Journal #3

1. “Don’t take absences so seriously. If a student doesn’t come to class, it will show! They will fail themselves if too many missed.” I have never really had a problem with attendance policies at school, as most of my classes have had similar policies and I usually love to go to class. This semester, however I had a class that I hated, and felt like I was wasting my time in class. I knew I had my three grace absences (as most of the classes have), so I figured it wouldn’t kill me to skip a few here and there. Some of my peers, however, felt it would be better to ATTEND a few here and there and found themselves with way more than three absences at the end of the term. Our professor’ policy (which she didn’t tell anyone until the last day of class) was that a student would lose 1 letter grade per each extra absence. Of course, this created an uproar in the class, and one classmate tried to argue the point. She said that we are all adults, and it should be our responsibility to come to class. If we don’t come to class, and we do poorly, than it is our own fault. It shouldn’t be up to the professors to hurt our grade based on our attendance. If we do poorly on work that we turn in, than that should reflect in our grade, but often times, I think participation is something that should only help you, not harm you. 

1. “Open Student Records for class changes BEFORE classes start.” I have a friend who goes to a big university….their student records office is insanely busy all year long, not just during add/drop or registration. The way their system works now, however, in order to accomodate the growing student body, is that it is now online. Students have access to their classes on a system like Foxlink, but are able to add/drop/change any classes they want, as long as there are no schedule conflicts and the class is available. An electronic notification is sent to their professors each time they change it (they can do it as many times as they want), and the professor just has to accept or deny the request. If the change is accepted, the student never has to stress out about getting papers signed, etc. Imagine all the time and PAPER we’d save moving to an electronic student records office!

 

Journal 3 – PEP Academics

“Don’t take absences so seriously. If a student doesn’t come to class it will show! They will fail themselves if too many are missed.”

I find this to be completely true.  As a student, I despise the fact that some professors assign reading to the class, and then lecture in the next class as though none of the students read the material.   Students who both read the material and attend the lecture have the benefit of dual exposure to the material but in my personal opinion, the purpose of a class discussion on a topic that has already been read should be supplemental.  The discussion should analyze and delve deeper into the material rather than summarizing the text for those that did not bother to read.  Classes in which this is the case, in order to do well, a student must both read the text and attend class.  However, many classes are of the first type and offer no additional inisght into material.  If a student already has a full understanding of the text, it does not make sense in my mind to enforce a policy by which they are required to “learn” the material twice.  It baffles me that students who completely understand material could be given a grade similar to those who did not read or understand simply due to attendance.  If professors continue to summarize the texts, while there should be an attendance policy in place in order to prevent students from simply never coming, it should be flexible and to an extent, biased towards those who obviously understand the material.  However, the attendance policy is not what is at fault, the teaching style is what should in fact be remedied.

Another topic of hot debate among the suggestions is the foreign language department/requirement.  Some students ask for more funding and more opportunity to take classes whereas others simply want the requirement removed.  I tend to agree with an increase in funding and maintaining the reuirement.  A big portion of students who complain about foreign language requirements are most likely those who have been “burned” by the current situation.  A personal example:  I am currently in Japanese 101 with the intention of taking Japanese 102 this upcoming semester.  However, I also intend on taking advantage of the school’s study abroad program which will preclude me from taking Japanese 201 the fall of 2009.  Unfortunately, 201 is only offered in the fall therefore I will have to wait until the fall of 2010 before I am able to finish my foreign language requirement.  This means there will be a year of downtime between the classes in which I will most likely be forgetting a great deal of material.  For many students, who haven’t the time or inclination to continue studying independantly, this would be a huge handicap.  Another personal problem I have experienced with the foreign language department is that there is only one teacher available for my language of choice.  If a student has an issue with a professor or even learns in a style which they don’t necessarily teach well towards, that student will have significantly more difficulty and also does not get the advantage of hearing different dialects and seeing different teaching methods.  Therefore, it makes sense to me to continue to require a foreign language becuase it is an important part of education, especially a liberal arts one, but to make efforts to improve the quality of the languages being taught.

 

Journal 3: PEP Academics

1) Stricter selection for RCC professors: Available, Accessible, open, friendly

This is one that I helped come up with… since, as a peer mentor, it’s been on my mind quite a lot this semester.  Based on my experiences this year and last year, it seems that only certain types of professors can really thrive with an RCC class.  The current situation/problem is that it seems like anyone who wants to be an RCC professor can be.  While it is good to let everyone have the opportunity (and obviously those who have an interest in doing it should be better for the job), it still has the effect of students having very different experiences with their RCC class, and I think the whole point of having RCC at all is to provide a comfortable situation for the student to settle into college life; they’ll learn how to deal with other situations in all their other classes.  This can only happen, however, when you have an RCC prof who is available and easy to talk to, open to getting to know and helping the students, and friendly.  If the professor is not willing to take some extra time and do things outside of class with the students, then he or she should be teaching a normal course, not an RCC.  This, however, isn’t always the case.  One of the problems must be that there aren’t enough teachers who want to teach RCC.  Perhaps Rollins could make it mandatory for certain teachers (ex. new professors) and make it part of their job to do a few things a semester outside of class with their students (ie. fox fridays)?   If you force it on professors though, they might be even less likely to be excited about the job… Explorations does try to foster understanding between the peer mentors and the professors, but you don’t always know how the dynamics will work out between them or with the class.

2) More things like the colloquy WP institute, debates, discussions, lectures, forums

…The whole reason I agree with this one is to not only have such intellectually stimulating events, but to have them incorporated into classes more so that there is actually decent attendance when such events take place.  Right now, where large scale events are done by the school, people do generally show up… but the same is not the case for student-run and student-led events that are educational.  The opposite – if anything! – should be true.  Emphasis on learning outside the classroom needs to be enforced within the classroom; both aspects are important, and they should be intertwined to ensure that the students get the best of both worlds.  Teachers need to involve their classes in events on campus that relate to the field of study… and should perhaps even make some mandatory.  This way, education can start to be seen as something more than simply what occurs within class.  For this to happen though, it is also important for the professors to be up-to-date and involved in campus life.  I think that if we can get the students with their outside activities and the professors with their classes to work together to put on events and bring attendees to them, we will be able to help this college take a step in the right direction to becoming better both in academics and service/extracurriculars.

The current problem is a disconnect between class and other activities, and the fact that hardly any students show up for intellectual outside events that are put on.  I’m not sure what has made it that way, and I can’t think of any steps that have been taken to change it.  Some professors do, of course, make events mandatory or extra credit, and the organizers are also responsible for marketing… but somehow, nothing actually seems to work, from my point of view.  I have put on events before, and tried advertising through various ways, including contacting multiple professors and departments who would have an interest in the event, but the turnout is never very good compared to what I think it should be.  It’s sad to see how little the campus is interested in really important things that are going on around the world.

 

Lauren’s 3rd Journal, 2nd Topic

I completely agree with the “More lib hours” comment.  I think our library hours are absolutely absurd.  While the library is currently open 24 hours for exams, it typically has very limited hours of operation.  On a typical Saturday, the library closes at 6PM.  I find this so frustrating and disappointing.  Where else are students supposed to go? Furthermore, the “24 hour lab” is a complete joke. It is always loud and crowded during the week. I don’t understand how a college can promote academics yet offer such limited library time.  Rollins needs to seriously consider expanding the library hours permanently, not just for finals. 

I also agree with the “more study abroad.” I studied abroad my junior year.  I was disappointed by the lack of programs Rollins offers, so I went through a program offered by NYU in Florence, Italy.  Study abroad was truly the greatest experience of my life, and I think Rollins is doing a disservice to its students by not expanding its aboard options.  At the very least, I think Rollins should develop more partnerships with other schools in Florida.

I completely disagree with the comment “stop emphasizing the honor code and let students make honesty their choice.” The honor code is essential to developing a culture of honesty and trust among students, as well as faculty.  As academic dishonesty becomes increasingly prevalent on college campuses, I believe Rollins needs to work even harder to instill the honor principle among students.  I think Rollins needs to do more to educate its students about the code rather than “let them make honesty their choice.”

 

Journal #3

I agree with the honor code statment in PEP academics. I don’t think the honor code should be stressed so much. Teacher make such a big deal out of it. The worst part about the honor code is the witnessing any unauthorized assistance on this work. This shouldn’t be on the honor code. There is noone I know who would rat out one of their friends. It should be up to the integrity of the person who cheated. It shouldn’t be another person’s responsibility to tell the professor that another person cheats. The honor code doesn’t even hold true. Writing down the honor code on an assignment and then signing one’s name isn’t, hasn’t, and won’t prevent anyone from cheating. It’s unfortunate but that’s the reality.

I disagree with the statement having a global responsibility course be mandatory for graduation. Most majors have enough responsibilities by themselves along with gen eds, that another course is unnesscary. One can learn global responsiblity by reading a newspaper and then get invovled if they want to. Students are already forced learn things that they don’t want to by taking some gen eds. I can only imagine that a student who enjoys learning about science might not enjoy learning about art at all. There is no need to add a global responsibility course as a graduation requirement. This should be left up the individual, not the school.

 

Journal #3 Academics at Rollins and PEP

Agree:

·         Fund Foreign Language Programs!!!

·         More classes offered for foreign languages

·         Sign language as foreign language.

·         Bring cooking classes to Rollins

·         Academics need to be taken more seriously. Those with money and influence that go here rarely make the grades but they get to stay here. Rollins should only accept those deserving and courses should be rigorous and get rid of slakers.

o   The cost of tuition should decrease, or give students more financial aid based more on academic achievement.

·         Faculty really needs to support and get more involved with activities on campus.

·         Open student records for schedule changes before classes start.

·         An initiative should be made to recruit more professors so more courses are available year round and for students to complete their core requirements.

Disagree:

·         Get rid of foreign language requirement

·         Encourage personal achievement and not grade getting

o   Grades reflect your effort, how can a professor measure your personal achievement?

§  One must suppose that it really is what you get out of it that makes it worth your while and your money, but we have to ask the question, “Would students try so hard if their efforts were not being put to the test by grades?”

              

I think one major issue on campus for me with which I would like to see changes made is: more foreign language classes offered, such as Sign Language and Italian. Perhaps we could even develop a Modern/Ancient Languages Major. The problem with funding more foreign language classes come from either, lack of interest from the students, lack of a professor, or literal lack of funding for the course. The lack of interest from the students probably comes from the foreign language requirement, because they are forced to study a language, and usually they go for the one they might have taken a class or two in high school, just so they can get the requirement and move on with their Major. In my past one year in a half at Rollins, I have seen two petitions attempting to bring more foreign language to Rollins, one for Arabic and the other for Italian. I know the Arabic petition passed, but I have seen no word regarding the Italian petition, which was unfortunate, because I really was hoping to take some Italian classes. I love foreign language. We can be more persistent in the petitions, try to recruit professors from other colleges to teach here, and we can fundraise for foreign language classes. We just need to have enough people who want this change enough that we can make an impact and seek out those who can help to get more foreign language classes possible.

 

Also, I believe an initiative should be made to recruit more professors so that more courses are available year round so that students can complete their core requirements. Classes offered every other year, or every other semester impede on a student’s ability to finish their core requirements. A student, who would like to start studying a foreign language from the beginning of the 100 level courses, cannot start until the Fall, even if they have room for the class in the Spring. When one professor does not teach the same course both semesters, there is an absence of that first course, and when a professor takes a leave of absence for any reason, the courses offered could be affected. We need a way to make sure those spots are filled. This issue has been going on for a long time I believe, and there are not many steps to fix the problem, except to make sure that when you schedule your classes, you make sure you will be able to complete your core requirements on time by using the Major/Minor/Gen Ed. Maps. If you want to be organized, and get ahead and make sure you are going to fulfill your requirements, I recommend that everyone take “Academic and Career Planning” in their first year here at Rollins, or as soon as you can. I think it should be a required course for Freshmen, and perhaps we could even split that course into “Academic Planning” as one course, and “Career Planning” as another course for your Junior Year or so. This class was so helpful in showing me how to plan out my 4 years here at Rollins, that I personally have not had much of a problem with meeting my core requirements. 3 Semesters about to pass and I only need 3 more Gen. Eds. If we cannot get more professors per semester, than we need to teach our students how to organize their education and see what will work for them.

 

Journal 3

One suggestion I agree with is “more understanding early and how to get good academic research”. Fortunately, I happened upon the right professor and friends along the way. Generally, you might hear about research in passing or have student researchers stop in your class looking for volunteers, but you are not provided with many details. It is up to you to inquire and seek out the right people to ask about it. Research participation is something new in college – you are not familiar with the process from high school experience. Therefore, I think it is important for professors to provide the guidance and general information to all first-year students so that they know their options. Students can then decide to take it or leave it. Although there are posters of student researchers and their work on bulletin boards for students to see, these resources are not sufficient. I am involved with the psychology club and we are currently trying to work with faculty members on ways to provide students with detailed information about research opportunities within our department. I think the lack of info about research is a problem in other departments as well, and a general solution can be applied to all fields. Perhaps all professors should take some class time at the beginning of each semester to tell students what research entails and what resources will provide more information.

Another idea I agree with is “more study abroad”. As an athlete, you get few opportunities to study abroad. Certain majors also make it difficult to do so. I think it is important to provide more opportunities at any part of the year: fall semester, Christmas break, spring semester, spring break, and summer break. I know that there are programs for international studies (in the classroom or fieldwork) during each of these times, but they are limited. A greater variety of opportunities should be provided through more academic departments. Since Rollins encourages students to be global citizens, it is important to give all students an equal chance of studying outside the country. It shouldn’t be limited to people who take a specific class or major in a language. In order to see a change, faculty within each department would have to work with the department of international programs.

 

Monica’s Third Journal Option 2

The first PEP suggestion I agree with is: “Fewer teacher opinions and more facts.” Of course, I haven’t had this problem in all of my classes or even most of them, but I have experienced it in enough classes to be irksome. I’ve noticed that teachers can frequently let their personal opinions leak out. In some cases, this might be a little subconscious, but overt statements about political parties or certain politicians really annoy me. Professors have an enormous ability to change students’ minds. They should use their position as a way to make students think for themselves and reach their own conclusions, rather than biasing their thought processes. I’ve noticed this tendency to bring personal thoughts and/or political beliefs into class in at least three departments. I’d much rather take a class without ever knowing the personal opinions of the teacher. When you’re just learning about a subject and forming opinions, it’s hard to disagree with the opinions held by someone with a PhD. Give me the facts and let me decide for myself.

The second suggestion I agree with is: “Don’t take absences so seriously. If a student doesn’t come to class it will show! They will fail themselves if too many are missed.” Of course, we can all agree that class discussions are hard to conduct with only half the class there. But at the same time, those who would attend on their own are probably the only ones who are prepared to participate anyway. It is one of my personal pet peeves when students who CLEARLY have not done the homework decide to raise their hand and interject things that are blatantly wrong. It’s a waste of everyone’s time to have students in class who only attend because they have to and only participate in an attempt to make it appear that they have done the work. Really, do your work or just stay home. If the only students who show up to class are the ones who are prepared and ready to learn, that’s totally fine with me.

 

Journal 3 Option 2

The first comment that I agree with is: “Professors have come to expect mediocrity- young profs are energetic, idealistic, have high expectations whereas ones who have been here along time are cynical and have low standard. We should push teachers to structure classes such that students have to rise to the material, rather than the material being restricted to work for students who are apathetic” I don’t think that this is necessarily a product of the teachers losing interest because they have been here for along time, but rather it is the result of frustration with students who do not try. I have noticed that there are two distinct types of students, those who excel and try to take on challenges and those who get by simply by doing the minimal amount of work required. Professors have begun to cater to the latter type of student. I can remember several instances where assignments have been made easier when students complained about the complexity. Mediocre work should be unacceptable, and professors should emphasize this point by pushing for a higher level of work and providing more challenging assignments. This is not to say that the less motivated student is not capable of a higher level of work, they simply have not been presented with the opportunity to show it. Many of the PEP suggestions emphasized “weeding out” slacker students. They don’t need to leave, they just need to rise up to a higher level of challenge.

I also want to emphasize that this is not the case in all the classes I have taken. I have taken many classes where I felt that the professors (who have been here for a long time) did not stand for mediocrity. It depends on the class and the department.

The second comment that I agree with is: “Keep the gen ed system the way it is.” Each gen. ed class I have taken has provided me with a unique perspective on topics that I would never have taken if they weren’t required. I think that a broad liberal arts education where students are presented with multiple perspectives is the key to fostering well-rounded graduates. I constantly make reference to gen. ed classes in my major classes, which has provided me with new ways to think critically.

 

PEP: Old vs. New & Rewarding Type A Personalities

The two that I agree with are:

Young professors are energetic, idealistic, and have high expectations, whereas ones that have been here for a while are cynical and have low expectations,

and

Stop only rewarding and encouraging Type A personalities.

I have taken enough classes over the past year to see that there is a vast difference in energy between new teachers and old teachers. The younger teachers are more invested and actually care about each individual student. Conversely, the older teachers typically care less about the courses they are teaching. For instance, in my introductory math class, I have a new teacher who has a vivacious personality and who inspires each student to do better. I have come to her with multiple problems – both personal and academic – and each time, she has accommodated me in order to help me succeed. In contrast, the biological sciences department has many tenured teachers. It is my experience that these teachers don’t take a genuine interest in the students but instead just aspire to get through the semester of class they have to teach. I believe that once teachers receive tenure, they take a less energetic stance toward teaching; they become less of a motivational force and more of a robotic educator.

As of right now, I don’t believe that there have been any steps to combat this transformation, other than the course evaluations that appear online at the end of the semester. Although these evaluations offer constructive criticism, I often wonder whether they truly affect teachers who have already reached / obtained tenure. I think the one individual who could help to correct this issue would be the dean of faculty or the dean of students. By voicing your opinion to them, you would be able to indirectly confront the issue without becoming personally involved in the situation.

The other topic I agree with is for teachers to stop rewarding type A personalities. Not everyone in the class raises his hand and participates during class discussion. Just because he does not respond does not necessarily mean that the student has not read or is not paying attention. Some individuals are quieter and interpret the information internally rather than shout aloud what the answer is.

Some teachers attempt to rectify this issue by offering a pause after questions, giving students plenty of time to respond. This allows each individual to think analytically and reason rather than simply shout out answers. Thus, all types of personalities have an equal opportunity to respond. Possible ways to encourage teachers to use this strategy when asking questions is to offer workshops during the school year. These workshops would help orient teachers with the different personalities of students and then train them in ways to foster a more open environment for everyone. In this case, I believe the dean of faculty would be the most capable individual to facilitate the formation of these workshops.

 

Julia’s Third Journal, Second Topic

At risk of sounding negative, I’ve chosen to review two policies I have serious issues with. Please understand, I do, in fact, think it is important to get a liberal arts education and to attend classes. But I think the rules regarding both are too strict and must be modified. Read on to find out why!

GenEds

I’m a senior. I mapped out my four years back in freshman year so that I could take a semester off and accomplish everything I needed to in the other seven. Scheduling classes for my major was a breeze. What wasn’t? Trying to take general education requirements!

First of all, I hate biology. It’s the bane of my existance, so I was never exactly eager to take a collegiate bio class. Since I’ve always been busy, I have been looking for plain bio, without lab, for the last three years. There’s only been two options. One, human ecology, which is offered only at 8 am (no thank you!) and the second, human evolution. Unfortunately for me, I already took that in high school. And boy, once was enough!

So, lucky me, I’m stuck with some 300 level Marine Ecosystems Bio lab for 6 hours / week my final semester senior year!

Let it be known professor, I dislike bio and sure don’t need to know about marine ecosystems where I’m headed! I want to apologize beforehand for the six hours of daydreaming I’ll partake in during your class.

Perhaps, the folks who came up with this whole Gen Ed thing will take sympathy on me and change their ways. My two cents for them is:

-offer a wider selection of gen ed classes every semester, especially biological sciences without labs!

-adopt a lenient policy, wherby students can skip one or two Gen Ed requirements of their choice.

Attendance Policy

Factor everything else out, and the Rollins Student pays approximately $150 per class. It’s all prepaid before the semester with the lofty Rollins tuition bill, so classes go on whether or not you’re in them.

So why should our teachers enforce attendance policies?

They shouldn’t.

The average college student balances work, school, and social activities. We live in mold-infested dorms with poorly circulated air. Our diets consist of Dominoes and Natty Light. We cram late hours in Olin after serving stuck-up Winter Parkies at a job that pays for the next tuition bill.  Face it, many of us average less than 6 hours of sleep a night and fail to be in peak educational conditional.

Sometimes the ideal use of class time is a quick hour of shut eye or a serious internship, not a lecture. And if the past four years has shown me anything, it’s that one solid night in the library with my Econ book can teach me more than seven hours spent pretending to listen in a classroom.

The real key to getting classroom attendance up is an enthusatic teacher. My Investments teacher, Dr. Lewin, doesn’t have an attendance policy, but the classroom is always full. Any teacher who feels shafted by their “slacker students” should take a page from Dr. Lewin. Love your subject, share that love  with us, and we’ll attend.

 

The good, the bad and the ugly

As i sit down to write this blog I have to go back and remember all my tutoring appointments from the last semester. The appointments that were good, great, no so great and the ones that never happened because one of us missed it…accidentally of course! Anyway, I remember my favorite appointments were with student who were well prepared and were genuinely confused about something. They had used a tutor as a last resort and only if they couldn’t figure it out on their own. My worst appointments were with those clients that were impatient and arrogant, as if I was their servant as a tutor. Other appointments that were right in the middle were those that weren’t as prepared as they probably would have liked but acknowledged it and were ready to achieve the goals that were set during the appointment. Those were really nice because they didn’t make me feel guilty for suggesting that they read the book!

I’m happy that we discussed the concepts of changing the language we use and being assertive, especially the first! I honestly don’t have a problem with being assertive, in fact, I think at times, I can be TOO assertive in general. It definately reflects in my tutoring sessions because sometimes I feel that I ask my questions too boldly or don’t give my clients enough time to answer or to think. After those questions that were hung I could simply look up and find a better way to pose my question, in a non offensive way.

 

the good the bad and the ugly

I had some really awesome experiences tutoring this past semester. I really feel like I was able to help students with their studies and gave them the confidence to succeed on tests and quizzes and study habits. I had a frequent client that gave me good feedback on how I was helping him. He made appointments before all tests and before his exams. I think that I really did help him which makes me feel great! Most people think tutroing isn’t hard, but it is because it has to do a lot with personality clicking. In order for your advice as a tutor to impact the client, your personalities have to understood by each other or else the client will just sit there adn nod their head while the tutor struggles to explain the subject matter. During a few sessions, I felt like I was not getting across my point to the client. That makes the session frustrating because because the tutor knows when the client isn’t understanding what in the world your saying. i only had one bad experience during a tutor session. It started off badly because I hadn’t checked my schedule past 1oclock that day so i thought I was off for the night, but at 8:05 I received a phone call notifying me that I had an appointment. I was so embarrassed because i would never not show up for anything so when I got there 15 minutes late, my client was kind of ticked at me..oopppss…. So I finally got situated, and asked the client what we would be working on that night. he explained to me that he had a lab report due the next day and had a few questions about his paper. So he opened his lab top and began asking me editing type questions. he was a little rude and chauvinistic in his words but I blew it off thinking it was just an arrogant type of personality.. whatever haha. I gave him editing advice and then he wanted me to start looking things up for him online and actually do his project for him. i explained to him that it was not my job to do that for him and that it was a waste of our tutoring time for me to Google search the entire time. I didn’t think think this was unreasonable but apparently he did because he complained about me. i guess he was just anxious and on a time crunch with his lab report to get it done because it was due the next day and he still had a lot of work to do on it, therefore he wanted me to the things he was having a hard time doing. I guess i would consider this experience an ugly one. All in all I love tutoring and ca not wait for next semester.

 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I’ve seen a good variety of students come for tutoring. Things that definately make a tutoring session good are the student AND the tutor being prepared. I had one session where I basically sat back as the student would tell me everything she knew about a topic. I didn’t even get a chance to write anything down on the form because she said so much, so fast. We had a really good biology conversation (nerd alert) because she knew the material so well and I could tie all of that in and help her connect all these different topics. It was good to hear her say that she felt much more confident for the test and we went over some test taking strategies since it was the first test. The student was thinking critically and organizing the material in her head and I just provided positive reinforcement. Other tutor sessions aren’t so easy when one person is not prepared. Sometimes you just have to say to them that they need to read the material before there can be any kind of discussion about it. When there’s that silence after you ask a question and you can tell they have no idea what you’re talking about all you can do is say ok, let’s look in the text where they talk about that and then after reading it we can discuss it and make sure we understand it. Sometimes it helps when they read it aloud and then I ask questions because right there they have practiced looking something up, reading about it, and then trying to understand it. What made me nervous the first couple times I tutored was what I would do if they asked me a question and I had no idea what they were talking about. I realized though that it happens and it’s actually a good learning opportunity for the student if handled correctly. I always bring other biology textbooks so we can look things up together. That’s really important in studying because you can stare at the text forever and not get it, but sometimes a different approach or another source will lead you to that ‘ah hah’ moment. I also ask the student before the session what they want to go over more specifically so I can make sure I am up to speed on those topics. Also I make sure we’ve talked about their learning style so the session is effective and geared towards how they learn. Some of the things I do now when tutoring are using other sources (internet, textbooks) to look up more information on topics we are discussing to show them how important that is when studying. Also I have them explain to me the concepts and think about why you would do some bio. technique or how does that topic relate to (x) etc. I haven’t had any ugly tutoring sessions but some definately had more uneasy moments than others. I’ve learned a lot from the ‘tougher’ sessions and will be that much more prepared next year.

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Over the last semester of tutoring, I have found myself in two of these categories: the good and the bad. Although a majority of the tutoring sessions that I have fall into the “good” category, there were a few sessions that crossed into the bad. There were a few reasons that these few crossed into the bad. First and foremost, it was the client that was completely unprepared and unorganized. When an unprepared and unorganized client came for a session, I would spend the majority of the hour trying to narrow down the topics into categories that were of manageable size. This was a problem because the client would get a lot less out of the session than usual because they failed to prepare. The client would in turn associate the lack of help and understanding with the tutor. I would consider this “bad.” Another reason that a tutoring session could turn for the worse has to do with my organization. On one or two occasions, I have found myself leading a client onto a tangent that more likely than not would not help them in the long run. It is important that, as a tutor, you stay on the path that you lay out at the beginning of the session lest you move into the “bad” realm.