Journal #3 French Tutor Omar

I was happy to see that it seems like each fall semester, the number of appointment hours and tutoring keeps growing. I was estranged to see that most of the appointments were not mandatory. It made me happy to see that for the most part, the students coming for tutoring were coming out of their own willingness and want, but I really felt that for the most part they were being sent by their faculty to see the tutors.

I was disappointed to see the department for which I tutor being one of the ones with lowest appointments. For the most part of the semester, I have been busy with students because I was the only French tutor for so long, but I think it’s something bigger than this. The school hired a temporary professor for the year in the French department for the year because Prof. Mésavage went on sabbatical in Fall ’08 while Prof. Lima is on sabbatical right now in the Spring ’09 semester.

The fact that it was only one of them during either semester may have attributed to the relatively low tutoring appointments in French. I mean there are only such few courses offered in the program (six courses total) that it makes it hard for the demand to be that high really.

Journal 4, self-appraisal, spring 09

New tutors are working on this final reflection, to send to me online.  But you might be moved to respond to one or more of these questions on this public blog.  Please do.    Here are the questions.  They’re also listed at the end of the Journals! page in the tab at the top of the blog.

Self-appraisal at the end of the first semester of tutoring (final journal for TPJ 107)

1. Rank these in order of importance in your work as a tutor. Say why and what aspects, specifically, are important in each area.

q People skills

q Content knowledge

q TJ’s systems (TutorTrac, Kronos, TJ’s 24, etc.)

q Creativity

q Communication w/faculty

q Knowledge about learning process

(So.,. The most important in this work is… because… The 2^nd most important is… because…)

2. Rate yourself in respect to doing your job and following TJ’s systems. Why? In which areas?

Mostly undependable — Sometimes iffy — Mostly Responsible — Super worker

3. How could TJ’s make your life as a tutor easier or better?

4. Briefly mention what you learned/discovered from training: crash and staff meetings

5. What have you learned on the job as a tutor?

6. If you could change one thing about these courses, what would it be?

7. If you could change one thing about TJ’s systems, what would it be?

8. For good or ill, what two things stand out about this year/semester in tutoring?

9. We are now asking tutor applicants to respond to the challenges they may (will probably, as we know) face on the job. Please answer them yourselves, now that you’ve been tutoring for at least a semester.

What would you do if… (what did you do when…)

…you didn’t know the answer?

…you realize the student did not have the background knowledge he needed to do the work?

…the student is not prepared for the tutoring session?

…the student wanted you to do his/her work for you?

Any other challenging situations come to mind? What did you/would you do?

10. If you have been another sort of peer educator (peer mentor, RA, LEAD team, etc), what in that training would you like to see in tutor training? …what in our training would you like to see in that training?

A. Toth, Journal #3: Data

I found the 2001-2008 data pretty interesting.  The total number of appointments and the number of hours of tutoring have increased significantly from ’01 to ’08, but the number of clients has increased more moderately.  Obviously there was a big increase in hours when TJs took over some tutoring from the Bush Science Center.  (Math went from 68 hours in 06-07 to 168 in 07-08.)

Most clients in Fall 2008 had assignments due within a week, and “tomorrow” was pretty common.  I didn’t expect to many “within 2 hours” or “later today” because this would be cutting it pretty close.  It also makes sense because according to the data, most content tutoring is done to improve the clients’ understanding of the concepts.  They are usually not coming in just to put the finishing touches on assignments.  I expected more “later in the semester” assignments but I guess most people don’t plan that far ahead.

The recent data for tutor training hours shows that tutors spend the most time communicating with professors and others, which seems to make sense based on what I’ve seen.  Tutors also spend a lot of time preparing.  I would expect the amount of time a tutor spends reviewing course material should decrease as he/she gets more experience, but some review should always be necessary.

There were surprisingly few hours of tutoring for PHY, PHI, FRN, and several other subjects.  Maybe there are just fewer people studying them.  (There are certainly more people majoring in Chem. than physics.)  Also, maybe the classes that need a lot of tutoring hours are more often used to fulfill Gen. Ed. requirements. 

For my particular area, there seem to be a few people who come in regularly throughout the semester, but there are more who come in only once, twice, or a few times.  I found that most clients tend to see more than one tutor unless there is only one available for his/her specific course.  There are a lot of unscheduled sessions and group meetings.  Of course I expected to see significant demand for this because every now and then there are math projects and big tests.  Many clients seem to find brainstorming in small groups helpful for these things.

Journal 2: personality

INTJ: Strategist

Introverted 5%

Intuitive 31%

Thinking 3%

Judging 20%

I am a bit surprised by the result because I have always considered myself one the least logical person I know, since I am not comfortable with any types of math or physics, and when they say INTJ make great scientist I doubt a lot in my case! I try to make decision rationally but I feel I am influenced a lot more by my feelings and emotions. What I completely agree with is that I do observe the world and make my own analysis and get conclusions out of it, I like applying concepts rather than understanding them.

In addition I do not feel at all as natural leader, I like to be guided on a path and they be free to do it my way. However, I do spend a lot of time doing mental introspection of myself and thinking, and I do have the tendency to think I am right and be a bit stubborn. To sum I agree more on details of the life description given in the results than with the general idea…

Instead, I do agree a lot more with the description of the relationships and find myself in many of the statements. But I still really do not see myself as a Rationalist, though the thinking part is only 3% so that could vary I guess as well as the introverted percentage.

Later, I also took the Keirser Temperament sorter II,

There I fall in the Idealist category: the overall description suits me a lot more than the personality test, I recognize myself in many assertions especially concerning the real practical world has only a part of a something bigger. The creative, imagination part is very true for me, I feel I am always looking for ways to develop my creativity and always want to try new things that could help with that. It is also true that I seek personal growth and avoid being leading or led. I do function a lot with intuition and feel rewarded when helping others.

Journal #3

One of the most telling graphics to me is that one that shows the number of students, appointments, and hours. In fall of 2008 there were about four times as many appointments as students. However, only about 550 of the 2,000 students at Rollins chose to utilize TJs as a resource. What this says to me is that while a lot of people don’t even think to sign up for help in their classes, the people that do use TJs find it worthwhile and continue to come back. I hear this sentiment a lot in my sessions too from people who have never used TJs before. At the end of an appointment I will often hear people say “Wow that was actually really helpful I’ve never been here before.”

It is not surprising to me that a lot of people don’t come in to TJs because in high school it is typically only people who have an especially hard time in a class that ever need a tutor. People don’t view tutoring as a way to improve an already strong grade or to just get some help and ease the load off of yourself. I think that some sort of marketing strategy that emphasized improvement of good grades rather than providing needed assistance would greatly increase the number of people who signed up for tutoring appointments.

Kevin Krughoff Journal #3- Stats

I looked over the stats board in TJ’s and found that the department I tutor for (CHM) has seen a steady increase in appointments for a long time now.  I think that this is probably due to the increased amount of tutors and pressure that the department is putting on students to come in for tutoring, although it would be interesting to see if there has been an increase in chemistry/biochem/premed students.  I would also be interested to see if quiz and test scores have gone up with the trend of increased appointments.  Most of the time the appointments had “no report” for the subject material, and I think it would be beneficial to find out what the most popular topics for tutoring are.  In my opinion its NMR/IR, which was coincidentally the topic I was least prepared to explain.  I think that figuring out which topics will have the most demand would help tutors in the future to prepare for those time periods.  Also, it would be interesting to see whether or not the frequency of each subject changes over time or if it is simply the same concepts that cause trouble for students every year.

Christina Benitez, Journal #3 Data

When looking at the tutoring date at TJ’s I noticed some interesting things that I did not seem to notice or know before. The first thing that I noticed was the trend in tutoring hours by departments. When looking at the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 years that departments that have accumulated the most hours are chemistry, spanish, economics, and anthropology. When asked when the assignment that clients are coming for help with is due most responded with no report, and the next most popular answer was within a week. The least popular answer was later in the semester. This seems to show that students are usually working on tight deadlines and not working vastly ahead.

Another interesting statistic when the data that showed if the tutoring visit was required by professors. 55% answered no and only 6% said yes. This is important because it reveals that students are coming in for tutoring based on their own initiatives and merits. Another important question was the reason for students visits. In Fall 2008 the most important reason for visits was for course concepts with 826 hours. The second was for test prep with 315 hours, and then papers with 170 hours. This is important because it reveals that students come in for tutoring overwhelmingly for better understanding of course concepts. As a tutor it is then important for us to always stay well informed and updated on the course concepts for which we tutor.

Overall, I noticed that the TJ’s top ten majors were significantly led by INB and Economics. INB had over 100 students, almost 300 visits, and 300 majors. ECO has almost 40 students, over 100 visits, and 175 majors. This seems to reveal a heavily business geared tutoring environment. As a politics tutor when looking at the data for politics it reveals that not many students come in for tutoring even though it is a subject that requires a lot of papers and a critical understanding in the course concepts. However, anthropology ranked high in tutoring hours by department which is also another heavily concept and paper based social science major. Perhaps this trend reveals that politic majors feel more competent in their area of study due to being able to relate the theoretical concepts to current events in the media. Perhaps the few hours of politics tutoring at best reveals that politics majors know their material very well, or at least I would like to think so 🙂

Christina Benitez, Journal # 2: ISFJ

When taking the MyType Personality Test it was revealed that I am a ISFJ type, meaning Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging. This type of personality is associated with being kind and conscientious. They are individuals that can be depended on to follow through. They also tend to put the needs of others above their own needs. They are stable and practice, and value security and traditions. This personality type also partakes in rich inner world observations about other people. It is also a personality type that is extremely perceptive of other’s feelings and interested in serving others. Overall, I feel that the ISFI personality type describes me very well and explains my philosophy in tutoring others.

ISFJ’s are described to live in a world that is concrete and kind. They are truly warm and kind-harted, and want to believe the best of people. They strive for cooperation, and are likely to be very sensitive to other people’s feelings. As a tutor this is very relevant for me because I feel that I am very sensitive to the needs of my clients and always try to place myself in their position in order to properly help them with the material. By being considerate and aware of the needs of others such as clients I strive to bring out the best in them because I believe in them and trust in their capabilities.

Other traits of ISFJ’s is that they have exceptional memory about things that are important to their value system. As a politics tutor I am extremely passionate about politics and have an acute memory of class lectures and current events. This helps me tutor others because I am able to explain the concepts well to them. ISFJ’s learn by doing, rather than by reading about something in a book, or applying theory. I notice that this is true because when tutoring clients I ask them to explain the material to me in their own words, or have them try to do it first.

ISFJ’s rely on positive feedback which I can relate to because in its absence it is easy to get discouraged. Tutoring helps me with this because you are able to help others and receive positive feedback from them. I also feel closely aligned to this personality type because I have a strong sense of responsibility and duty. As a tutor, whenever I get the chance to tutor a client I take it very seriously because it is my responsibility to make them have a better experience with their hardships in a class.

Ryan Webb — ISTJ

Two words sum up my MyType personality test on Facebook, dead on. I am an Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging person with heavy influences in the Introverted and Sensing categories. While there were a few facets of the description that were not completely true about me an overwhelming majority of them were undeniably true (sometimes about things I wasn’t even sure about).

In terms of my tutoring at TJs the description states that I “am extremely dependable on following through with things that I have promised” which is very true in all of my tutoring sessions. Each time someone schedules and appointment with me I feel the need to come through and teach them the correct material, I feel it is an implicit promise that I made to them by being there as a tutor. The fact that I am an econ tutor makes sense to me because it states that I am logical and much of econ is logic based.

My test taking ability is also reflected in my score. It states that I do not accept concepts that seem foreign to me until I have a thorough understanding of the concept. This reinforces my thought that I hate being tested on taking a concept and manipulating it until it applies to the test question, I much prefer to know the material down without needing to do mental gymnastics.

In terms of my relationships with other students it states that I enjoy working alone. On projects that is usually true but I have found through my tutor sessions this semester that whenever I have trouble with a question on a particular concept it has been very beneficial to work with the client to solve the problem together. I disagree with the fact that it states that as an ISTJ I feel that I am always right, I know I have the ability to make mistakes and often times I do get things wrong.

Journal #2

ESTP

One of the primary traits for ESTPs is that they like things to be very straightforward and aren’t into metaphors or complicated rhetoric. This makes a lot of sense to me when I think about specific teachers that I have liked and disliked. It is much easier for me to learn from a teacher who explains information in the easiest way possible, instead of one who dilutes information with academic catch words and metaphors. I can get varied annoyed at teachers who always need to take a roundabout way of explaining assignments and concepts.

Another trait about ESTPs is that they like to quickly move from one task to the other. This makes sense for me because even when I have a large assignment I tend to break it into small parts and do them all one by one. I can also see this in myself during tutoring appointments because I prefer helping people study for tests when we move quickly from one concept to the next rather than dwelling on the same paper for an hour.

One interesting thing the test says about ESTPs is, “The ESTP gets bored with classes in which they feel they gain no useful material which can be used to get things done”. I definitely agree with this. If I don’t find a class inherently interesting or don’t think it will be practically useful I have a very hard time putting in effort and really caring about the class. I see this in a lot of clients I tutor who don’t really care for the class. It can be very difficult to try to help these students because even if they want to do well, they don’t care about the material as much as is necessary for success.

The whole idea of “getting things done” is very central to the way I view the world. I hate when I see people just doing things and thinking about things but not enacting real world changes. It is interesting that this test touches on theory because I am taking a class right now that deals with theory and I have often had this same frustration with it. Some of the smartest people in the world just sit around thinking and don’t actually do anything to improve the world. I think this is a waste of time.

Ashley Toth, Journal # 2

100% introverted, 68% intuitive, 39% thinking, 45% judging

I took the regular Meyers Briggs test last semester and got the same basic result (INTJ/rationals), and I think this category makes sense.  The only suspicious thing is the “100% introverted.”  I know I am introverted because I tend to find social activity rather tiring, even when it is enjoyable, but this is definitely an exaggeration.  I think my score was moderately introverted on the written test.  This characteristic affects my tutoring experiences because I have to be a little more outgoing than usual in order to interact with clients, especially when they are very energetic and involved.

Overall, I think the test provided some insight about my personality.  It did seem to praise the different types of personality  too much, but I’ve never seen a test that doesn’t do this, so I just ignored it.

I tend to enjoy classes in which the grading is completely objective, whereas some of my friends enjoy classes in which participation is a big factor.  The same is true for tests and assignments.  I am just not good at projects and papers that involve “grey areas” and opinion.  I suppose this is because my actions are based on logic more than emotions, as this test indicates.

The Keirsey sorter says Rationals find problem solving highly stimulating, and although they do care about real world applications, they are usually more interested in abstract ideas.  This part is completely true; it explains why  I am majoring in math and why I seem to prefer theory and proofs over applications.  I have talked with quite a few other students about this, and many of them are the opposite of me in this respect. If they can’t see how something is relevant, then they don’t want to spend a lot of time studying it.  (Some of my clients have said things like this.)  Most of these people seem to be analytical thinkers, but their personalities are very different from mine.

The part about rationals working tirelessly to finish projects they have started may be a little off.  Perhaps it applies to my work on math and other things I really care about, but I am not such a hard-working person in general.  I tend to forget things and miss deadlines, and I think I could actually work a lot harder.  Also, I don’t have the leadership qualities mentioned in the description.  Masterminds (INTJs) are supposed to be natural leaders, although they don’t go looking for positions of authority.  Maybe I don’t know because I’ve never been in a leadership position, but I have a feeling I would be too introverted and too absentminded to be a good manager or organizer.

Journal 2

Extroverted = 40%, Intuitive = 25%, Thinking = 31%, Perception = 17%

I took the test and was dumbfounded at the results; I would not label myself as an ENTP. I answered the questions truthfully and I feel that the questions asked were worded in a way that would kind of lead you to an answer.It’s like asking a rhetorical question. In this case, instead of asking a question whose answer is common sense, they asked a more elusive question that would pinpoint you one way or the other.

The test basically called me someone who is full of good ideas but never follows through something they signed up for. A lazy person, for short. I do miss some commitments, like anyone does, but I would not classify myself as someone who does not tie the loose ends at the end of something.

Somethings were right on, and that was scary. I do not let emotions clout my judgment and this is something I take great pride in. It felt that throughout most of the explanation, the test was praising my personality, almost as if it were the perfect one. Then I sat back, and thought it probably told everyone something somewhere along the lines of, “you’re unique and close to perfect.” I scanned down the entire explanation and not one defect was listed about my personality type. I know I’m not perfect. To better understand my personality, I would like to see more of a balance. I know there are areas I excel at, and then there are others with room for improvement.

I was not dissapointed at the results but disillusioned, I think I got my hopes up way too much for this.