Given that I am absolutely horrible at blogs this is likely to be my last post here. If the mood hits me, however, I’ll be certain to post further writing center experiences. This is not to say, of course, that exciting and wonderful things don’t happen everyday in the center, its just that this blog would be one more thing to cram into my overstuffed brain. That aside, I would like to take some time on a final reflection on my experiences as a writing center intern.
First and foremost this has been a wonderful opportunity. Originally I had looked at the 6-9 schedule for 303 and my heart dropped. I thought I was going to be borderline asleep the entire time, not because of any fault of the instructor but because I would have already been doing class activities for nine hours previous. I quickly realized, however, that two wonderful things had happened. The first was that we had motivated instructors that loved the writing center and wanted it to succeed. Secondly, we had such an amazing mix of students. Friendships were made quickly and even though I have a tendency to be quiet I found myself coming out of my shell more often and talking with my peers. I do not deny in the least the value this had for my consultations where I was meeting new individuals every time.
Over the course of 303 and seeing other consultants, I began putting together my own views on how to conduct consultations. Having never been a huge reviser, I began to see the value behind “global revisions.” In fact, two papers I wrote this semester I talked with center consultants about and made, for those who know me, substantial cuts and revisions, which resulted in very good grades. The grades, of course, merely acted as reinforcement to an important lesson: I’ve been putting to much value in the pre-writing stage of my process.
Normally I spend the majority of my time just thinking out the paper in my head and in one “vomit session” I get it all onto paper, make sure periods are there, and am done. But now I’ve found the value of consulting with my peers and to be more accepting of changing my work. Perhaps it was wrong of me to start consulting with somewhat of a predisposition to not want to change, but I have since seen the error of my ways.
Another valuable skill I’ve learned from my writing center work is time management. Having a strict thirty to sixty minute deadline means you have to be ready to go all the time. You get a little bit of small talk, but then it’s right into the paper, trying to make as many suggestions as you can in a very small window. As I now see in previous journals and weekly questions, budgeting time was a huge concern of mine. Since then it’s almost become second nature to me, being able to notice my five minute point and leaving them with good advice as I wrap up. Do I always get through everything in thirty minutes? No, but I at least try to make all my suggestions guides to future consideration of the paper.
I think I may have also found my calling in life with e-mail consultations. For whatever reason the two of us just click, maybe because of my experience in electronic interaction with people. It was how I first learned I wanted to and could help people with their writing, so e-mail consultations are very comfortable for me. I still like the one on one interaction of consultations because it creates dialogue and therefore a chance for the student to explain themselves as well as help me recognize when things need clarification, but man e-mail consultation is fun!
The most important thing, however, of this whole experience has been feeling like part of a community. I’ve had social connections elsewhere so this wasn’t a first time thing for me, but there are things I’m doing because of the great camaraderie we share. Tonight, for instance, I’ll be going to a karaoke bar for the end of semester party. Even at my work that I’ve been at for three years I don’t think I’d be super inclined to just do
karaoke. There’s just something special about our group that is fun to be around.
While I only have a semester left before graduating, there is no doubt in my mind that I want the center to be a part of it. I wouldn’t be doing it for internship credit again, but actual pay which is only just an added benefit to the fun of working in the center. I’ve been talking with people and, thankfully, it seems like a lot of 303 will be making their way into next year. I’m very excited to see what happens as we continue to grow. See you next semester!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
11/01/09-11/07/09
Once again time for the weekly status report. I heard a rumor that supposedly the required visits for lab reports are soon approaching their deadline. I'm neither relieved or upset by this news, to me lab reports were easy to handle because I felt I had a good understanding of the requirements by the end of it. More importantly I knew what the experiment was so I didn't have to focus on that as much. It was interesting to see though all the different ways students handled the report. It wasn't just the same thing over and over again.
Interestingly enough with said deadline approaching I had two no-shows this week. I think what happened is they might have scheduled their visit in advance and then forgot about it and came in earlier. Hard to tell. I believe next week I have my first official e-mail consultation, I admit I'm a little excited for that and want to see how well I do. As was discussed in class today it seems like certain student drama is picking up. I won't go into much exposition as I know the followers of this blog are well aware, but I will just reiterate that the seriousness of the issue seems to be increasing. I found myself having to talk over said individual today during a consultation and I'm sure the student was getting some sense of the bad vibes as well.
Nevertheless I think my consultations went relatively okay this week. It seems like a lot of the Bio students have just required being able to hear their papers and have been able to notice a lot of the things which could use tweaking. I've always made sure to let them know that the Center is not just for required visits, but for any type of writing they can think of. I'm trying my hardest to spread the word because I would love to see how these individuals put their writing to other uses.
This week was also when I finally began to decide on a topic for my final papers. I haven't chosen articles yet, but I think Writing Center community, more specifically between Veterans and newbies, will be my focus. Admittedly this is a little ironic since I haven't gone to the karaoke nights or been much of blog conversationalist. Nevertheless I do see the value of seeing people who understand what it's like to be in the Center, which has its own special type of connection.
As for the reading it was actually kind of fun to return to "Minimalist" and "Critique of Pure Tutoring." I had come across both these articles putting together a final paper for my Rhet Comp class and it was good to look at them now in more detail and with a different perspective since I was now a consultant myself. Authority of the consultant has been a concern for me lately. I think I generally am a little too direct in my tutoring style, the clock is still always looming. What I appreciated about the two pieces was how they showed that sometimes one approach is appropriate and the next a different one is required.
It's crazy to think that the end of the semester is steadily approaching, despite all my attempts to avoid it I'm thinking a lot of writing projects will be on the horizon. I will just have to do the best I can.
Interestingly enough with said deadline approaching I had two no-shows this week. I think what happened is they might have scheduled their visit in advance and then forgot about it and came in earlier. Hard to tell. I believe next week I have my first official e-mail consultation, I admit I'm a little excited for that and want to see how well I do. As was discussed in class today it seems like certain student drama is picking up. I won't go into much exposition as I know the followers of this blog are well aware, but I will just reiterate that the seriousness of the issue seems to be increasing. I found myself having to talk over said individual today during a consultation and I'm sure the student was getting some sense of the bad vibes as well.
Nevertheless I think my consultations went relatively okay this week. It seems like a lot of the Bio students have just required being able to hear their papers and have been able to notice a lot of the things which could use tweaking. I've always made sure to let them know that the Center is not just for required visits, but for any type of writing they can think of. I'm trying my hardest to spread the word because I would love to see how these individuals put their writing to other uses.
This week was also when I finally began to decide on a topic for my final papers. I haven't chosen articles yet, but I think Writing Center community, more specifically between Veterans and newbies, will be my focus. Admittedly this is a little ironic since I haven't gone to the karaoke nights or been much of blog conversationalist. Nevertheless I do see the value of seeing people who understand what it's like to be in the Center, which has its own special type of connection.
As for the reading it was actually kind of fun to return to "Minimalist" and "Critique of Pure Tutoring." I had come across both these articles putting together a final paper for my Rhet Comp class and it was good to look at them now in more detail and with a different perspective since I was now a consultant myself. Authority of the consultant has been a concern for me lately. I think I generally am a little too direct in my tutoring style, the clock is still always looming. What I appreciated about the two pieces was how they showed that sometimes one approach is appropriate and the next a different one is required.
It's crazy to think that the end of the semester is steadily approaching, despite all my attempts to avoid it I'm thinking a lot of writing projects will be on the horizon. I will just have to do the best I can.
Friday, October 30, 2009
10/25/09-10/31/09
This particular week at the Writing Center was an interesting one indeed. I'm really starting to get a taste of the required visits now. It's cool because every time someone else comes in with the same type of assignment I've had experience know with the requirements and can better adapt to help the writer. At the same time, however, there were some issues of conflict as well. I'm not sure how it happened, but a frequent visitor to the center apparently had an appointment on Tuesday and in the struggle to get things organized she was skipped. I tried my best to get her signed up onto the WC website to see what was going on but she didn't remember her password and I specifically remember helping her set up an account last time.
The second event happened on Thursday where I had an hour long session with a writer. His computer had just eaten some of his assignments, so he was pissed and cursing a decent bit. Knowing that we had to do what we could with the writing I nevertheless sympathized with him and offered some suggestions on possible ways to keep his documents safe. We then got to the paper itself. Each and every sentence was in poor shape and by the end of it I was practically exhausted. What I didn't realize is that this student had a learning disability and that in fact I was doing the right thing by going through it sentence by sentence. This was a huge relief to me because that experience had momentarily changed my entire perception of things. I wanted to help everybody but was faced with a piece of writing I had no idea how it could fly. But then we read about several types of non-traditional students which helped me start to feel okay again.
I'm doing fine now but it was an unexpected experience I wish I had known a bit more about. It seemed like lots of the people in class knew except for me. Nevertheless, I did have some positive consultations this week and am steadily advancing through my hours. I just feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest now that I know what the situation was and hope to maybe meet the student again so that I have a more sound strategy in mind.
As for the reading itself it was strange because I basically tackled most of it right after the consultations in which I practically had a combination of all three together in one individual. I think the articles were meaning well by bringing up the subject but there were still inherent troubles. As was mentioned in class it seemed like a lot of these student/consultant relations were something able to steadily build over time. With us in the center it's always a battle of who gets you next.
I was really excited to do e-mail consultations this week and seemed to have adapted pretty well to it. I read the easy, wrote and even did some editing of my response in about 50 minutes and received positive feedback from Joy. While I enjoy the process of fact to face tutoring I'm wondering if e-mail is a little more my style. When I was first helping friends and family with projects, before working in the writing center, it was the most common way I stayed in contact. Thus this was a natural transition for me.
Just plugging along I guess, always trying to do the best I can.
The second event happened on Thursday where I had an hour long session with a writer. His computer had just eaten some of his assignments, so he was pissed and cursing a decent bit. Knowing that we had to do what we could with the writing I nevertheless sympathized with him and offered some suggestions on possible ways to keep his documents safe. We then got to the paper itself. Each and every sentence was in poor shape and by the end of it I was practically exhausted. What I didn't realize is that this student had a learning disability and that in fact I was doing the right thing by going through it sentence by sentence. This was a huge relief to me because that experience had momentarily changed my entire perception of things. I wanted to help everybody but was faced with a piece of writing I had no idea how it could fly. But then we read about several types of non-traditional students which helped me start to feel okay again.
I'm doing fine now but it was an unexpected experience I wish I had known a bit more about. It seemed like lots of the people in class knew except for me. Nevertheless, I did have some positive consultations this week and am steadily advancing through my hours. I just feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest now that I know what the situation was and hope to maybe meet the student again so that I have a more sound strategy in mind.
As for the reading itself it was strange because I basically tackled most of it right after the consultations in which I practically had a combination of all three together in one individual. I think the articles were meaning well by bringing up the subject but there were still inherent troubles. As was mentioned in class it seemed like a lot of these student/consultant relations were something able to steadily build over time. With us in the center it's always a battle of who gets you next.
I was really excited to do e-mail consultations this week and seemed to have adapted pretty well to it. I read the easy, wrote and even did some editing of my response in about 50 minutes and received positive feedback from Joy. While I enjoy the process of fact to face tutoring I'm wondering if e-mail is a little more my style. When I was first helping friends and family with projects, before working in the writing center, it was the most common way I stayed in contact. Thus this was a natural transition for me.
Just plugging along I guess, always trying to do the best I can.
Friday, October 23, 2009
10/18/09-10/24/09
The semester continues to wind its way along and I’m starting to feel the stress building up. Lack of sleep is getting to me and it makes consultations a little difficult because burning eyes is never conducive to starting a pages of tiny text. Nonetheless I’m continuing to push on and help people, which is really what counts. I’m noticing a lot of Comm 101 papers coming in as of late and feel that I’m starting to be pretty skilled with handling them. I know what the requirements are and depending on their current draft or lack thereof I know what to do.
It seems like a lot of the students are engaged in just the brainstorming section, like they’re not sure where to go. This really let me practice my brainstorming skills because up until now I haven’t been able to use them much. I find I enjoy writing down outlines using the student’s own words and handing it to them saying “See? You had more going on in your head than you might have originally thought, put it to good use.” On Thursday I tried something I hadn’t done before. A student was brainstorming for the Comm 101 paper and we had five minutes left. After thinking for a moment I prompted the student to free write, having heard that her typical writing style was just to sit down and write. For whatever reason I felt prompted to do that, she might have just written how her consultant was a weirdo but I hope maybe some good may have come from it.
Another particular consultation of interest happened on Thursday. I went to the browser to see what my appointments were for the day and saw one of them was about Health Care Reform. My initial thought was of dread because I figured it’d be some sort of griping about how our President is a socialist but forced myself to keep an open mind. That didn’t turn out to be the subject at all, but a completely different viewpoint. He was having a little trouble with the research, though, so I told him to check out the BSU library databases as well as played Devil’s Advocate for a bit to help him find places he could make his argument stronger.
I was talking to Rob today and told him how it boggled my mind how few people know about the great resource of the library database. To me that is one of BSU’s only redeeming scholarly qualities that good work has been put into. It’s a wonderful resource and I wonder if there’s any sort of way we can make it more public.
Today’s readings were rather exciting for me because they’re starting to talk about e-mail consultations. In a way that was how I got my start consulting, helping out friends and family as they would send me their papers. I’m looking forward to what help I can offer. I did have some concerns from the reading which I wrote down on my discussion questions, such as how much we should try to establish a rapport and what levels of formality are appropriate but we pretty much answered those in class.
I haven’t begun on the e-mail assignment yet but hope to do so in the near future. I’m really excited to see how it all works and how I’ll handle it.
It seems like a lot of the students are engaged in just the brainstorming section, like they’re not sure where to go. This really let me practice my brainstorming skills because up until now I haven’t been able to use them much. I find I enjoy writing down outlines using the student’s own words and handing it to them saying “See? You had more going on in your head than you might have originally thought, put it to good use.” On Thursday I tried something I hadn’t done before. A student was brainstorming for the Comm 101 paper and we had five minutes left. After thinking for a moment I prompted the student to free write, having heard that her typical writing style was just to sit down and write. For whatever reason I felt prompted to do that, she might have just written how her consultant was a weirdo but I hope maybe some good may have come from it.
Another particular consultation of interest happened on Thursday. I went to the browser to see what my appointments were for the day and saw one of them was about Health Care Reform. My initial thought was of dread because I figured it’d be some sort of griping about how our President is a socialist but forced myself to keep an open mind. That didn’t turn out to be the subject at all, but a completely different viewpoint. He was having a little trouble with the research, though, so I told him to check out the BSU library databases as well as played Devil’s Advocate for a bit to help him find places he could make his argument stronger.
I was talking to Rob today and told him how it boggled my mind how few people know about the great resource of the library database. To me that is one of BSU’s only redeeming scholarly qualities that good work has been put into. It’s a wonderful resource and I wonder if there’s any sort of way we can make it more public.
Today’s readings were rather exciting for me because they’re starting to talk about e-mail consultations. In a way that was how I got my start consulting, helping out friends and family as they would send me their papers. I’m looking forward to what help I can offer. I did have some concerns from the reading which I wrote down on my discussion questions, such as how much we should try to establish a rapport and what levels of formality are appropriate but we pretty much answered those in class.
I haven’t begun on the e-mail assignment yet but hope to do so in the near future. I’m really excited to see how it all works and how I’ll handle it.
Friday, October 16, 2009
10/11/09-10/17/09
Things continue to be in full swing at the Writing Center. Ever since I've been put officially on the schedule my times has been filled up. Even when a person cancels/no shows there has always been another walk-in to keep me occupied. As usual this week was a series of ups and downs but mostly positive experiences. On Tuesday I had three consultations on a variety of topics. The first to come in was Writing Center regular Rehana. She was working on a paper that was a review of a children's book. She didn't have much written and was having trouble understanding the format of a correct argument paper. I showed her two ways she could present both sides of an argument and more importantly had her realize just what she felt about the issues at hand.
The second person who arrived was a little hesistant to work on the paper and we didn't click as well, but we still had some learning instances concerning grammar and by the end of it he left with more knowledge. The last person of the day was particularly rewarding ot me and got specific mention in my progress report to Dr. Munger. It was an accounting paper in which the student was working to make a permontional pitch letter to an imaginary CEO. I had little knowledge on how accounting worked but at the same time was able to help him reword sentences so they were clearer and brought up ideas he hadn't thought of before. You could see he was really enthusiastic about his experience so as always I made sure to let him know he could come in anytime and he seemed anxious to do that.
On Thursday I had two consultations. The first was about genetically engineered trees and I was feeling just like we didn't have a conncection going on. Nevertheless I eventually found her concern about needing more material to go into the paper and I was able to suggest her looking for actual research data/experiments on the trees and recommended the BSU library's database system (I should honestly be their PR rep). The second student to come in had scheduled an hour for his paper. Forty minutes into it though I had a feeling that we had talked about it all that we could and so asked him what he felt would be the best use of his time. He opted to take off 20 minutes early after we reviewed our notes. I find that I'm being able to handle my time better, getting the 5 minute evaluation done and moving on at a good pace.
Concerning the reading for this week I was of a mixed opinion. It's good to see that we have lots of scholarship on ELL and how to help them, but it still seems there isn't any concrete answer. The myths article in particular interested me but at the same time found different things occuring in my own sessions. Many times the students try to force us into directive tutoring, which texts tell us to avoid. I try to steer away each time but they keep on pushing it and sometimes I give in because I want them to leave with something valuable. When that happens I can't help but feel we're justing being used as a crutch and not actually helping. It's frustrating.
In the long run I think there's no "official solution" to this difficult situations. In the end you, as a consultant, just have to find what methods work best for you and learn how to swtich between them depending on a situation. At the end of the day, as long as you did your best for them, that's really what counts.
The second person who arrived was a little hesistant to work on the paper and we didn't click as well, but we still had some learning instances concerning grammar and by the end of it he left with more knowledge. The last person of the day was particularly rewarding ot me and got specific mention in my progress report to Dr. Munger. It was an accounting paper in which the student was working to make a permontional pitch letter to an imaginary CEO. I had little knowledge on how accounting worked but at the same time was able to help him reword sentences so they were clearer and brought up ideas he hadn't thought of before. You could see he was really enthusiastic about his experience so as always I made sure to let him know he could come in anytime and he seemed anxious to do that.
On Thursday I had two consultations. The first was about genetically engineered trees and I was feeling just like we didn't have a conncection going on. Nevertheless I eventually found her concern about needing more material to go into the paper and I was able to suggest her looking for actual research data/experiments on the trees and recommended the BSU library's database system (I should honestly be their PR rep). The second student to come in had scheduled an hour for his paper. Forty minutes into it though I had a feeling that we had talked about it all that we could and so asked him what he felt would be the best use of his time. He opted to take off 20 minutes early after we reviewed our notes. I find that I'm being able to handle my time better, getting the 5 minute evaluation done and moving on at a good pace.
Concerning the reading for this week I was of a mixed opinion. It's good to see that we have lots of scholarship on ELL and how to help them, but it still seems there isn't any concrete answer. The myths article in particular interested me but at the same time found different things occuring in my own sessions. Many times the students try to force us into directive tutoring, which texts tell us to avoid. I try to steer away each time but they keep on pushing it and sometimes I give in because I want them to leave with something valuable. When that happens I can't help but feel we're justing being used as a crutch and not actually helping. It's frustrating.
In the long run I think there's no "official solution" to this difficult situations. In the end you, as a consultant, just have to find what methods work best for you and learn how to swtich between them depending on a situation. At the end of the day, as long as you did your best for them, that's really what counts.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
10/04/09-10/10/09
This week began my first official time on the Center's schedule and things are off to a decent start so far. I did have a no-show for my first consultation but ended up helping another student during my break instead. I don't remember much about that particular consultation but the one after wards was memorable. The student was putting together a paper and had both concerns over conciseness and grammar and admittedly had good reason. He was nervous about the experience and I did what I could to make him feel more relaxed but unfortunately I don't think I made it to that point. I did, however, give him some useful information to take with him, as well as had him get out of his shell a little bit to see if he could make some corrections on his own.
Thursday I had both my consultations show up. Both were Communications papers but each handled incredibly different. My first consultation had only a single page written but lots of ideas. We discussed what he had and then turned to possibilities to further research and development of his paper since he needed it to be 5 pages or so at the end. Since he began the paper talking about a six person group he was a part of I made a suggestion that the communication between he and his group member's could new research to the topic and his eyes just had that "Ah ha!" moment we all hope for. More importantly it was his first time at the Center and he had a positive experience, I'm thinking we'll start to see more of him.
The second consultation almost went out of control. The student was entirely overwhelmed, uncertain on what to do with the assignment, overwhelmed, stressing, overwhelmed etc. She wanted to do nothing but talk about all the things she had to do and while I sympathized with her I knew that if we didn't work on this paper she'd just have more to worry about. I read through the material and syllabus and looked over what she had. It was okay work but she admitted that it was written when she didn't have a key piece of information. Learning that and after some consideration I decided it was time to suggest my first "huge" revision. Since she had written only a page and a half and was stressing out about it I suggested she put it to the side and start fresh, offering some tips connected to the syllabus to put together a "battle plan" for her. She still seemed nervous but I think I've gotten her out of a rut and on a new path that will do better for her.
The reading for this week was a considerable amount, but still very valuable. ELL students definitely seem to be the most common frequenters of our Center and it's important we know various strategies to help them. It really is important to remember that they are students just like us and not some sort of segregated group, although I find it ironic that scholarship on helping students from other countries can't help but group them together under a title, which the text speaks against. I find myself trying to decide between Bedford and the ESL guide on how to handle consultations and find myself leaning more towards the former. Grammar and punctuation is something you can pic up over time, but if the piece itself is a mess concerning content then it will do little good for the student. As was mentioned in class, though, we can't have a system of absolutes, if the paper itself is truly well put together save for punctuation and surface level edits then it is fine to focus on them. It's rarely been the case so far with me, though.
I just sense this nervousness the guides continue to talk about and I'm hoping as I gain practice I'll be able to work my way past it and get them more into a comfort zone. They have enough to worry about without needing to wonder if they'll be judged at the center.
Thursday I had both my consultations show up. Both were Communications papers but each handled incredibly different. My first consultation had only a single page written but lots of ideas. We discussed what he had and then turned to possibilities to further research and development of his paper since he needed it to be 5 pages or so at the end. Since he began the paper talking about a six person group he was a part of I made a suggestion that the communication between he and his group member's could new research to the topic and his eyes just had that "Ah ha!" moment we all hope for. More importantly it was his first time at the Center and he had a positive experience, I'm thinking we'll start to see more of him.
The second consultation almost went out of control. The student was entirely overwhelmed, uncertain on what to do with the assignment, overwhelmed, stressing, overwhelmed etc. She wanted to do nothing but talk about all the things she had to do and while I sympathized with her I knew that if we didn't work on this paper she'd just have more to worry about. I read through the material and syllabus and looked over what she had. It was okay work but she admitted that it was written when she didn't have a key piece of information. Learning that and after some consideration I decided it was time to suggest my first "huge" revision. Since she had written only a page and a half and was stressing out about it I suggested she put it to the side and start fresh, offering some tips connected to the syllabus to put together a "battle plan" for her. She still seemed nervous but I think I've gotten her out of a rut and on a new path that will do better for her.
The reading for this week was a considerable amount, but still very valuable. ELL students definitely seem to be the most common frequenters of our Center and it's important we know various strategies to help them. It really is important to remember that they are students just like us and not some sort of segregated group, although I find it ironic that scholarship on helping students from other countries can't help but group them together under a title, which the text speaks against. I find myself trying to decide between Bedford and the ESL guide on how to handle consultations and find myself leaning more towards the former. Grammar and punctuation is something you can pic up over time, but if the piece itself is a mess concerning content then it will do little good for the student. As was mentioned in class, though, we can't have a system of absolutes, if the paper itself is truly well put together save for punctuation and surface level edits then it is fine to focus on them. It's rarely been the case so far with me, though.
I just sense this nervousness the guides continue to talk about and I'm hoping as I gain practice I'll be able to work my way past it and get them more into a comfort zone. They have enough to worry about without needing to wonder if they'll be judged at the center.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
9/27/09-10/03/09
I'm continue to work and improve my techniques in the writing center, having another walk in consultation on Tuesday that went very well. I'm starting to realize how much I am a part of the Center. If there's no one to help a walk in then hell I'm the man for the job. This particular consultation focused on the writing of a memo explaining a group's mission statement for English 202. Things were off to a little bumpy of a start because he couldn't get his computer onto the school's network but I suggested he go down to the library and get a copy. We covered a variety of topics, including getting his memo correctly formatted and then making the text more concise to follow the "to the point" style of a memo. He left the Center very pleased with his experience and I suspect he'll be in again.
So far that's been the most rewarding thing to me, knowing that I've impressed someone enough that they want to visit again. It's probably the retail associate in me because I understand that if I've provided a pleasant enough experience to guarantee return visits then I'm doing my job. Thursday afternoon I had no consultations but I did help a walk in feel welcome and helped her around her scheduling conflict by introducing her to April (I would have done it but she arrived near the end of my shift). I'm just feeling so relieved right now ever since I dropped my Linguistics 305 class. I just don't think it was something I was ready for this semester and will tackle it in the Spring. I feel like a 15 pound weight has been taken off.
The experience with Mary Ann was also positive today because it was my first brainstorming session. I had some brainstorming experience watching Tiffany help a student once but this was a completely different paper and requirements. At times I felt I was talking too much but eventually it helped coax her to start taking action and engaging herself in the conversation. I'll likely be seeing her again on Tuesday for a follow up appointment, which was a good feeling.
And now to take some time talking about the reading. I really enjoyed seeing the three case studies presented in "The First Five Minutes" It helped me to compare different approaches and more importantly the strengths and weaknesses of each. The article was actually the key priority in my mind when talking with Mary Ann. I realized that I had been rather lacking in an agenda my previous consultations and wanted this one to be different. Keeping a close eye on the clock I actually managed to get a game plan in the first five minutes and was able to cover a lot of detail in just 30 minutes, in some ways more than I ever had in my 60 minute consultations.
The Singley article on dialogue lead me to thinking about how much I'm going to be a retailer and how much I'm going to be a collaborator in the Writing Center. I know that establishing a dialogue will be key, but what if I need to push things a little for us to reach a true dialogue? I think the most important lesson to be learned is that I'll continue practicing the techniques I get from the reading and after awhile I'll start developing an arsenal to help students with their various needs. I'm having a great time and look forward to being put on the schedule.
So far that's been the most rewarding thing to me, knowing that I've impressed someone enough that they want to visit again. It's probably the retail associate in me because I understand that if I've provided a pleasant enough experience to guarantee return visits then I'm doing my job. Thursday afternoon I had no consultations but I did help a walk in feel welcome and helped her around her scheduling conflict by introducing her to April (I would have done it but she arrived near the end of my shift). I'm just feeling so relieved right now ever since I dropped my Linguistics 305 class. I just don't think it was something I was ready for this semester and will tackle it in the Spring. I feel like a 15 pound weight has been taken off.
The experience with Mary Ann was also positive today because it was my first brainstorming session. I had some brainstorming experience watching Tiffany help a student once but this was a completely different paper and requirements. At times I felt I was talking too much but eventually it helped coax her to start taking action and engaging herself in the conversation. I'll likely be seeing her again on Tuesday for a follow up appointment, which was a good feeling.
And now to take some time talking about the reading. I really enjoyed seeing the three case studies presented in "The First Five Minutes" It helped me to compare different approaches and more importantly the strengths and weaknesses of each. The article was actually the key priority in my mind when talking with Mary Ann. I realized that I had been rather lacking in an agenda my previous consultations and wanted this one to be different. Keeping a close eye on the clock I actually managed to get a game plan in the first five minutes and was able to cover a lot of detail in just 30 minutes, in some ways more than I ever had in my 60 minute consultations.
The Singley article on dialogue lead me to thinking about how much I'm going to be a retailer and how much I'm going to be a collaborator in the Writing Center. I know that establishing a dialogue will be key, but what if I need to push things a little for us to reach a true dialogue? I think the most important lesson to be learned is that I'll continue practicing the techniques I get from the reading and after awhile I'll start developing an arsenal to help students with their various needs. I'm having a great time and look forward to being put on the schedule.
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