Your mission: tell us about your most satisfying tutoring session to date. What made it so good? Do you feel that whatever you did could be replicated in other tutoring sessions?
While you're at it, also tell us about your most dis-satisfying or useless session ever. What made it so not-good? Was the not-good element anything you can control or mitigate? How can we avoid a session like this?
Best: I can honestly say that I don't have a favorite tutoring session. However, I think my favorite thing about tutoring is there is this moment, that only occurs rarely, but when it does it is beautiful, where a student has a moment of insight and suddenly something clicks for them and they are able to view the subject in a different manner.
ReplyDeleteWorst: I once had a student who refused to listen to anything that I had to offer. They wanted to work on what they thought was important. They didn't realize, and became so stubborn, that they couldn't fix what they wanted to without fixing what I was trying to point out to them. Realizing that I was unable to change their mind I asked another tutor to step in and take over, hoping that the change of a tutor would resolve the issue.
Hm. Now I'm curious. What happened? Did the change of tutor resolve the issue? Did you listen?
ReplyDeleteSuccessful tutoring sessions is always my goal; however, I don’t think I have had one session be outstanding in memory as a “most successful session.” What I can tell you about is the success of an accumulation of tutoring sessions. This student has had a couple of rough years with English classes and she was having a hard time coming to terms with the true reason for her inability to pass to the next level. After several weeks of working on grammar, sentence structure, and most importantly organizational flow of an essay, I have noticed her starting to correct herself. Also her writing style has started to grow past the basic to a more in-depth view. So I may not have a most successful tutoring session to report, but I do mark this in the success category.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with the other tutor afterwards and was told that they similarly had an issue with the student. I guess the moral of the story is that you can't help everybody.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is possible that both of us failed to "reach" this student because we were unable to see things from her perspective.
My most satisfying tutor session to date has to be many of them. I don't have a favorite one. Although, I enjoy working with ESL students. I feel that I can relate to them and also explain the material much better. We always have a successful tutoring session when I work with these certain individuals. I also like to work with my English 1A students that I have this semester because I know they count on me to give them feedback, and they feel accomplished with their work. However, there are times that I felt like I didn't accomplish my goal on helping some students. There's a specific student that would come in unprepared. This person wouldn't know what their assignments were or how to write certain words. I was more than willing to help this individual but when this person didn't know what they had to do, neither did I because I am not sitting in the class room with them to know. One time this person told me that last semester other tutors were able to help them, but I explained to this person that I sometimes am unable to help them because sometimes they didn't even know what their assignment was. I felt very "dumb" because I couldn't help them, but then I thought to myself how could I help you if you're not even prepared. Clearly, it was not my fault. Lol. That has been the most dis-satisfying session. The good thing is that this person has improved on being prepared, so it's definitely better! :)
ReplyDeleteBest of Worst of....
ReplyDeleteMy most successful tutoring session to date was a random drop in who was requesting help writing a paper on the ethics of cheating and plagiarism. After seeing that there was no way for the student to successfully complete the assignment in time, I ripped off a few Wikipedia articles and busted out the essay for them. They gave me 50 dollars and a really big hug. Later I found out that the teacher gave me an A!!! Talk about gratifying!!!:)
..........in all seriousness there is no single session that sticks out to me as being the best. I would have to say in general it is a good session when the student comes prepared, interested, and ready to work. This combination always proves to energize the session and make it feel more productive and useful. I agree with sinsliss, seeing the students "light in the attic" flick on is very rewarding. Just being able to observe a positive lasting change in the outlook or attitude of a student is one of the most rewarding feelings to walk away from a session with.
Worst: A student who is ready to give up on their assignment, displays no passion or responsibility for their work, and generally has a negative, defeatist, attitude.
Just flog them. They'll get interested.
ReplyDeleteMy best and worst sessions are with the same student. This is my second semester working with him and for the most part, it is always a positive experience. He is coming out of his shell--incredibly slowly-- he has begun to consider the WLDC his home. He is an incredible writer and really only needs minor guidance. I think what he really needs is the personal contact.
ReplyDeleteHe has also been my worst experience because he has a lot of issues and when I allow him to just rant, it can sometimes drag me down for the rest of the day.
Regardless of this student's issues, I do appreciate working with him because I feel as though I'm actually making a difference for this student.
Any of the tutoring sessions that I have had with a particular student always go really well. She always comes prepared and she attempts to start on her assignments on her own. That way, when she comes in she has specific questions she can ask me. This gives our tutoring sessions more structure and she is able to get the most of that hour that I have with her. Also, I really enjoy being able to help out the ESL students. A lot of them are too scared or nervous to ask for help.
ReplyDeleteHowever, once you are able to help them get over that initial nervousness, and they actually work on their material and make progress, it’s pretty cool to watch.
There is an incident that stands out vividly for being the worst. One day I was just roving around when I noticed that a student actually snapped at me to get my attention. I kind of just dismissed that and went on to help her but it got worse. She had a lot of attitude and just expected me to correct whatever she was working on. Plus when I offered her my suggestions she just flat out told me that they were not correct. I kept my cool in front of her, but I felt pretty flustered and “out of it” the rest of my shift.
Awwww....if you have a demanding or otherwise awful student (rude), please always feel free to hand him/her off to Shawn....
ReplyDeleteNo, really, you can hand off discreetly by asking for a second opinion from someone, or excusing yourself (say you need to step out for an appointment or phone call or something) and asking me or Shawn to step in.
We can use the practice in maintaining our composure. Luckily, I think anyway, this kind of encounter is unusual. Isn't it?