Benefit of having been a Tutor

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was a NSBE tutor last spring before I became a Teaching Fellow (TF). I primarily became a tutor because I didn't have the time to be TF last spring, but it also prepared me to be in the classroom. Mr. Tuttle has remedial Algebra as his first hour at 7:20 in the morning, which got a bit rowdy on my first day and a few kids were asked to leave the classroom. At the end of the hour Mr. Tuttle looked at me with some hesitation and asked, "So... what did you think?" After having experienced far worse tutoring sessions, I could reply, "About like I expected." Tutoring also helped me get back in the frame of mind of a high school student since I'm 29 (an old fart by their standards), and remember the emotional and academic challenges they face. However, by far the most important thing I learned from tutoring was how to "sit on a student". "Sitting on a student" was our phase for sitting with a student and calmly encouraging them to do their work. The first step sometimes is the hardest: approaching the student from the right angle. Usually, instead of addressing the bad behavior of a disruptive or talkative student, I've found it helps to just ask them how their homework is coming. There's also a large percentage of students who will not ask for my help, even though they really need it. I just have to gently force my way in there. The student usually tries multiple ways to get rid of me. They says things like, "I'll finish it when I get home", "I already finished all of my homework", or "I don't need any help." For the latter two excuses, it is simple enough to ask them, "Can I take a look at your homework?" Almost invariably, they either say no because they were lying to me about being done, or they are done, but there are plenty of mistakes I can help them with. The delicate part here is how much to help them. I probably only get this right half the time, because it is hard detecting whether they are too frustrated to continue, versus just needing a little encouragement. (I'm consistently amazed by how quickly they will throw up their hands after 15 seconds of trying to figure out a problem, or they will just start guessing random answers.) After 5 weeks though, I think I'm running into this problem less, since I am getting to know the students, and they are getting to know me. Consistency really is key.