the demands of tutoring

In furtherance of our on-going discussion from our last Common Time about "demanding" and/or "manipulative" students, here's a great response and some words of wisdom from a tutor on the Dangling Modifier's website. While most of our students are engaged and excited to be part of our center, a few of them continue to require extra effort from us.

We're not the only ones who are challenged by these situations, so we should keep in mind that discussion is one way for us to mediate and navigate these moments. By remaining sensitive to our tutees' needs, we keep ourselves open to understanding why they behave the way they do.

As I always say, tutoring goes far beyond covering course content. We are cheerleaders, coaches, mentors, friends, role models, sherpas, and listeners.

what happens in vegas...

Hi everyone, we're back from the IWCA/NCPTW conference; it was great. It was my first time in Vegas, and it was all that I expected. Actually, since the visit coincided with Halloween, the bright lights seemed even more sinister. I was hoping to get out of town to see the desert, but the conference was non-stop. Great sessions, great connections. It's so good to see that we're part of a much larger community of tutoring centers across the country (indeed, the world...it's an international conference).

The thing I appreciated most of all was the large number of tutors who attended. It was so nice to get tutors' perspectives on the important work that we do.

Special kudos go out to our very own Michelle "Solly" Solomon for her conference poster presentation entitled “Sociology as Training: The Sociology Being Used In Tutoring Reflection & Analysis.” Michelle did an exceptional job and represented our University beautifully. Yay, Solly! We all need some celebratory mint chocolate brownies, don't you think?

Hopefully, we can get her to share her experience and ideas with us all very soon.

See you all tomorrow at Common Time!
Courtney

Making Tutoring Creative!

Hello Tutors! I think that by making the learning process more interesting, enjoyable, and creative for our students, who we tutor is the key for a successful learning experience. Tutoring should be creative! Of course, how creative we are depends on the student's learning style. Creativity means that we ask the students what do they think is the answer to their question? If they are on the right track, we can ask them to expand on their answer by asking them to provide example(s). If they are on the wrong track, a tutor should provide hint(s) and then, let the student figure out the final answer. Like Courtney said at the meetings, we are there to facilitate the learning experience and not give out answers to all of the questions. It's a team effort. A tutor and a student are a team. A tutor is trying to figure out what learning method will be the most suitable for this student and a student makes sure that he or she understands the material very well. So, let's open up our creativity and therefore, make tutoring creative! Also, we should motivate the students by saying, "Keep on working hard." "Success is a journey, not a destination."

considering kindness

So late the other night (I couldn’t sleep, as usual) I was listening to a radio discussion with one of the authors of a new book called Leading with Kindness: How Good People Consistently Get Superior Results. In the context of business management, he talked about ways we all can use “kindness” to motivate, support, recognize, adapt and grow. Much of their management/leadership ideas are based on psychological theory—essentially, that people are more productive when we treat them with caring, fairness and honesty, but that kindness does not also equal weakness or lack of discipline. Pretty logical, I think.

Since so much of what we do in the ARC is leading and teaching by example, I wonder if we begin to think about how we can lead with kindness—understanding, compassion, acceptance—then can we enhance the way we tutor? So much of our tutoring pedagogy already includes much of what these writers are proposing, so tutoring fits right in to this philosophy of helping others to help themselves—giving others the tools they need to succeed on their own.

While I’m not proposing that we begin to think about our tutees as employees, our students as products, and what we do as a business, I do think that we can glean something from these ideas that can open our tutoring horizons and offer us fresh ways to examine what we do.

For example, we can consider what brings our students in to our center and what keeps them engaged. Then, what can we do to help them grow and become better learners. In addition, thinking about the cross-cultural implications of practicing kindness, especially in a Center like ours, can be invaluable.

So anyway, if you’re interested in reading or hearing more about these ideas, you can check out this website: http://www.thirteen.org/leadingwithkindness/essays/the-power-of-kindness. Or you can listen to a webcast with the authors here: http://www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/archive/2008/leading-with-kindness/index.htm

peer-centered

Hello my lovelies,
Here's a link for those of you who are interested in writing tutoring/consulting. http://www.peercentered.org/ It's a great venue to chat with other tutors about their work.
Enjoy!

il son parti

Hello ARC Gang,
The semester is off and running and I see your schedules are nearly full already. It's going to be another busy fall semester. We have many new members joining our ranks. I would like you all to welcome them to our team! We had our first day of orientation today, and I'm sure they're all excited to get started tutoring. In the spirit of cooperation and ease that defines our little ARC haven, please introduce yourselves to them and welcome them with open arms.

Some of you have already been chosen to act as mentors for the new tutors. They will begin observing your sessions on Monday. Don't worry, there's no judgment here -- they'll just be watching how you handle your sessions so they're not totally unfamiliar with their own.

New tutors, thank you again for meeting with me today. It was good to see your excited faces. I have faith that you will all do very well and become integral parts of our Center. In preparation for your observations next week, I'm attaching a list of questions/ideas for you to think about while observing the session. We'll meet later in the week to discuss what you observed. I'm sending it out to everyone also; it'll provide us a starting point for our weekly meetings.

Also, remember our Common Time meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 17, from 3-4pm in the ARC.
See you all very soon.Enjoy the weekend,

common time, fall '08

Hi gang!
You may have noticed that I've reserved Wednesdays, 3-4pm as our Common Time for weekly meetings, workshops, etc. So let's have our first meeting next Wednesday, Sept. 17, 3-4pm. We'll talk about our summer, meet and greet the newest additions to our tutoring family, and set our agenda for the semester. We've tried to free up everyone's schedule, but if you have a scheduling conflict please let me know.

Please let me know if you can or cannot come to the meeting.
I hope to see you all very soon,
Courtney

sound the trumpets!

Hi ARC gang,
Yay! Another new semester is right around the corner! Oh, the excitement! The Fall 2008 semester officially begins on Sept. 4 -- that's next Thursday. So if you're interested in tutoring this semester, please drop in as soon as possible to give us your schedule.

A few special notes for you:

1. This semester we will be returning to our regularly scheduled Common Time. I'll choose a time that's good for the majority of us and we'll work your schedules around it. We'll meet regularly throughout the semester to talk about tutoring and share our stories, and when we're not meeting you can take walk-ins during that time. Also, if you're not returning to the ARC from last semester, please let me know.
2. If you are interested in a GA for this semester, please drop me a line or visit my office to verify that you're still interested. I have a list of applicants, but I need to know who is still interested. We have very few to go around. And remember that a 3-credit GA equals 5 hours of tutoring per week.
3. I am always in search of new, excited, friendly and patient tutors to join our family, so if you have any recommendations, please feel free to let me know. This year I will be focusing on increasing the number of undergraduate tutors we have on our team so we can offer a wider range of subjects, personalities and experiences to our students. Some of you have worked with some really promising students who may very well turn out to be strong tutors themselves. It'll be like having little siblings in our ARC family!
4. As usual, all international students will need to submit a new F-1 letter from Mr. Chin. Please take care of this as soon as possible. It will take at least 4 days to process. We can't pay you without it.

I hope you had plenty of rest and relaxation this summer. This is going to be a busy, yet fun, semester.
See you all soon!

diversity & language differences

ARC-ers,
Here's a great article by Paul Kei Matsuda that just came through the C's blog. Since language diversity is very evident in our center and our campus (and we try to celebrate that diversity), this article will be of interest to many of you.

http://cccc-blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/individual-issue-of-language-diversity.html

teach english in china

Hi gang, Hope your summer is restful. This was passed on to me for those of you who might be interested in teaching English in China. Sounds like fun!
Courtney

English Teaching Openings In China
U & C International Education Inc.
http://www.internationalteach.com/

---------------------------------------------------------

Various universities in Shanghai, Beijing, HangZhou, Guangdong, ChongQing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xian and QingDao need to hire 4 to 5 TESOL / TEFL teachers (must be native speakers) for both short and long term positions. If you are a native English speaker who is interested of working in China for 2008 or 2009 school sessions (positions are available for every month of 2008 and 2009), please contact us.

Schools pay decent salary and offer paid vocation, free apartment, flight coverage and more.

Requirements: Must be a native speaker, TEFL/TESOL or any teaching certificate is a great plus. Please see our website: http://www.internationalteach.com/application.asp to download our application form.

Contact: Mike Wu mikewu@internationalteach.com
U & C International Education Inc. <http://www.internationalteach.com/>
<http://www.int/>
<http://www.internationalteach.com/>

usna job postings

Hi gang,
This just came across my email. I thought some of you might be interested.... If you are, I can give you the contact info.
Hope you're enjoying the summer.
Courtney

The Class of 1963 Center for Academic Excellence at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland has opened a search for two full-time, 10 month, non-tenure track, faculty positions to begin with the 2008-2009 Academic Year. Each position will start with an initial 10 month contract with the option of renewal. The primary responsibilities of these positions will include, but not be limited to teaching classes and workshops in the Center for Academic Excellence, teaching in an academic department, developing curriculum, serving as an academic advisor, teaching learning skills and working with midshipmen on a one-on-one basis.

The following are brief descriptions of the two positions.

• Mathematics Learning Instructor - This position will require an individual with the expertise to teach afternoon and evening help sessions for Calculus I, II, and III, offer individual and small group mathematics instruction and teach one section of mathematics for the Mathematics Department. Experience instructing mathematics to struggling students is essential.
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Learning Skills Instructor - This position will require an individual with expertise in a technical background and experience in teaching learning skills. The responsibilities of the position will include teaching learning skills courses with an emphasis on STEM courses, conducting individual learning skills sessions and teaching one STEM course in an academic department. Experience instructing struggling students is preferred.

Minimum requirements for these positions include a Master's Degree and training or experience in a technical discipline.

The initial closing date is June 20, 2008

chat-n-chew

Just a reminder to all of you that we will meet this Monday from 1-3pm, here in the ARC.
We'll meet and eat for the first two hours. If you'd like to invite any of your students, ask them to come after 3:00 so we can have plenty of time to talk. Don't be late, we have lots of people to introduce and lots of things to talk about.
Hope to see you all there. And I know some of you want to bring your own food creations. So feel free to bring whatever you want. The more food, the better!
C

it's a wrap!

Hello my ARC lovelies,
Yes, as you may have realized, the semester is ending VERY, VERY soon. In fact, classes end next Tuesday, May 6! Aaaaaargh!!

Four items for you:
1. We will hold all scheduled tutoring sessions through Tuesday, May 6. Wednesday is Study Day, and finals begin on Thursday, May 8. You do not have to work through finals, but if you would like to meet with students, please schedule with them in advance from May 8-14. you should notify the front desk regarding these scheduled sessions. The semester is officially over on Wed, May 14.

2. If you want to work during the summer, please give the front desk staff your schedule. I will determine the number of hours we have for the summer sessions. Unfortunately, graduate assistantships do not continue into the summer.

3. We will have an end-of-semester meeting on Monday, May 5, from 1-3pm. I know we have not had a chance to get together as an entire group this semester to talk much, so here's our chance. If you have students at that time, please try to reschedule with them. If you cannot, please come talk to me. We'll get to talk about what we've done this semester and what we plan to do next semester. We'll also have a chance to finally meet and greet all our new tutors. And it's Cinco de mayo, so be prepared to get festive!

4. Please send suggestions for our meeting agenda to me. If there's something you want to talk about, let's do it.

Hope to see you all very soon,
Courtney

open house prep

Hello my lovely ARC-ers,
Well, our next LIU Day Open House is coming up soon--Sunday, April 27. We still have a couple of spots open. We typically start around 9:30am and go until 3:00pm. And yes, it is on a Sunday.

At this LIU Day we'll be promoting our upcoming English Summer Institute 2008 and helping students register online.

If you're interested in joining us for the day, please let me know. Again, there is limited space.

Hope you're all well,
Courtney

no-shows

Hello again,
I would like to remind you all to please remember when you have a no-show, please have me or a front desk coordinator initial your timesheet and mark it as a no-show. Then fill out a blue no-show card. We must accurately track the number of students we see every day. If we drop students, we will try to find other students to take their place as soon as possible. Also, if there is no verification that the student didn't show up for the appointment, we may not pay you for the hours.

I want to avoid any payroll confusion in the future. Please see me if you have questions.