Ever had a bad tutoring experience?

I came across this blog recounting one tutor's nightmare session. Be prepared to be horrified...

http://www.ulc.psu.edu/Dangling_Modifier/Articles/oldArticles/Fall-2005_web_Article5.htm

A small tale

It should be of no surprise to anyone who's been on the Laurier campus for the past couple of weeks that I'm coming down with a cold, since it seems to be making the rounds early this year. I've had a sore throat all weekend, which decided to upgrade to a hacking cough right in the middle of a drop-in session with the last student of the night tonight.

So there I am, attempting to talk about academic style, unable to get breaths - never mind words - in between uncontrollable coughs, tearing up from the tickle in my throat and completely interrupting the flow of tutoring.

Much to the student's credit, he graciously excused me for a couple moments to get up and walk about, so I wouldn't spew disease all over his assignment.

I think that, as far as interruptions to tutoring go, having a tickle in your throat/uncontrollable coughing fit is one of the worst, since you're quite literally unable to excuse yourself. However, contrary to my fears, the world didn't end; I got over the cough, came and sat back down, and we went through a couple more points before I wrapped the session up and we closed the Centre down for the night.

Have any of you had instances where something has interrupted your session? What was it, and how did you deal with it? This instance has made me curious.

What are/were your initial anxieties about tutoring?

When I began as an undergraduate tutor at the Writing Centre in my third year at Laurier, my biggest anxiety was being taken seriously as an authority by my peers.

I was all too aware that I still looked like I belonged in high school, and I feared that students, especially upper-year students, would either doubt my advice or take an oppositional approach to the conversation as a result.

I was surprised that few students showed overt signs of questioning my right to be in the tutor's chair. Typically, students who make appointments are genuinely interested in any advice you can offer. Now, there were a handful of students who were reluctant to accept any constructive criticism of their work (and we should probably discuss strategies for approaching these situations in another blog post), but this resistance didn't seem to be related to how small I was or how young I looked; writing is intensely personal, and some writers are extremely sensitive to any reader response.

I learned fairly quickly that my professionalism during a session was helping me to step into that authoritative role. Appearing calm and in command of the session was key. Starting with the necessary paper work and then laying out how the session is going to run will help students see your connection to the Writing Centre as a professional institution as well as the fact that you're working according to a conscious methodology.

As I gained experience working with peers, my ability to garner respect grew more intuitive. I started feeling out how much I could commiserate with students during a session, throwing in personal anecdotes about my own struggles with assignments. (Keep in mind that it's very important not to commiserate about experiences with or opinions of professors)

I don't think I did ever encounter a student who overtly questioned my age and experience level, but in case anyone did my back-up plan was to make reference to my position as a third-year student as well as the selection and interview process for the Writing Centre tutors and, finally, to note the extensive training that we tutors are so lucky to receive. I might have also mentioned the experience that comes from having read so many student papers in the Writing Centre. I never had to test this response, so I'm not sure how well it would have gone over.

I encounter a shocked "You're so young!" reaction way more often now that I'm teaching undergraduate courses. My course is distance education, so my students never see my face unless they make an appointment to meet with me during my office hours. No matter how professionally I dress for these appointments, the students' reaction is inevitably one of shock. I find myself bracing for this response each time I'm waiting for a student to show up...

I respond to this reaction by calmly and modestly refering to my years of experience as a teacher of academic writing as well as the fact that I study the teaching of academic writing in my PhD work. Typically, once I begin discussing their paper or addressing their concerns, the students seem more at ease with my abilities.

Still, I wish, although it's horrible to say, that I could age a bit faster.

What are/were your anxieties about tutoring?

CCCC Blog: Conversations on Diversity

This blog might be of interest to us: http://cccc-blog.blogspot.com/

- Steph

Summer jobs

I'm curious; what's everyone doing for the summer? Are you staying in Waterloo, or are you going elsewhere? Have you got a job yet, or is that something you're still looking for? Is there anything awesome that you're going to do over the summer?

I myself am staying in Waterloo; I haven't gotten a job yet, but I'm working on it: I want to try and get something that really relates to my experience at Laurier as a writing tutor. My summer's not the most exciting, as I'm pretty much planning on staying here and deciding where I want to go for my Masters (and what kind of Masters I even want to be doing!). Being at the writing centre has really made me want to focus on going into the world of publishing, so I'm currently researching that.

How about everyone else?

;

Interesting discussion of the semicolon and its merits (or lack thereof):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/04/france.britishidentity/print

Title

How do you feel about the blog title?

I like it, but the inclusion of the word "diary" takes on a certain connotation online. It almost sounds little too emo/livejournal for my liking. The writing ought to be reflective and open-ended, but not necessarily deeply personal and expressive.

Thoughts? Any other ideas on what this should be called? Or do we like the current title?

Welcome

Welcome to Laurier Tutors Online, an interactive forum for reflecting upon and discussing your experiences as tutors. Consider this blog a space for all your anecdotes, observations, complaints, advice, philosophical musings, and ideological assertions. Through continuous reflection, we can explore our assumptions and beliefs in order to better understand who we are and what we do. Ideally, we will create an ongoing dialogue that can serve as a virtual construction of our pedagogical identity.

There are two ways to participate on the blog:

1) Create your own post on tutoring and/or writing centre issues. You can save your post before you publish it to the blog, and revise it at any time.
2) Use the comments function to post your reactions to other posts. These cannot be saved or revised, so choose your words carefully.

Talk to Phil if you need help. This is still a work in progress; as such, suggestions are most welcome.

A few guidelines for posting to the blog:

1) Please try to keep the discussions related to tutoring and writing centre issues. I welcome the unexpected tangents and diversions that will undoubtedly occur, but please try to stay on topic.
2) Respect students' confidentiality. When reflecting on a tutorial session, do not refer to your tutees by name.
3) Avoid the use of profanity. These discussions can and will be somewhat informal, but use discretion and remember that this is a public web page. Your words reflect not only you but the writing centre as whole, so choose them wisely.

I look forward to your thoughtful ruminations.