Tutoring

Tutor Time this week was very relaxing. No tutee!!! Lisa and I sat around the table and talked. Some of it was productive, too! On our way over to the Writing Center we talked about our final project and we just assumed each other would be working together. I called the Gender aspect of our final project and she was a little upset, but I think she decided to do Structuralism. NW sat with us in the center and discussed Harry Potter with Lisa. I've never read the books or seen the movies so I don't really know anything about it besides the main characters. Anyway, Harry Potter might be the topic of our final project. I guess I really don't care what we do. All I have to do is sit and watch this movie if we do it, no big deal. I feel as if this semester has been flying by. We only have 2 more papers left and we're done! Well, I guess more of an update on tutoring next week!

NO CLASS :)

I LOVE when classes are cancelled or when there are scheduled cancelled class times. For some reason it makes me really happy! I'm happy that I'm going to be getting this time off tomorrow because I need to work on my paper. I've been extremely busy this past week and I'm starting to get overwhelmed...AGAIN. What's new?! For some reason, this essay was really hard for me to start. I couldn't think of anything to choose for my icon. Finally, at the last minute I picked AIM: American Online Instant Messaging. I wrote a very "rough" draft and brought it to class. I know that it was that great since I didn't spend enought time to elaborate more in my essay but I thought it would atleast get me a "GOOD IDEA." I didn't get it from my group...they seemed confused by it but NW encouraged me to stick with it! I hate thinking about doing something. When I think about writing this essay I get flustered, but I know when I actually sit down and start writing everything will just flow! I've also noticed throughout my time in all the English classes that I've been in is that most people sit at their computer and type their papers. I canNOT do that! I have to break out my pen and paper and start writing. I find it really hard to sit at a computer and type out what's in my head for an English paper. For something like this though, blogging, it's easy. I don't have to write a draft by hand first. Maybe I'm just weird!

Tutor 2

This week, me and Lisa tutored again! This time, the girl needed help with her overall paper because it was a "re-do" and her teacher said she should come to the writing center to get help. We read over her assignment sheet and we realized that some things in her paper didn't even make sense. We helped her with the "silly" mistakes, like the typos, by letting her read it out loud and she knew that some things didn't make sense so she fixed it on her own! Lisa and I tutor at the same time. One of us doesn't just sit back and "observe" like we were told to, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing! The tutee then gets twice the advice and help!!! I think me and her are a good team and this past session went well, even thought the tutee could only stay for 20 minutes. We encouraged her to come back and she wanted to know if she could get us again to tutor her! It made me smile.
So far, I think I'm doing pretty well with the whole tutoring thing and I think I'm doing well in class overall...HOPEFULLY!!!

Cultural Icon Essay

I woke up this Saturday feeling like DEATH. I absolutely hate being sick and laying in my bed for 2 days isn't my idea of fun. When I woke up this morning all I could think about was school. What I needed to do for each class and when it was all due. I started thinking about English class and how our Cultural Icon Essay is due next week.

I still haven't picked a symbol considering my brain has been hazy with sickness all weekend. I don't even know what to choose though! In Class we talked about the Starbucks icon and how popular it really has become. I agree, but I just can't think of anything else to say about it. I think it would be really hard for me to get 4 pages out of the Starbucks symbol. However, it might be my only choice because I cannot think of anything else.

I don't actually remember if the rough draft/outline is due tomorrow or Thursday. I sure hope it is Thursday because I honestly feel horrible and I don't even know if I'll be in class tomorrow.

Tutor Week 1

I tutored this past Thursday for the first time. I was getting really nervous as I was walking over to the library but when I go there, the lady at the front desk said there were no appointments. I was really excited! So then, there was a walk in and of course my partner volunteers us to tutor!
The girl sits down and I have her fill out those two forms for the writing center. My partner asks her to read her paper out loud but the girl refuses. We just look at each other like, "OH no, now what?" The girl that wanted help didn't have her assignment sheet and she didn't have one specific area she wanted help in. She wanted us basically to proofread and find mistakes and see if it all flowed together. We started this at first but then it started getting tedious and so I told her, "Maybe you should read it out loud so you can find some of your own mistakes." She didn't seem too happy with that but you have to be firm right?

The one area she knew she needed help with was her formatting. Her spacing and indentations were all over the place and we tried to help her with it but she seemed scattered brain. She was more interested in how we thought her "flow" of the paper was than whether or not she had correct format. After 45 minutes, I had to leave for class but I'm pretty sure my partner stayed for a little while longer and tried to help. Can't wait to see what the rest of the tutoring experience is going to be like!

Observation

I observed in the Writing Center this week. When I went in though, nobody was there to receive tutoring. So I sat. And waited. I finally waited for about 30 minutes and I overheard someone in there say that there were 4 appointments but they were all no shows. HOW RUDE!!! I guess that is something we as tutors will have to get used to! I had to get to class so I ran off. From this observation, it helped reinforce patience. Not only to be patient with the writer but to be patient with whether or not you receive a tutee to help!

Tutor Collage Paper

I was freaking out about our past tutoring collage paper and delicious account. I had planned on just having 7 sources for my delicious BUT then in class I remember it being said that 15 would get us an A. I definately wanted an A so I was frantically trying to find my tutoring sites. I finally added to my account and decided to write my paper.

I wanted to write about 3 images that I thought were the most important while tutoring. I described what each image meant to me and how it would help with tutoring, which I thought was really good! Next, I wrote about some things I learned from my delicious accounts and some tips and tricks I got from the tutoring sites. I did learn some more things to help me when I start to tutor so I do think that this was another good project to do!

I just checked my grade and I saw that I received an A- which is good! I'm a perfectionist and for a split second I was like, "Aww man, maybe I should rewrite it." Insane, right?