Allie Blogpost 8

After the last class, I reflected further on my time at the EMK. I wanted to think of ways I could better help the students so that the tutoring experience was more beneficial to them. I realized multiple ways in which I could better help the high schoolers so that they can get the most out of the experience. Of course, there will be scenarios in which I can be useless; an example being the last volunteering slot, in which the class was typing binary code, a topic I have absolutely no background in. I had to come to the realization that sometimes interjecting could be hindering their learning process. In that situation, I felt like my presence made the student feel as though he needed to interact with me, even though I could be no help to him whatsoever. The student, in particular, was doing extra for the project to receive extra credit. He had to do over three times the amount of work as the other students and there were times in which I felt like he was going out of his way to talk to me rather than doing his work.

One way I could help is better assessing the situation and realizing when the student needs assistance or just needs to work alone. During other experiences I had with different students, I felt as though I was proving to be beneficial and helped them with certain ideas for their essays and interpreting questions that they did not know what they meant and posing the questions so that they can better understand them. I felt as though I was facilitating them in developing their ideas, which felt good. I need to attempt to properly assess the situation in order to determine the amount of help that will be necessary for each student to be the best assisted. Of course, this should be personalized for every student, because different students need different amounts, and kinds, of help 

Another way I can help the students is by reading the prompts of the work they will be working on so as to better assist them, rather than taking up time for them to explain it in the beginning. This could be helpful in situations in which they have specific questions on the prompt or do not understand a question. Knowledge of the prompt would help me better understand not only what they are working on, but, in a way, I may be able to anticipate questions. Reading the prompts before class and assessing them as if I were to do the project would better help the students because it would give me further insight on the project at hand, which would, in turn, be more beneficial to the students who need assistance. In doing this, I will not only further understand the class and think about how I would do the project instead of walking in with no ideas on how to approach the student’s work but save time.