Journal #4

For our approach, I think that there are a few categories that could be combined. Modeling could be an example of Fostering Independence. Scaffolding, Verifies Knowledge, and Active Learning could be combined. Approachability and Attitude could go together because they are perceptions of how the tutor feels about the session. Respecting the client’s Processing Time could go under Encourage/Support. Since we’ve never talked about distributing learning materials, that section could probably be removed.

1. Fostering Independence/Modeling – I feel that I am developing my Fostering Independence skills. Often, I allow the client to set the pace of the session, but I very rarely explain to them why I am using a certain portion of the text to look for the answer. Next semester, I will work on showing them key words in the problems that indicate we should look in section XY of the book.
2. Active Learning/ Scaffolding/ Verifies Knowledge – I think I am accomplished at this. I often ask open ended questions while still questioning the details of the process. However, I’m not sure if I over explain topics. I have a hunch that I might, and next semester, I’ll let the client take over the explaining if it comes up often that I do.
3. Approachability/Attitude – I feel like I’m developing in this area. I think I’m enthusiastic about chemistry, but I do often get sidetracked with my clients, especially at the beginning of sessions. I’ll work on strategies to get back on track when we get off of it.

 

Journal 4: Self Evaluation

After looking over the UNC Greensboro tutoring evaluation for, I have a few suggestions on how to create a shorter form for our use. The attendance category should be eliminated seeing as how the students will only be evaluating us on one meeting at a time and therefore will not be able to evaluate us on our attendance patterns. Attitude and approachability should be combined because a tutor with a good attitude will also be approachable. Fosters independence should be combined with encourages/supports because someone who fosters independence is encouraging. Active learning and verifies knowledge seem very similar on the rubric so they should also be combined. Modeling and scaffolding should be deleted to simplify things. Learning skills could be kept but it should be re-defined to make it more applicable to one-appointment tutoring. That leaves a good five categories.

Attitude/Approachability

Sometimes I feel like I had to try really hard not to get annoyed with students who just didn’t seem to be able to get the material. However, I don’t feel like I ever lost control. I always tried to smile when I first greeted the student and continue to have a positive attitude throughout the session no matter how frustrated I got. I genuinely enjoy tutoring so it wasn’t often difficult to maintain a positive attitude. Also, I feel that the number of repeat clients I had speaks well for my approachability.

Fosters independence/Encourages/supports

I definitely tried to be encouraging and supportive but I feel one of my clients became too dependent on me. Maybe next semester I can improve on giving students more tools that they will be able to use outside of the tutoring session so that they will not become so dependent and feel that they have to come back for every little issue. I only came across this problem with one student, however, and she improved immensely by the end of the semester.

Processing time

A lot of times came up where I asked a student a question and they didn’t answer for quite a while. I felt I could be making the student uncomfortable by not telling them the answer if they didn’t seem to know it themselves. Also, I was worried that we would run out of time and not get to everything if I did this too much. However, I eventually learned that if a student genuinely had no clue they would eventually say so before too long. If they did, it may take a bit for them to arrange an answer in their head before being able to say it aloud.

 

Journal 4 – UNC evaluation

Reshaping the Assesment -

• Attendance
• Attitude (includes  approachable and encourages/supports),
• Allows Independence (includes processing time and active learning),
• Instruction (includes modeling, learning skills, verifies knowledge and scaffolding)

Now to actually Apply it…

Attendance – Honestly, my initial attendance was probably as low as a 2.  I missed one appointment altogether and was late for more than one appointment.  I feel like by the end of the semester I did improve.  I had a much greater knowledge of when I had to check for appointments and also had developed the habit of checking for appointments.  It also helped to communicate with my clients so that I had an idea of when they would be back and in so that I could expect their next appointment on tutor trac.  I think for next semester I should be completely aware of all appointments and ensure that I do not miss any appointments or allow any appointments to “sneak up” on me like I did this semester.

Attitude – I think that the circumstances for this semester were very trying on my attitude but I would still rate myself as high as a 4 in this category.  All of my clients felt comfortable telling me about the class as well as talking to me outside of tutoring.  I feel like I made the tutoring environment very relaxed and tried my best to put them at ease.  I am also very enthusiastic about my subject and made lots of effort to get my clients excited about it as well.  The area which I probably would rate lowest if I had not combined the categories would be encourages and supports.  It was very difficult for me to encourage some of my clients because at times it felt like they were making no headway into the subject.  I supported them and encouraged them when they did make significant improvement but it was incredible difficult for me to find things to meaningfully praise them on.  For next semester I should try to be less critical of my clients and should find ways to encourage them towards success rather than be disappointed if they fail.

Allows Independance – This is one category in which I feel that I persevered in despite my difficulties.  I helped my clients to understand main ideas and included them in everything I did in every session.  I allowed adequate time for thought but did not let the session lag if the client did not know.  I think, given the clients I had to work with I would rate myself a 4 in this and applaud my continued attempts to encourage independant thought.

Instruction – In this, I would probably rate myself a 3.5.  I did very well at scaffolding and in that, probably would give myself a 4 in that subcategory.  Computer Science is a topic that easy to break down into small logical steps and therefore made scaffolding easy.  I would often include learning fundamentals which I saw were missing but saw such large gaps it would be impossible for me to review everything each time.  I should find ways to encourage my clients to improve their understanding of these concepts each time and then check for comprehension rather than doing a less than thorough job every time.  I should also explore new and different ways of modeling problems.  I tried relating a problem to real life, drawing pictures, and step by step logic but either these strategies need to be improved or I need to find new more effective strategies.  In terms of verifing knowledge, this was another topic that became very difficult to maintain due to the obvious lack of knowledge in many key areas.  I did however make attempts to verify that what I had gone through in a session could be understood and repeated.  I showed different strategies for manipulating existing knowledge and code into new problems and new code.

 

Journal 4: Evaluation

I would combine the Attendance, Attitude, Approachability, and Encourages/Supports categories into one section that basically evaluates the tutor’s ability to create a positive learning environment for his or her clients.  Fosters Independence, Processing Time, and Active Learning should be combined into a category that evaluates the tutor “helping the student to help himself.”  The last category on the evaluation should be a combination of Verifies Knowledge, Modeling, Learning Skills, and Scaffolding, which would evaluate tutoring skills and teaching methods.

In the first category, I would give myself a 4.  I haven’t missed any sessions, and try to always be open and friendly and approachable when working with and greeting clients.  I ask them where they would like to sit, and try as much as possible to give praise where praise is due.  I definitely think it is important to build the client’s self-confidence through support, and always try to have a positive outlook.

I think I need to work a bit more on helping the student to help himself/herself.  While I do try to get the client to think through questions and answer them themselves, I sometimes feel like I end up lecturing instead when dealing with concepts that the client’s don’t really know.  I also try to let them pick the topics to go over during the session, but it is sometimes hard to give enough processing time since the sessions are so short as it is and I am tempted to jump in.  For the same reason, I also sometimes find it difficult to let them locate the information by themselves, though I try not to simply give them all the information myself.  I would probably give myself a 3 in this category.

In the last category of teaching learning skills, I think I would only give myself a 2.  I think I do relatively well in verifying knowledge as I always try to check whether the client understands the concepts we are covering.  I also try to break ideas down so that they are easier to understand.  What I don’t think I am very good at is modeling how to find information and, especially, incorporating learning skills.  I definitely need to work on teaching the client’s how to become more independent for next year.

 

Journal 4 Fuller

Attendance

Attitude

Knowledgeable

Encouraging/Supportive

Active Learning

Effectiveness

Attendance: I have been late for two appointments this semester. Both occurred on days when I had forgotten to check my schedule so I got a call 10 minutes in and ran to TJs. For all other appointments I have been prompt and mentally present. I would give myself a 3 in this category.

Attitude: Even on days when I wasn’t feeling well or enthusiastic about tutoring I made a significant effort to display a positive attitude. This means giving praise where to client deserves it (preparedness, well completed work, improvement) and encouraging second efforts for those not-so-successful attempts. It also means hiding biases against particular topics. For example, I hate por vs. para. It is so difficult to teach new speakers how to differentiate between their separate meanings because there is no English translation and because every book has a different chart. When it comes up though, I express this frustration in a way that makes the student feel at ease. I share their dislike for the grammar rule but do not blame them for bringing it up.I would actually give myself a 4 in this category.

Knowledgeable: I would only give myself a 2 in this category. I am usually able to recall and explain the subjects that are brought to my attention during sessions but I frequently make mistakes and have a difficult time coming up with original examples. It makes me depend on the book more than I would like since clients come to a tutor for an experience that they are clearly not getting from just the book.

 

Journal 4

I think that “attitude” and ” approachability” should be combined. Really, “approachability” is a facet of a tutor’s attitude. If she has a good attitude, then she will very likely be highly apporachable.

In terms of attitude and approachability, I think I am a 3. I do stay focused on the assignment and am polite, but I’m usually not very relaxed. Of course, it has been months since my last tutoring appointment, so maybe I will be better if I tutor next year. Who knows? Confidence and a relaxed demeanor are definitely goals for if I do, though.

“Modeling” and “Learning Skills” should be combined for similar reasons. “Modeling” is just a way to reinforce learning skills, so it should be included in the “Learning Skills” category.

For Latin 101 I ended up having to focus on learning skills an awful lot. Jumping into Latin can be disorienting, and my clients needed to develop frameworks for learning and studying the material. I ended up modeling by showing some strategies I used in Latin 101 and since, and then talking to them about their own strengths and weaknesses and crafting personal strategies for them. As such, I think I earned a 4 for that combined category.

I don’t think I would add to the list or combine anymore categories, so I really don’t have anything more to say.

 

Journal # 4 – evaluation

As far as the tutoring assessment form is concerned, I suggest to break these 11 slots down and categorize it better. At first, this seems overwhelming, it is a lot of text!

I suggest for the TJ’s form to have one category for “factors outside the actual tutoring session” i.e. attendance, attitude, approachability.

A second category should be used for issues on the topic of the session itself i.e. does he/she verify my knowledge or break down the information (of this topic currently covered).

The third category would be: Further (research) skills, i.e. helps to find information/resources for further reference, helps to find methods/strategies to learn etc.

My assessment:

In my tutoring sessions so far, I have tried not only to help clients on the specific questions they have but also to enhance their skills to find other sources of information (online dictionaries etc.). Furthermore I always try to verify their knowledge and let the students repeat and use the knowledge we went over. I try to make it easy for students to approach me whenever they need my help outside official tutoring appointments at TJ’s.  Sometimes I have to restrain myself to not give answers too fast to students and allow them to find the answer themselves. But I am constantly working on myself to allow them more time and not to be too fast with that.

 

Post Four

Personally, I think that encouragement/supports could be eliminated. That is all part of a tutoring persona that one has to have. But being encouraging as a rule seems like its drifting from the business at hand, which is to improve study skills and elaborate course concepts. All the “personable” categories, such as approachability and the encouragement categories could be combined. Verifies knowledge might also be combined with active learning. I think the rest of the categories are all right, although I would emphasize active learning and learning skills.

Attendance: I would give myself a three. I did miss one appointment due to a misunderstanding about how TutorTrac worked, but I also did not receive a phone call or any notice about it. I did reschedule this appointment asap, with some considerable inconvenience to me. Plus, I was always on time for other appointments. Still, a miss is a miss.

Fosters Independence: Three. I stressed always in my tutoring sessions that there are many resources available in textbooks, the Internet, and so on to help learn on ones own. This three isn’t for lack of trying. Rather, I simply do not think I was successful, since I had many repeat clients.

Active Learning: Three. I did try to make sure that, during the appointment, the clients were paying attention and really understanding what I said. I did tend to get somewhat lecture-y though, but mostly because some of the students simply had no idea about the topic. When confronted with more informed clients, however, I definitely struggled to turn that lecture-mode off and let that student guide the session.

I hope that next semester I will improve on emphasizing study skills that will make clients more independent, and I hope to let them guide the session more than I have been letting them. I think I underestimate the clients, sometimes, and I need to stop doing that.

 

Lauren’s 4th Journal

The UNC Greensboro tutor assessment and evaluation form is very helpful because it explains in depth what each score means. However, it is far too long, and I think the majority of students would neglect to read it all. Consequently, I think the attitude and approachability categories should be combined. I also think that attendance could be deleted. In addition, I think that the modeling category could be incorporated in learning skills or deleted altogether.

Although I have not had extensive tutoring experience this semester, I will do my best to evaluate my performance for the few appointments I had.  In the category of attitude and approachability, I would give myself a 3. I believe I am positive and friendly, and try to make the client feel as comfortable as possible. In the category of processing time, I would give myself a 2. I feel like I need to allow the client more time to think critically on his or her own before I interrupt with my ideas. It can be difficult to let a client struggle with a concept, as I have the urge to help. Therefore, it is my goal for next semester to give the client sufficient processing time. In regards to learning skills, I would give myself a 3. I try to offer suggestions in time management and note taking skills, as my clients have all been freshmen who are often not aware of good study habits.

 

Journal 4 Self Evaluation

I think the Tutor Assessment Rubric can be broken down into four categories. One category is the three A’s ( attendance, attitude, approachability), overall this could be relabeled as professionalism. Is the tutor professional while working. Do they show up on time? Do they have good manners? Do they keep a professional manner while working? Another category could be made up by combining the fosters independence category and the encourages/supports category. This category could be renamed tutor guidance, and it could measure how well the tutor supports the tutee and how they set up the sessions. If the tutor is the one controlling the time spent working on something or the tutee.  The third category could score how well the tutor let’s the client work out problems. For this category you could combine processing time, active learning, and verifies knowledge. It could measure whether or not the tutor is just walking the tutee through the steps or if they are actually allowing them to work it out for themselves. The final category could be how well the tutor breaks down information for the tutee. Do they give relevant helpful examples? Do they show better/easier ways to learn the material? This category combines modeling, learning skills, and scaffolding. So the four categories are professionalism, tutor guidance, allowing client to think, and breaking down information.

After evaluation myself I think my strongest areas are professionalism and tutor guidance. I believe that I always act professional while tutoring. I always am on time for my appointments, and always greet my clients in a friendly way. I also allow my client to decide where they want to work, and try to always have a good attitude which is easier on some days then others. I also always let the client decide how long they want to work on each topic. I never try to pressure them to move on to another topic. Also, I try to e encourage them by saying things like “good job” and “that’s right” when they grasp a concept.

I believe I am fairly good at allowing the client sufficient time to think through a topic. I may need to work on that a little though by using more leading questions. Also, I think it would be good to find different ways/ methods of breaking down problems for the breaking down information category because sometimes clients don’t understand a topic if you break it down one way, so it would be helpful to know other ways of explaining the topic to see if the client grasps another way better. So I will try to work on those things next semester.

 

Journal #4

The categories modeling, learning skills, and scaffolding should be combined. They seem like they are the same to me and could be combined into a category, perhaps called utilization. All these steps seem to me as if it’s asking how well can a tutor utilize his skills to get the lesson across to the student. I think that the active learning category can either be combined into the new utilization category or gotten rid of altogether. As for the other categories, they all seem to be essential in rating a tutor.

As for rating me, I wouldn’t really know because I didn’t have any appointments. So, my goal for next year is to get more appointments so I’ll be able to rate myself at the end of the year according to these categories.

 

Journal #4 Self Evaluation

Journal 4 Self Evaluation

• 1.· Attitude and Approachability, and Encourages/Supports seem to intertwine and could probably be combined. Whether one is encouraging, supportive, or approachable directly involves one’s attitude. If their attitude is negative, they will not be very approachable and the support and encouragement will most likely be negative.

· Attendance could probably be excluded since some clients only come one time, or unless this is serious, it should be handled with administration rather than have the client evaluate it.

· Modeling could probably be combined with Learning Skills, because one skill you need in order to learn would be locating sources of information on one’s own.

· Keep Fosters Independence, Processing Time, Scaffolding, Active Learning, Verifies Knowledge, and Learning Skills

2. Verifies Knowledge: 3

I’m pretty good about asking open-ended questions and encouraging a student to try to answer questions on their own. I think I started out this semester as a teacher and ended as a tutor. By first checking to see how a client understood something, I could then figure out where my help was needed. It is important to figure out how much the student understands by having them try to write or conjugate something first, because sometimes they might tell you, “I don’t understand this at all,” but what is really happening is that they just haven’t figured out how to organize the information so that it will make sense to them. So you have to ask those open-ended questions and see how much the student already knows. Instead of simply explaining something on the broad spectrum, you can hone in on their weak spots. I have had trouble sometimes trying to figure out how to approach a student’s learning style, because sometimes they do very well, so you have to look at how they put information together, rather than just the information itself, because as I found out, you never know where that information is coming from when you walk in to a session. By making sure that this person understands what they are writing and speaking in Spanish, I can know that the information on their homework or paper is verifiable to what they actually know, and then we can move on to what they do not already know. It wasn’t until almost the end of this semester that I found the importance of having the student recap the information they had learned at the end of the session in order to see what they had retained from the session and to let them verify to themselves what they now understand. It was so important, I wish I had used it more, and will do so next semester.

Active Learning: 2-3

Here’s where it was important for me to stop trying to be the teacher, and to start tutoring. If you simply explain something exactly as the teacher had, you are not helping the student. I always tried to help to distinguish main ideas and details, we used their materials, and sometimes I would point them in the direction of which material to use, rather than having them decide which would be best, which I probably should have given them more of the wheel on that one, but most of the time they did figure that one out for themselves anyways. Sometimes I would accidentally over-explain a topic, even include information that might be helpful in the future, but not for the present, so it ended up just being confusing, and therefore I just said “scratch that.” I usually asked them what they were trying to say or how something would translate to them, to get them more involved in understanding what they were writing or saying, because you can write or say anything, but it may not always make sense to you. I think I have reached a point where I realize that having the student identify what and why they are doing something is more important that myself just giving them the reason. I will try more in the future to let them tell me where to find the information they are looking for, and if they really are not sure, I will point them in the right direction once, then, ask them to remember the last time if it comes up a second time.

Attitude: 4

Here is one that I am mentioning because, without the attitude I have, I would probably never have become a tutor for Spanish. I am always very positive about my role as a tutor, because I used to be the struggling student. I used to be in the shoes before me at every session. Spanish was down the block from my mind until my Freshman Year of college. I love Spanish now so much that I get excited about new words to use and new grammatical ways to use them. I want to spread my interest and passion for languages on to the clients I tutor by showing how interested I am in what they are learning about and by showing them that languages should be fun, not taxing. We use language every day to communicate and learn, and they build society and culture, and by learning other secondary languages we can expand universal communication. I know some of these students are just taking language for the requirement, but really, what you put into it and what you want out of it will be reflected in your attitude toward what you are learning, or in my case, tutoring.

 

Ashleigh’s 4th Journal: Self-Evaluation

1) I think that attitude can be combined with encourages/supports because one’s attitude can either be encouraging or not. Also, approachability and attendance can be grouped into the category of “availability”. Otherwise, I think the separate categories are good.

2) Availability: I would give myself a 3 in this category. While I always try to help and take time even outside of my tutoring hours to help clients (via facebook, e-mail, etc.), there have been times when I was not able to make appointments. This, fortunately, turned out to be no problem since my clients were willing to rescedule, but it made me feel a bit unreliable nonetheless. However, I do want to make sure that my clients feel completely confident in the material covered, so I will keep in contact with them until everything is settled.
Attitude: I give myself a 4 in this category because I really think it is critical to show students that I am there to help them- not to intimidate them. I try my best to encourage them and never make them feel embarassed or awkward. Because of this, I have actually become friends with some of the students.
Fosters independence: I would give myself a 2 for this. Before really getting into subjects, I ask students what they already know about a particular question/ topic, and then we get into discussion. I have found recently that I have a tendency to do a lot of searching throughout the books myself, as opposed to letting them find the answers on their own. I feel like I’m helping, but I’m really hurting them by not letting them figure out for themselves the process through which they will need to go in the future. I’m working on this, though…

 

Journal #4

I think the UNC-G assessment is very thorough and useful, but definitely too long for clients to use all the time. In trying to condense it, I think the Attitude & Approachability categories could be combined. It is basically a matter of combining manners, demeanor and other behaviors with verbal output. Fosters independence & Processing time could probably be combined as well. Allowing sufficient processing time is just one way of fostering independence. It allows a student the opportunity to generate a response before you give any of your input.

In the Attitude/Approachability area, I would give myself a 3. I think that I am friendly and keep my attention on the student/material, and also contribute to creating an environment where the student feels comfortable. However, I can think of a few occasions on which I myself may not have been or appeared to be relaxed and comfortable.

When it comes to fostering independence and allowing processing time, I think I could be a 4. I don’t impose if a student is trying to figure something out on his/her own, but might try to offer guidance or prompts that help students generate answers when they are stuck. I try different things to get the student to come up with the answer before I provide it.

I’m going to give myself a 2 on attendance this semester, but blame soccer for most of it. I actually missed my very first appointment because I wasn’t used to checking TutorTrac and didn’t know the rules about appointment notifications. The rain caused my phone to die a couple of hours before that appointment so even though I was available, TJ’s could reach me. I had to reschedule a couple of other appointments because of soccer trips out of town or other prior commitments that conflicted with my hours. I missed a few meetings because of practice & games too. Anyway, I know I can improve on this next semester as my schedule will be more regular.

 

Journal #4 – UNC Evaluation

1. I think the UNC Evaluation is a very well set-up evaluation form and it will be great to have here at Rollins College.  However, many of these categories can be put together such as attitude and approachability and also encourages/supports and fosters independce.  These categories are very interesting and they will be very helpful in order to analyze one’s tutoring ability and will help in improving one’s skills as well.  The descriptions of each category are also essential in order for the student to correctly asses the tutor’s abilities.  I think it would also be helpful for each tutor to asses themselves maybe once a month in order to see how they think they are doing, also.  This evaluation system will be very useful for both tutors and clients in the coming years.

2.  The three categories I will be assesing myself on are: attendance, encouragment, and veryfing knowledge.  In attendance I would definitely make a 4, exemplary, because I was always on time and I made my appointments.  I am a stickler for being on time and I try to never be late.  In regards to my encouragment, I think I would get either a 3 or a 4.  I think I have improved toward the end of the semester because at the beginning, I was not exaclty sure what I was doing.  However, towards the end, I knew what I was doing and I was able to encourage the student when they were doing a good job or support them when they got stuck.  I tried to make sure not to get too involved in order for the student to feel independent and able to complete the work, but I also definitely helped them when they could not think of a concept or understand a topic.  Finally, in veryfing knowledge, I would probably receive a 2 at the beginning of the semester and a 3 or 4 at the end.  At the beginning, I taught more than I tutored.  Instead of letting the student figure things out, I told them the rules and conjugations and they mimicked my actions.  However, after observing and going through more tutor training, I realized that I had to let them tell me what they knew and then correct or add any other knowledge that I felt relevant.  I really improved in this aspect of my tutoring abilities and I now know how to balance teaching a subject versus aiding in the students learning and understanding of it.