Bloggin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo

    I’m not sure how everyone’s first session is supposed to go, but I was dropped head first into mine like a baby escaping from his highchair. And, once it was happening, I felt just about as effective as a baby helplessly dive bombing the floor. All of my experience correcting friends’ papers and, indeed, experience gained through my own writing abandoned me. I was doomed for the cold tile floor awaiting me below.

    Luckily, however, I was handed a fairly easy session. A man had come in with a narrative essay for his English 1010 class about his trip to Jalisco, Mexico. I introduced myself, sat him down, and got right to work. He was looking for help with the structure of his essay, though as the session went on it evolved to focus more on basic grammar and such. After reading his essay, I assured him that his writing was actually rather good and his structure was clear and straightforward. Probably the biggest challenge I had was refraining from spending the entire session correcting superfluous mistakes, though there were a few thing that I made sure to mention to him. He had a fascinating habit of using their where he should’ve used there or they’re that was making my eye twitch.

    By the end of the session, we had decided that he should focus specifically on Jalisco rather than Mexico as a whole, considering that’s where he went on his trip and the city was in his title, but not in his essay. I encouraged him to feel free to inject more of his own personality into the paper, bringing up similarities and differences among him and the people in the state. We talked about the huge cultural importance of futbal, food, and music in Mexico and how those affected Jalisco specifically. I felt like I had established a pretty grand working relationship with the guy by the time he left, and I encouraged him to come back any time.
   
    With the session over, was really unsure of how I had done at first. Frankly, I was mortified. Even though the session had ended on really good terms, I still felt like I hit the floor more than once. But, as I lay battered and bruised, a fellow tutor reassured me that I had done really well and that I had no reason to be worried. There was still quite a lot of doubt in the back of my mind, but as the week went on and I had more and more sessions, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on things. Maybe I won’t crash and burn after all?

Fearing Fear is Folly

Just like any new endeavor, nervousness always accompanies it. Often I find myself thinking something that’s obvious to me is obvious to the student or should be obvious. I try not to assume that the student should or should not know something I know, such as certain grammar and comma principles, because I have noticed I come across as abrasive or condescending. On the contrary, I’m doing everything I can not to be condescending or abrasive. I simply enjoy the social interaction and the opportunity to help other people to learn how to improve their writing skills.

Along with the fear of misunderstood intentions, I fear nitpicking through the tutee’s essay or rewording their sentences to better suit what I think sounds “better.”  Not many people love or even like grammar, but I do. I love picking apart sentences and finding out how the words function in a sentence, and so it’s really difficult for me not to pick apart someone’s paper and reconstruct their sentences in a way that I feel is more effective, clear, or aesthetic. To combat this tendency, I have to constantly remind myself that this is their paper with their voice, and I’m not there to subvert their voice with mine, but to make their voice come through more clearly and with more strength.

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” FDR said in the days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While tutoring is not a surprise attack or a military engagement, I can prepare for tutoring because I’m aware of my own shortcomings and faults. Just like running a drill or a war game, I can practice in order to prepare for my first “battle.” I only hope that my first battle will have zero causalities.

Now If I Could Just Get Paid to Do This. . .

I struck it lucky with my first session.  The student had written a three-page personal essay for ENGL 1010.  The paper was almost flawless!  There were a few grammar and punctuation errors, but aside from that, he nailed it.  He wrote a strong narrative piece with genuine emotion and smooth flow.  Most of my job seemed to consist of showing him what he was doing right and why it worked and encouraging him to keep it up.  What little work I had to do was to help him tighten up his thesis and expand and clarify his conclusion.  He was receptive to my suggestions and had some good ideas of his own.  I have high hopes for that young man. (sigh)

Besides the paper, the tutee himself was a pleasure to work with.  He responded well to encouragement and was active in collaborating with me on what could be done to make the paper even better.  I was encouraged that he brought in a paper that was already so polished, that he was so attentive to my suggestions and prompts, and that he was so eager to see improvement.  It’s great to see a tutee who cares about what he’s doing.  I know I can’t hope that all sessions will be so good, but his attitude and skill really took the edge off of a first session that could have been much worse.

This was a great experience.  My nervousness at the outset was minor compared to the dividends of good interaction with a good tutee over a good product that he really cared about.  I’m sure I’ll feel worse on other days, but as of now I feel elated.  He even asked for me specifically when he needed help with something else!

My second session was with a creative writer.
I love my life.

First Session

My first tutoring session went well. The student brought in a personal narrative paper for his English 1010 class. The narrative was about a recent trip he took to visit his father in Virginia, but got stuck in Vegas after missing his connecting flight.

When the student came into the writing center, and I took the session, I felt a bit of a "jumping in" feeling. Prepared or not (luckily I was), I was ready and eager to take the session. Fortunately, the student's paper made for a great first session. His writing skills were very "middle of the road," and I was glad for this. There was enough in the paper to talk about, but not so much that I felt overwhelmed.

The student's primary struggle was with "clunky" sentences. Often times, he tried to pack too much information into already long, wordy sentences. To address this, I advised him to try to "slow" his writing down; he had many great ideas but did not take the time (or space) to properly express them. We split up many of these over-packed sentences into two or three. Splitting up the sentences worked to resolve the problem in nearly every instance.

The student was very receptive to the input I provided. I could tell he was at the Writing Center with the intention of improving his writing, and not just by his teacher's. We had a very open dialogue about the areas we worked on, and we were able to make some very positive changes to his paper. I was glad that I avoided simply giving him any of the answers. It was fairly easy to guide him to the answers and let him discover them on his own.

I would say my first session went just how I would have hoped. The student was very receptive and encouraging of my input. His involvement made it easy for me to not talk too much. What I would like to take from the session is the idea that many students truly want to improve their writing. Certainly, I do not expect every student to fulfill this ideal mold, but I would like to think that many will.

Grammar and Grenades

My first session was pretty easy. There simply were not too many issues with the paper. Aside from a few grammar mistakes, the paper itself flowed nicely, and communicated the ideas of the student well.

The paper was about grenades; the ways that they can be used for fun, and how they can be used to hurt. The paper itself was an interesting look at the topic, especially the parts about using it for fun. One part in particular struck me, about how a grenade didn't seem dangerous just looking at it.

I was quite nervous before I started. It all seemed to be going to quickly. One moment I was sitting down, and the next I was shaking a student's hand and leading them to a table. Once I actually started I began to feel more confident. I was amazed that my voice didn't shake. But I managed to keep myself steady, and to point out as well as explain the issues that I was finding. Reading the paper aloud also helped me to calm myself. Even though there was always this worry in the back of my mind that I would mess up and give them a wrong answer, overall I started to feel like I was getting it right. The session seemed to flow naturally, and very soon the student was on his way again, with a now corrected paper.

Since then I've done four more sessions, and my nerves have considerably waned. Overall I feel as if I'm starting to enjoy tutoring, and I look forward to doing more.

I Don't Remember Much

I will be perfectly honest in saying that I do not remember much about the first session I took. I do remember that before I was given the go ahead to start tutoring I read so many of the grammar and style books. While it does seem kind of boring, it actually proved to be invaluable preparation. The anxiety I felt about helping my first student really seemed to melt away as a result of arming myself with the knowledge I needed.

I'm sure many of you are thinking, " How could you ever forget your first tutoring session?" Well believe it or not, you probably will forget yours too. I know that back in January it seemed that taking my first session was such a big event, and that it would forever stand out in my memory... but it doesn't. I do remember feeling the kind of nerves and anxiety that have been mentioned by many tutors in their blog posts , and I definitely felt better once that first session was done and over with. Having that ominous first session no longer hanging over me, I was able to relax a bit and start to improve my skills.

During the course of the spring and summer semesters I had the opportunity to help students with a wide variety of assignments. I started out taking 1010 and 2010 papers, then I gradually moved into tutoring those who were here for help in subjects other than English. Some were extremely interesting, and of course some were a struggle to get through. At a certain point however, the sessions I've had start running together. Tutoring is something that does get easier with time. It becomes easier to relax, easier to have quality discussions with the student, and  easier to answer those tough questions.

I would never say that I am completely at ease when going into a session, but I no longer feel that sense of fear and nervousness that were present when I first began to tutor. Every session is a little bit different, and because of that there is always something to be learned.

Um... I forgot

Last semester I thought I’d never forget my first tutoring session, but I honestly do not remember it. However, I remember how I felt that first week of actual tutoring and before and after each tutoring session: nervous but extremely excited. I went into each session with my heart pounding, my hands shaking, and my head spinning (a slight exaggeration, but not too far from the truth).  Although inside I was nervous, I did my best to keep my cool, be confident, and not come across as an obvious newbie. Thankfully tutoring 1010 papers pretty much ensured I was tutoring newbies too.

When sitting down in my first few sessions, I focused on making it through the paper and correcting as many grammar errors as I could. I remember ending sessions thankful I got through without a hitch or looking incompetent. However, after finishing my first few sessions and running over and over through them in my head, I started thinking of all the things I wished I had said or had forgotten to go over with the student. Although I beat myself up after each session because I missed some things, I knew the only thing I could do was be more thorough in my next session. As I progressed, I could feel myself getting better and more comfortable with each session. As long as I was continually bettering myself and my tutoring sessions, I knew I was doing well and what I could to be an effective and beneficial tutor.

Now, as a semi-seasoned tutor, I feel calm and relaxed going into sessions. Being less nervous, I am better at looking at a paper as a whole rather than focusing on the small things; my brain has chilled out. Now I have a different and more natural reaction to tutoring, one more appropriate and helpful than the auto-piloted editor who originally took over. I also have come more to terms with the idea of being a “peer” tutor. There was a lot of pressure in the first few weeks to know all of the answers, and it took a while to know that I may not have all of the answers, but the real reason I am there is to help. I may not be able to answer all of their questions or send them packing with a perfect paper, but I can help students to improve their papers and improve their writing skills. I can even help them improve their attitude about their paper by being excited about it and for them.

The first week of my second semester has been fantastic, and I am elated to be back! Although I did not tutor over the summer, I feel I am back without skipping a beat. And knowing that I have that first semester behind me, and I survived fairly unscathed, I’ve jumped in knowing I can do this. The nerves calmed, I can simply be excited.

I believe it went well...

                I don’t quite remember how my first tutoring session went, but I do remember that the first day I took a session was a very busy one in the Writing Center. I had already read through multiple grammar books and had observed numerous sessions, but nothing was quite like being thrown into a session on the spot. I was nervous and extremely excited to start tutoring, but I wasn’t quite sure of how I would do. I tried to act as confident as I could on the outside so that the tutee wouldn’t immediately expose me as some sort of phony. Although I can't quite recall, my session must have gone well enough for me to want to stay working here at the Writing Center. I am glad to have had most of my fears calmed.  

                In my earlier sessions last semester, I was very paranoid about giving the wrong information. I was also nervous about not being able to finish looking through an entire paper. I have since learned that it is not the end of the world if the paper is not completely perfect after one session in the Writing Center. 

                One thing I loved about being able to start taking sessions was that it helped me answer questions I didn’t even know I had. I would read through grammar book after grammar book and not focus on any one thing until I had a session where I needed that knowledge. I am a huge fan of using the books on each table as a reference throughout each of my sessions. After starting sessions, I was able to look through the books in a much more focused manner in order to be more prepared for my next experience with a tutee. 

               I am so glad for the confidence that has come with experience in the Writing Center, and I am still learning more things to become a better tutor. I can’t give a perfect answer for this blog prompt because I can’t completely remember my first session, but I definitely do not envy the feeling of being a new tutor. I feel like I am experiencing the best of both worlds; I have the class and the resources to learn as if I am a new tutor with the experiences to calm my new-tutor fears. I am enjoying this middle ground.

WWW - Week Went Well

I had my first tutoring session.  It was helping a student with a personal narrative for ENG 1010.
It went very well.  I discovered that I was actually nervous about the technical issues of getting the student signed in, etc.
I felt very prepared to help the student once we got through all the sign-in technicalities, which Rachel was very good about helping me with.  The student's own sense of calmness prevented me from feeling scared at all.  I had a friend who claimed I "wasn't scared of anything" because I served in the US Army Special Forces and jumped out of airplanes.  But my Airborne training did nothing to prepare me for a tutoring session!  I think the fact that I had a calm student with a good paper had more to do with my sense of ease than keeping my feet and knees together as I prepared to complete a PLF (parachute landing fall).
The student's paper was well written.  Helping with a well written paper prevented any feeling of being overwhelmed.
Elation?  Denfinitely!  I was proud and happy that I was able to participate in a positive experience with writing in the Writing Center.  I am looking forward to my next session and trying to keep myself grounded in the probability that I will eventually have a session that may not be as awesome as my first one.

I won’t lie, I was shaking under the table and nearly had to excuse myself to be ill during my first couple sessions on Monday. But I also get nervous about making phone calls to my mother and writing emails to people I don't know, so i guess I qualify as a generally jittery personality. Anyways, I didn’t feel prepared, but during both sessions I realized that though I’m not experienced, I am prepared. My first session was a lucky break. The tutee was coming in for a second session with a 500-word essay for 1010 class. In her previous session, she had worked through making sure her essay reflected the assignment. This time she wanted to just “double-check a few things….” I may have silently groaned, expecting that it would be a paper where the tutee wanted to make sure they didn’t have comma splices in a paper that had no thesis or purpose or sense of audience. I was very pleasantly surprised (and relieved!) to start reading the paper and discover that the tutee’s essay was passionate, articulate, and in blossoming grammatical health. We read through it and I was SO glad that Claire had talked in class about her dot theory (putting a dot above details to come back to at a later point). I explained to the tutee that I was going to just put a little mark for some things we might come back to if we had time, but first I thought we should check over the main ideas. I noticed first off that the paper had no paragraphs and I asked her about it. She said brought her assignment and she showed me where in the assignment the professor had said not to put extra space between paragraphs. It took me a sec to catch on, but I realized the professor was talking about the word processing option of adding an extra half space after hitting “Enter.” I showed the tutee how to fix that on the computer and explained that it was a good idea to have paragraphs. We read through the paper and found seven places where ideas changed and we might put a paragraph break. After finding them we went back through and talked about how each idea related back to the main idea and how we could connect some of them and add in some transition sentences. I was absolutely delighted by the tutee’s response. She was excited and engaged. After I talked about relating each paragraph to the main idea, she went right to the next paragraph and pointed out what was okay and what maybe needed to be changed. She made the decision to leave out a couple sentences because they weren’t tied in to the ideas surrounding them. I felt like we did good work, but I left the session worried that maybe I should have worked more with her to create strong introductory sentences to each paragraph. I also worried that maybe I hadn’t spent enough time on the thesis—I felt that the first paragraph told me where the essay was going, but I wondered about the balance between a directional statement in a personal essay and a hard-core academic thesis in a research paper. I hope I didn’t steer her wrong…or spend the entire session working on dividing up paragraphs only to have the professor ask where her thesis was. I wish we could keep copies of the student’s work and spend some time reviewing it with Claire or Dr. Rogers.

Well? How'd it go?

By the end of the week, most of you will have had your first tutoring session.  How did it go? Did you feel prepared? Scared? Overwhelmed? Elated?

So Anxious I Forgot a Title

Before I began the tutor program, I more or less felt like this:

However, the training sessions and observations, and the structure of the program itself, assuaged most of the anxiety I felt concerning tutoring. The only general fears that remain are concerns that I might provide incorrect information or somehow fail to spot a critical issue with a paper. The last thing I want to do is send a student away thinking they have a solid paper, only to receive a poor grade from the instructor.

Besides that, I am worried about tutoring ESL students. It's not that I don't think I can spot or correct their errors, but that's not my job as a tutor. As one of my observations already demonstrated, helping ESL students learn why something is wrong requires a higher level of technical language than that used to tutor native English speakers. I'm worried about fixing the grammar errors without helping the student learn how to avoid making them in the future.

I know that with further training and experience, I will overcome these anxieties. And if I get into a tough situation, I have an added measure of confidence afforded by the presence of senior tutors willing to help me navigate through the difficult spots.