I believe I have FINALLY had a real session! Yes! Hold your applause, thank you! In fact, I think I may say I have had two successful sessions. Can I say that I feel so much better now? I can do it!

My first session was pretty cool. I immediately realized that my strength is probably that I have no problem talking to complete strangers. I never have. I’ve made friends out of strangers at airports, ski resorts, and amusement parks all over the United States because I never can sit quietly longer than 2 minutes. Soon, my tutee and I were laughing about odd things: How strange it was that I have never heard of Strongbad before my Methods in Tutoring class, how neither of us really know how to say “kinesthetic”, and how odd it is that we can idolize the same brother who teases us relentlessly. We were able to look over his paper and still have a good time.

My weakness was that, as I had suspected would be my problem, was I kept feeling like I was taking over the session. I kept asking the tutee “Am I helping? Is this what you meant to say?” etc. and he would say in reply “I’m here to see if it sounds good to you, so if you think it sounds better another way, I’m all for it.” Not exactly what I wanted to hear. Yes, I’m supposed to help his paper be more clear, but I’m more or less supposed to be prompting him, not doing his work. So after that session was done, I observed Kassie doing a session. After asking the tutee what the assignment was, she asked “Now what are your concerns?” So simple, and yet I hadn’t asked my tutee that before. We talked about it later and she said that question helps her keep session in focus. At the end, she can look at what his concerns are and say “Yes, I did what he wanted me to do.” Another thing Kassie did was to ask the tutee to grab a pen so if the tutee wants to change something, they won’t be hesitant. Kassie said that another tutor had taught her that a tutor shouldn’t even write on the paper. Have the tutee make the marks, and then the tutor knows she isn’t going over the line.

All in all, tutoring was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I heard stories of tutees crying in sessions, or being angry at the tutor for making suggestions, and I wasn’t sure how common that was. So far, both of my tutees were VERY nice.. no breakdowns YET. It’s been more like I’m helping a friend with a paper. I know that’s what a tutee is, but I never looked at it exactly that way.

For my second tutee, after I asked what the assignment was, I asked her what her concerns were. Then, I handed her a pen and as we read through the paper. She marked her own paper. :)

So the moral of the story is: I shouldn’t have worried so much and if you want an ice breaker, go with Strongbad!