Pre-Service: Situational Understanding
This blog helps you prepare the foundations of a good working relationship with your mentor
In “Examining the Roles of Curriculum-Based Peer Tutors in the 21ST Century Composition Classroom” Rigolino & Freel discuss the complex role role of the writing tutor:
“The tutors must negotiate their relationships with peers over whom they have been placed in a position of authority, while also maintaining a relationship with the instructor who is clearly not a peer. Each paradigm calls for the need to formulate a situational understanding”
To help “formulate a situational understanding” in your own tutoring position, spend time this week learning about your SWW instructor (meeting in person or chatting via email). Gather a profile of your SWW instructor’s teaching experience, philosophies, expectations for their students, and expectations of tutors. In your blog, write up what you find out; knowing more about your SWW instructor at the beginning of the semester will help to build the foundation for a productive working relationship for the rest of the semester.
While I may not know everything about my SWW instructor, Peggy Hach, especially considering the semester has yet to officially begin, what I’ve gathered so far from our few exchanges is that she genuinely cares for her students and wants them to succeed, and since she has been teaching her entire life, it’s clear that she’s been doing something right!
Peggy has a variety of teaching experience, even outside of the classroom, and can adapt her style to fit the needs of all ages, and I greatly admire her philosophy that one should be transparent with his or her students. I think it’s important for students to realize that while their professor is the authority in the class, he/she is also human, just like them, and while the students are in a role where they’re learning, the professor learns just as much from them; teaching is always a two-way street. As a student myself, I’ve learned way more from the professors who weren’t afraid to admit to their mistakes, not knowing something, or being able to laugh at themselves than the ones who were strict, unhappy, and/or thought they were better than everyone else. Plus, when you have a professor who is honest, approachable, and allows for the class to occasionally bring up topics and stories outside of the curriculum, those moments stick with you long after the semester has ended.
I think this is going to be a great semester and I look forward to working with her!
Ashely,
Oh my—I just figured out how to reply to your post (It took me a while). Thanks for being our first blog poster! You know, one of the best pieces of advice I received about teaching was from the chair of the English Department (30?) years ago. She said, “Always admit when you are wrong.” Now, I think it must have been said in the context of a conversation about a mistake I had made, but the general gist of being human/humble stayed with me. Yes, we need to be authority figures (esp. when it comes to writing academic English), but that doesn’t mean we know everything.
Well said.
Rachel
Hi Ashley,
Yes, I agree–humility is golden when it comes to teaching. I went to school in the era of legal corporal punishment where making mistakes at school led to a great deal of painful humiliation. As such, all joy for learning was stomped out at an early age, and this is why I gravitated to working in the relatively safer waters of the arts. For me, learning is a celebration, a collaborative experience, and only as fun as the energy people are prepared to commit to it..
Nikki