Reminder

Hi all. This is just a reminder that we're not officially starting this blog up until Friday, so as long as you have responded to the prompt from last week, you're good.

Although, I suppose that if Laikwan really wants a prompt, I could come up with something.

Mad prompts

Where's our prompt at! Where's our prompt at! Our new prompt, yeah! I need a prompt, stat! :)

Shifts of Worries

I will never forget the first time I sat down with a student in my tutoring quest. I was a bundle of nerves. I wanted to teach the student everything in one session. By the end, I realized that I had overdone the session. The student seemed overwhelmed by all of my many suggestions. Since then, I have consistently worried if I am covering the most important things for the student. I always hope that the student has walked out of our session together with better knowledge of what he or she does well and what he or she can improve on. My main goal is to help instill the student’s confidence that he or she can write.

My latest worry has been catching the biggest concerns. When I first started tutoring in the DELC I was focusing on theses/topic sentences/structure/supportive background etc. I quickly realized these students needed some more help in the grammar department. I have become used to tutoring with grammar in my mindset rather than the bigger concerns. Now when I tutor other levels, I realize I am trying so hard to look for grammar that I miss some of the content and structural feedback that I could give. My goal this semester is to be able to see both kinds of possible improvements without having to focus on one at a time in my mind. My other goal is that I will be able to shut out the noise around me. I am not the best at focusing my best when the center is noisy. I have really been trying to learn how to tune out the extra noise. Hopefully, this semester I will help combat these worries.

Me? Nervous? ......O.o

I didn't think I was nervous, but now I'm not so sure. I've done a lot of editing in my life and I'm finding out that it is only about 10% of what I need to do for the tutee. In 20 minutes (or less) I need to be able to understand what the tutee is trying to convey, help them organize that into coherent thought, and make it sound grammatically correct. Right.....I'm totally not going to mess up on any of that!

For once, I'm not the only person who knows what they're doing. In fact, I know less than pretty much all of the seasoned tutors. This just makes me feel slightly intimidated. I'd compare it to the feeling you have when you go from elementary school to junior high. It's exciting cause you'll be with the big kids, but you aren't one of those big kids yet. I hope I grow up fast!

I think if I just allow myself to be human and make mistakes the first few times, I'll be ok. I feel sorry for the tutee's who have to put up with me learning, but hopefully I can be teaching them something while I'm learning how to be a better tutor.