Back to School!

No, not Rodney Dangerfield style (reference), but for real!

Hello, wise and worldly tutors! Welcome to the 2012-13 school year. Are you ready for it...or, better yet, is it ready for you?

If you're brand new to tutoring and have found our blog while searching the internets, then welcome. We hope you'll keep up with our posts, respond as much as you like (or not at all if you're the lurker type), and learn a little bit about yourself as an educator and as a student.

So, I posed this question to my tutors at our pre-semester meeting, and I thought I'd ask it of the cyberspace citizens, too: How do you utilize silence in  your tutoring sessions? As an English teacher/tutor, I love talking. I think we've all felt like this guy sometimes--we try to squeeze so much information in such a short amount of time--and we rarely feel like we can let up! Of course, that results in tutees feeling overwhelmed, but it also means that they don't get a chance to speak for themselves or learn at the appropriate speed. So slowing down--even staying completely quiet for a short amount of time--can be extraordinarily beneficial. Trouble is, we don't give ourselves the chance to do that because we're trying to cram one last chemistry equation into their session before they run off to class.

This situation is analogous to cramming, and we all know how that goes. As tutors, we're taught to caution students against cramming on the (very true) scientific basis that it doesn't work. The mind needs to time to process and organize new information, and cramming doesn't give it time to do that. (In fact, new research suggests that we do a lot of this subconscious processing and organizing while we sleep.) So if you can't cram when you're studying, you also can't cram during a tutoring session. Yes, tutees are often panicky and anxious, but that just makes the situation worse. As tutors, we have to know when to slow down--or even shut up completely--and let our tutees' brains think and minds process.

Do you do this enough? Too much? What are the side benefits of keeping quiet?

Summer tutoring

Summer School Tutoring

Ahh, summer. Sun, sand, and surf. Pleasure reading. Iced tea in the porch swing. Blockbuster movies and popcorn.

And, for many, condensed classes.

Yes, Summer: Making tough classes even tougher since 1827!

I realize that many of you who are employed at various colleges around the country may not be tutoring right now. My own center here at Redacted College, like those at so many other places, has been hit with serious budget cuts such that we’re not even open right now, although our summer term began last week. It’s a shame that students who are dedicated/brave/naïve enough to sign up for concentrated classes like trigonometry, English, or chemistry won’t get the chance to seek out extra help in what may well be one of the most difficult classes they will ever take, but alas. Here we are.

Those of you who are tutoring now (or who have tutored in a compressed term like Summer, Winter, or other type of intersession), what do you find yourselves doing differently under such stressful circumstances? Summer sessions are high-stakes for those students fortunate enough to find a class or two; my experience has been that the realization that one is in over one’s head settles in much quicker in the Summer than it does in the regular semester/quarter, leaving only the uber-dedicated ones to finish out the term and complete their class(es). The pace is quick, and the burden is high. Do students see you with different sets of expectations? Or maybe just a greater sense of pressure? When you report to work, do you love the Summer or hate it? How come?

Take Note

I've been hearing and reading a great deal lately about taking notes--why students do it (or, more often, don't do it), what are effective methods of taking notes, how to best use them once they're taken, and so on. When I was a student, it seems like that was something that I didn't do a lot of, quite frankly. Occasionally, I might jot down a quick little tidbit, or if the teacher said something blatant like "This will be on your test; write it down," my pen would flutter across the pages of my notebook. But I definitely didn't have an overall plan of attack when it came to taking notes. Still, I got by all right.

Fast forward to a decade or two later, and now I find myself teaching at Redacted College, and my students likewise have no idea how to take notes. Last night as I dismissed class, I glanced over at the notebook of one of my students sitting near the front of the classroom. She had a pure, virginal piece of paper showing, upon which was written the words "Work on essay." To add emphasis (and perhaps to fill up more of the virginal white space) she had circled the command. As we near the end of the semester, and as the due date for this final essay approaches, little wonder that I would remind my students that they should indeed work on writing that essay. One has to wonder: did she really need the note? And, more disturbingly, is this the only thing she took away from yesterday's class session?

Many students have heard of the Cornell Note Taking technique. (For a quick discussion, complete with visuals (!), look here.) It's a way to bring order to chaos. It organizes the information you hear in class. It even provides you with a study guide. The beauty of the Cornell system is that it's easy to adopt and pays off in practical ways. So why don't students use it more? (He asked rhetorically yet desperately.)

Oh wise tutors, does this come up in session? How do you help your tutees take better notes?

...........and we're back!

Ok, it’s been a while, and I’m sorry. No excuses, really. Just got overwhelmed. You know how it is.

This is Spring semester, or what’s left of it. (Unless you’re on the quarter system, in which case, it’s kind of summer, but not really--well, let’s just roll with my original premise, howbout?) I wonder what differences you notice among students in the Spring versus students in the Fall. Is there a difference in terms of motivation? How about an extra dose of Spring Fever? Or does the Spring Break factor some of that out? Then again, maybe it’s all just the same. Curious to know what you think.

I promise to post more faithfully here in the future. If you have an idea about a topic you’d like to hash out (or see hashed out), let me know!

Finals time is here

"Happiness and cheer"? I'm not so sure about that.

(Don't get the reference? Look here.)

I'm wondering what you wise tutors out there do with your tutees by way of helping them prepare for the wonder and excitement that is final exams. Some students, maybe even most of them, will continue to honor the age-old tradition of living in denial until roughly 12 hours before the exam begins and then cramming like they've never crammed before!  Others will take a more sensible approach, to be sure, but I think those others are probably in the minority. And it's hard to cast aspersions at them; after all, we've all been there. Many of you are there right now. Too much to do in too short a period of time, and many times our reaction is to head for the hills, at least for a little while.

When students sit down at your table overwhelmed by their impending final exams in subjects they are not particularly fond of, what do you tell them? What advice do you give? Is this a good time to bring up something new, like a new study strategy, or do you prefer the do-what-got-you-here approach?

My mentor! My tutor! My mentor! My tutor!

Hey folks! Some good participation here. I'm so happy to see that this little community is growing. If you haven't done so already, please post! We'd love to hear what you have to say.

I'm wondering today how many of you work at colleges where tutors, either officially or unofficially, double as mentors. Here at Redacted College (not the actual name; it's a joke), we don't have much in the way of an academic mentorship program, so the closest we come is probably the tutors and supplemental instruction leaders that I train and supervise. There are campus leaders who get involved with campus activities, clubs, and so on--but this isn't academically focused. The closest thing we have, really, to students working with students to achieve long-term academic success is tutoring.

Does your college have a more focused mentor program that helps students in this area? Or is it more like Redacted's, where we don't really have something like that? Tutors wear many hats, of course--is mentor one of them for you?

Student attitudes

Hello, intrepid tutors everywhere!

Today's topic is that of the attitudes students bring to the table when they sit down for a session with you. I think what determines a tutee's level of engagement and attitude is their purpose for being there in the first place. If they are attending a session at the behest (or requirement) of their classroom instructor(s), they may present themselves differently than if they are there of their own accord. Of course there is a great deal of fluctuation at play here, and there are no sweeping generalizations that address this issue. (Stupid joke: There are never any sweeping generalizations that work--not ever!)

I wonder if you've had any tutoring experiences wherein the tutee's attitude was not what you expected. And, if the tutee's attitude isn't what you consider productive, what are your "disarming" techniques? How do you coerce someone into participating when s/he really just doesn't want to engage with you?