Tutoring @ TJ’s

I have definitely had some ups and downs tutoring. The downs have largely revolved around one client. This client got frustrated very easily and would take it out on me in a loud, degrading, and inappropriate manor. In response(the one I think the client was looking for), I backed down on trying to help the client get the information and basically chickened out. After the tutor meeting about the good, the bad, and the ugly, I was ready to try some different techniques to try and get the client to calm down, but I have not had to use it yet. The client has since been reasonably respectful, which is definitely a great thing.

The only other bad thing has been students who haven’t come prepared or expect me to teach them everything the prof wants them to know for the test. For these clients, I informed them that I did not know what the professor was going to ask. I asked, since they were in the class, what they thought has been most emphasized and covered in class and on assignments. I then had them pick examples from the book that resembled the problems and topics they concluded were the most important. I thought this was effective because I wasn’t telling the client what to learn, they were telling me what they needed to gain a better understanding on and then working a problem(which they could normally do better than they thought) on their own. This helped them discover what part or step they were specifically getting caught up on to help clear up confusion even more. So, even though it seemed like a bad thing when they came in wanting me to teach them everything, it was able to be turned around so that they had to rely on themselves and not me.

Now that the bad is out of the way, on to the good. It is very exciting to have breakthroughs with students where they struggle with a concept but we are able to work together to get a list of steps or a process by which they can break down and solve a problem, understanding each step along the way.

In conclusion, though there have been some difficulties with what students expect me to tell them and do for them, I have been able to work around them using the language that the meetings have taught and make a tutoring session that seemed doubtful at first become successful.