Some of you might be confused about the Smarthinking assignment…where to post it, for example…and what to say. And for good reason. I realize that when I was printing out the sheets for the training manuals, I didn’t change Blackboard to our tutoring blog as the place for us to hold our discussions. Oops! Sorry… So every time you see a reference to Blackboard anywhere, think our blog. Blackboard –> our blog.
Now to this first new tutor journal/post. Here’s what the syllabus says: (you can always see the word document in a link on the blog called “Syllabi: training courses” which takes you to the training page on the Rollins’ TJ’s tutoring website)
From the TPJ 107 syllabus:
“Assignment (New Tutors Blog Post #1): Go to this website (on our blog; online tutor training sites) Go through two of the sample online tutorials, and notice what questioning and ‘listening’ techniques they use. Also think about how the online tutor is fulfilling the role of a tutor as we discussed this evening. Write about this on our blog before our second training session. See the assignment sheet in your training manual for more detail.”
The assignment sheet in the manual is on a dark blue page…I think in the Techniques section. There’s a bit more detail on that sheet, though I’ve put some more below.
And what to write? Whatever rings a bell from our discussions and activities in our crash training last Wednesday night. Since there is a transcript to analyze, you can see just how the tutor asks questions, reacts to what the student says (writes). Not, however, on how much time s/he waits for the student to say something, but certainly on how s/he reacts to what he says or tries to elicit from the student information about what he gets, doesn’t understand, how he’s approaching it.
