Monday, December 7, 2009
Helpful Tutees
Lately, I have had some great sessions with students. The sessions are interactive and the tutee and I are on the same wavelength, it is such a great feeling to have. Especially because this is the first time I have ever been in the tutor position, it makes me feel really good about my abilities and helping others. With three consecutive awesome sessions, reality slapped me in the face with my fourth session. It's makes a session much more difficult when the tutee is not an active participant. I didn't even feel like the boy was shy, just that he simply did not care about the paper or my input. It was really frustrating because as tutors, people come to us looking for help. Why should I be digging into a person for some kind of inkling of desire to better a paper if they don't even want to be here in the first place? Obviously, I push this kind of thought out of my mind during the session but as soon as he left, I became very frustrated. I like being a directive tutor but I also really enjoy the laid back approach. Both are useful tactics for tutoring but being directive is totally necessary with certain kids. I'm mostly venting right now, because I know experiencing with a wide range of tutees makes me a better tutor. I just think that having a session with a tutee who is passionate about the paper makes the session much more helpful, for both the tutee and the tutor. Any thoughts? Similar experiences?
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I can definitely agree with you, Aly--sometimes you just can't seem to get the tutee to work with you. It's obvious when the student comes in just looking for the slip, but sometimes even ones who came in on their own don't really want to be there. Whenever that happens to me, I try to remember that I'm not the one being difficult, they are, and I should just try my best to get them interested and make the session productive.
ReplyDeleteI hope your last week of tutoring goes better!
I agree with you, but I think coming into contact with students who are enthusiastic about their paper is hard to find in the writing center because it is known as a place where you come with problems. I don't know why that's the way it is, but I think part of it is the way in which professors send students to the WC when they don't have time for one-on-one help--something we've previously discussed on the blog.
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