c I’m talking about you all the time.  

Aside from an occasional belligerent (good word Skylar) client, most of the student’s I’ve tutored represent “the good”. Especially at this point in the semester, pretty much all of my clients are repeat clients (is this bad?) so they have figured out how to maximize their time in an appointment. Students come with specific questions about examples in the book or homework problems that they got stuck on - one girl even makes a list of homework questions and the exact steps where she messed up/got stuck, everything is marked in the book with post-it notes, etc. I like this and students like it because we get through appointments more quickly and painlessly, and we don’t waste time going through unnecessary concepts or even trying to prioritize their goals - they already have that figured out.This tends to throw me off when students are not prepared, though. (more…)

Recruiting is starting…and besides me and your professors asking students to tutor, you all can talk it up with your classmates. You guys know what being up here really involves. Be thinking of which of your fellow students would be good up here. Who would appreciate more opportunities to learn? …more insight into both the course content and the learning process that you all have developed while working at TJ’s?

In addition to being asked by Susie and recommended by my professors, I decided to tutor because of my passion for sociology (the subject that i tutor in). In our attempt to be “global citizens,” I believe that a comprehensive understanding of society (especially from a structural perspective) is vital. In turn, by tutoring major’s and especially non-majors, who may never have contact with this academic discipline again, I feel that it is important for these students to become intimate with the course material, and more importantly, the “sociological perspective”. Furthermore, it has also provided me with the opportunity to gain a useful skill, tutoring, which will be applicable in many other arenas (i.e., training other co-workers). I am both honored and thankful for this opportunity, which has been a great experience thus far.

Step 4 - Identify Thought Processes:
When I think of this step, I’m thinking of two things. First, how the student learns (VARK), and, second, how the teacher presents the material. Truthfully, this step usually comes after the agenda setting. I don’t think it’s bad that it goes in this order, it’s just fits the way I do things. Anyway, it’s really important to consider that one of the reasons the client needs tutoring is because they’re not learning from the class sessions due to differing teaching/learning styles. So, we’ve got to be more adaptable to learning styles than the teachers (which we are because we only deal with one persona at a time.) This can be accomplished by preliminary questioning which ties in with the next step. Good questions revolve around what the specific area of difficulty is, why they feel like they’re not “getting it,” ways that they’ve tried to study, if the textbook is a good resource, if there are supplementary handouts, if it’s a matter of pace, or a number of other topics that will lead into forming the objectives for the session. Once these questions have been asked/answered, it’s time for the tutor to start connecting the dots, grasping the situation at hand, and moving on to step 5.

Step 5 - Set Agenda: (more…)

Hope your R & R, rest and relaxation, does the trick! Come back refreshed!

Our staff meeting on 3/5 went through a workshop from CRLA ‘07, looking at how the language we use with student clients heavily influences the strategies they use to learn. How much are we pushing our clients into being passive, shut-down, and dependent on us? Dont’ we want them to be active, engaged in their learning, and more confident when they leave TJ’s? (more…)

Honestly, I lost my binder and had not looked at this sheet for weeks. Yikes. When I finally did look at the sheet again (thanks Susie for the replacement), I realized I had been doing them. Number two is probably my favorite step because most students begin to ramble and I enjoy that. You get to see how they feel about the material and where they want to go. This is how I figure out how to work with them (i.e. some students are really sensitive and overwhelmed, others try to use humor). It was the whole idea of the “dialogue.” The third step is easy because we usually go over a test or assignment that already has an order. Language has so many little nuances that setting specific individual to focus on helps me stay on track during our session. I usually pick a grammar tense the student is working on, we’ll review it in their textbook, and then discuss it or try exercises. Steps4 through six seem to naturally follow. I have not, however, been asking students to summarize at the end what we did, which would probably feel more effective or reassuring for them because students studying a language complain that they feel comfortable with the concepts when working with a tutor or studying in their rooms, but when they are faced with a test, they forget. I know that can be very frustrating, so maybe this step will help them tie everything together if they can explain it without referring to books or sheets.

On Wednesday (3/5) at 5:30, we’re having a staff meeting for ALL tutors, to try out a workshop from the CRLA conference in Portland, Oregon that Beth and I attended. We’ll be looking at a communication model that frames the tutoring session as a problem-solving opportunity. We’ll analyze actual tutor talk in 6 different dimensions, and see alternative ways to frame the feedback the tutor is giving the student. We’ll then apply these ideas to other examples at the end, figuring out better ways to say what needs to be said. You’ll be active, so that you can remember it better. Hope to see you there, both new and returning tutors. This is a great way to tweak what you’re doing.