Thursday, October 20, 2011

My First Peer Student Session

The first student I have dealt with on a one on one basis was Kim. When I first met Kim, I realized that she was a great student and wanted to learn. The most amazing thing was, Kim came in with the attitude knowing that anything she wanted to do could be done and accomplished. We worked together on her outline and she was already prepared. The most exciting thing was knowing that she was willing to learn and she had all her paperwork prepared and ready to work. It was such a great feeling knowing that I helped a student learn how to write and organize an outline. That really made my day and I realized tutoring is not so hard, as long as you put your mind to it. The things I think about the most are the questions students ask me, and I realized I've asked those same questions, making much more easier for me to be there for a student and help them.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Writing Techniques

You know, just hearing someone speak about being a tutor sounds really hard, but actually its not. I have sat in on quite a few sessions and they were all smooth sailing. That’s because every student was willing to learn and answer the main questions to get them started on their thesis statement. I realize that the main goal for a tutor is to prepare a student to become a better writer. Once teach people to brainstorm and learn the proper techniques of writing and critiquing a paper, then they will learn the importance of writing. Once students focus on their thesis statement, then they realize that their main focus or goal is to catch the reader’s eye and make them feel like their paper is very interesting and contains some juicy facts or ideas. The most interesting part of tutoring sessions is knowing that students have a general idea of what they’re working on, but just not knowing how to organize or critique their papers the proper way. The greatest idea is knowing that every student always leave with knowing and understanding the facts of the writing process and being able to identify or detect the problems or issues in the paper.

First Time

My first experience was being introduced to Mrs. Gibson. Mrs. Gibson is actually my coordinator of the writing center. When I first met Mrs. Gibson, I was very nervous, but then I realized that she was a very excited teacher that’s looking for students that are willing to learn and teach their peers the proper writing process. Since I’ve been dealing with her one on one, she has a great attitude and her professionalism inspires me on the type of attitude to have as a peer tutor. The impact she has on me lets me realize that as a student, teacher, listener, or learner, if you just be yourself, anything is possible for you to do. She really have some awesome skills and she makes her tutoring sessions very interesting and a comfort zone that makes a student feel comfortable about their writing skills. Now that I’m on my second week of training, I have learned a lot of general ideas on how to prepare myself as a peer tutor.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Real Tutoring

Mrs. Gibson helping Jaime, who recently
returned to Puerto Rico. We miss you, Jaime!
As a veteran teacher, I've always said that life's greatest lessons are played out in the classroom. That is equally true in the Writing Center, a mini version of the classroom. One of my latest life lessons is about the importance of being real (authentic, honest, concrete, genuine, sincere). There's a time to say "Good" when somebody passes by and off-handedly asks about your day. But there's also a time--more often than I'd realized before--when it's best to share from a place of deeper sincerity. It can feel uncomfortable at times, but it brings great reward in the end.

Now transfer that to the Writing Center, and you'll find a formula for success. It has been over two decades since I've been the student walking into a tutoring center to find help. But it hasn't been more than a few hours since I've had to ask somebody for help about something. So I can understand some of the mixed emotions students feel the first time they walk into our Center and nervously fumble through their backpacks looking for assignment sheets, books, and rough drafts. I understand the vulnerability involved when asking a complete stranger to critique the essay you spent all night laboring over. And I also know that even with a dozen years of teaching experience, I can still feel twinges of that nervous energy when I meet a student and am so hopeful for a productive session together.

So that is why I would summarize my tutoring style in one phrase: I'm me. Slightly wrong grammar in those two words, but they seem to fit. I can sometimes feel a temptation to come across as the expert, the "know-it-all," but what is most effective is to simply be myself--although a more professional version than the one you might meet on a lazy Saturday morning. I'm a happy person with a zeal for life,  a zeal for creative stories and provoking themes...even a zeal for a good sentence fragment. I'm realizing that in my field of teaching and writing, there is much more I don't know than what I do know. And that's ok. So when a student came two weeks ago for help with an APA paper, I didn't hesitate to tell her that I'd never written one before. But don't worry, I didn't end our time together. Instead, I took her through the learning process I use to gather new information (which happens to include my favorite website Purdue). Somehow, together, we managed to create in-text citations and a Reference page in less than an hour. We laughed several times about the craziness of learning this new system and enjoyed the journey together. This is just one example, but almost every session has moments where I demonstrate to the student how to verify information, such as using Dictionary.com on my phone to double check spelling of a word, phone a friend for help (such as when we called Lee who had just taught me a new procedure for analyzing), or access the wealth of knowledge available on the Internet.

There was a time when I felt bad if I didn't know something a student asked. Craziness. There is much I don't know, but I do know to be real and model the learning process. My confidence and ease come not because I have all the answers but simply because I know I don't. I can be myself and know that's good enough. The students follow that example--a greater lesson learned than any writing or editing skill.