Luckily, I had known and taken classes with Professor Brod before I began working as a Writing Fellow in his ENG110 classroom. This made it easier for me to express my concerns and generally communicate with my faculty member. We mainly talk through email, but occasionally I see him in the Commons, so sometimes we have brief impromptu meetings/check-ins. One thing that has helped me and Professor Brod is a document that I share with him. After each meeting I write 3-4 bullet points of what we talked about or what the student’s concerns were, or a simple positive interaction we had in brief. If I had multiple meetings on that day, I will add an “overall notes” section where I summarize the general consensus on what many are struggling with or how they feel about the class or assignment. This follow-up sheet helps me keep my thoughts organized and for reference when I meet with the same students for the next essay to see if they still have the same concerns or have improved in certain areas. Professor Brod has expressed his appreciation of this document, saying that it helps inform his instruction and see what areas he may need to review with the whole class again. This also helps me see who I have not yet met with, as meetings with me are mandatory for the class. I would suggest trying out this method of feedback, since it has been greatly beneficial for both me and my faculty member. I would also advise a new fellow to not be afraid to reach out to your faculty partner, as they can help you more than you might think. Simply asking what areas they have covered in class helps you relate to your tutees, and makes them feel more knowledgeable in conversation, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them even for little things.
So far, I have really enjoyed working with Professor Anderson. He is very down to Earth and easy to talk to, and allows me to have a lot of control of what is going on, and of my role in the class. Overall, my big piece of advice is that this experience is truly fellow driven, so if you want an opportunity, ask for it! Most of the faculty mentors are happy to let you branch out and be a bigger part of the class, if you are interested. For example, Professor Anderson had me give a mini lecture on reading notes because I mentioned that I was interested in trying to give a lesson. This program can be so much more than just tutoring, and faculty mentors are also a great resource as you begin to move on from UNE. I have learned a lot from Professor Anderson not just about teaching, but about dealing with difficult students (and people in general), as well as seeing him communicate with me behind the scenes, and then in front of the whole class. Observation of faculty mentors is very helpful in growing professionally.
Journal #7
Over the course of the past few weeks I have learned a significant amount from my faculty partner. I was placed in Professor Frank’s ENG 110 class, which has been incredibly valuable to me, as I got to take the course last semester. Going into the semester we exchanged a few emails to prepare for our time going forward. Professor Frank also gave me access to her ePortfolio course site very early in the semester, which I read thoroughly so that I could understand where we were headed in the coming weeks. I was very lucky in that I was able to be placed with a Professor that I had already taken a class with, as I was not only able to better understand her course work since I had just completed it, but I have also been able to extend my own learning from last semester. Professor Frank has done a really good job of integrating me into the classroom in a way that helps me meet the students as a peer, making my tutoring sessions much easier, as my tutees’ understanding of my role is already set. One of Professor Frank’s teaching strategies is to assign small group discussions and then walk around the classroom to hear every group’s separate thoughts. Professor Frank has really empowered me, allowing me to go around to the groups on the opposite side of the room from her, which allows me to get a greater understanding of how my tutees are interpreting our current topics, and also establish rapport before meeting them one on one. Professor Frank has also empowered me outside of the classroom, asking my opinion on my tutee’s comprehension and level of engagement with the course material, as well as their writing level. Being treated with the authority to discern my tutee’s class involvement and areas of improvement has really boosted my confidence. Talking with my Faculty Partner has also had me thinking more introspectively about my own writing. My Faculty Partner and I normally talk after I attend her Monday class, and while these meetings help me a lot as a tutor, as she has a lot of advice for tutoring that I have found really helpful in my meetings with her students, they have also helped me as a writer. Seeing how Professor Frank approaches an essay, and talks about the craft elements that make an essay, or any piece of writing for that matter, impactful, has really made me consider my own approach to writing and evaluate if I am doing the rigorous mental work necessary for a well made piece of writing. As a humanities major I do a great deal of essay writing, and argumentation in that form, so looking through this new lens at my own writing has been extremely useful to keep in my writer’s toolkit. My advice to new tutors when working with their Faculty Partner would definitely be to approach this experience as a learner. Research your professor, read the description for the class you have been placed in, understand the learning outcomes for your course and how you can work toward those goals with your Faculty Partner, ask for the syllabus and read it. Think about what projects you are most excited for and talk to your Faculty Partner about how they will approach them with the class and why you find those specific elements exciting. I personally am looking forward to hearing how my tutee’s will react to their new readings they have just started covering, as I want to help them push their response writing to the next level, which Professor Frank was excited to hear. Another thing I would advise new writing fellows is to make your Faculty Partner aware of any additional skill sets that you can bring to the classroom. I am personally an ePortfolio tutor as well as a writing fellow. Professor Frank does a lot of ePortfolio work in her class which she teaches very well, but when there is one student who does not quite understand, or is having a unique issue, she will ask me to go over and help them one on one while she continues her demo with the class. My skills outside of my writing ability have allowed me to be useful in other ways around the classroom as well as continue to establish relationships with both the students, and my Faculty Partner which has been really helpful.
The first step in becoming a tutor for research methods was to meet with Professor Stiegler- Balfour. This required me to reach out to her and coordinate a time to meet and discuss what my job would look like for the semester. This step is essential because it gave me a chance to introduce myself to Dr. SB and establish a relationship with her where expectations of each other are made clear and we can begin to work together. Dr. SB was super helpful in providing me with a much more concrete idea of what I would be doing in her class, by going over her syllabus with me, what days she would need me to attend class and why, as well as what kind of assignments I would be working through with the students. Something I would recommend before meeting with your faculty mentor for the first time is brainstorming questions that might be useful for you to ask face to face. One of those questions for me was “what is the thing about writing that your students tend to struggle with?” so that when she answered I had the answer to that question in my toolbox to figure out how to teach students to improve on before actually meeting with them and facing that problem. This meeting helped so much for me to understand what kinds of things I would have to troubleshoot alongside the students and has given me a game plan for every tutoring session thus far. Getting on the same page as the professor you’re working with is extremely important, because they are ultimately the ones grading the students’ papers. Continuously emailing and updating Dr. SB has also proved to be important, so she has some level of awareness of how things are going with her students work from my perspective.
4 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 7”
Luckily, I had known and taken classes with Professor Brod before I began working as a Writing Fellow in his ENG110 classroom. This made it easier for me to express my concerns and generally communicate with my faculty member. We mainly talk through email, but occasionally I see him in the Commons, so sometimes we have brief impromptu meetings/check-ins. One thing that has helped me and Professor Brod is a document that I share with him. After each meeting I write 3-4 bullet points of what we talked about or what the student’s concerns were, or a simple positive interaction we had in brief. If I had multiple meetings on that day, I will add an “overall notes” section where I summarize the general consensus on what many are struggling with or how they feel about the class or assignment. This follow-up sheet helps me keep my thoughts organized and for reference when I meet with the same students for the next essay to see if they still have the same concerns or have improved in certain areas. Professor Brod has expressed his appreciation of this document, saying that it helps inform his instruction and see what areas he may need to review with the whole class again. This also helps me see who I have not yet met with, as meetings with me are mandatory for the class. I would suggest trying out this method of feedback, since it has been greatly beneficial for both me and my faculty member. I would also advise a new fellow to not be afraid to reach out to your faculty partner, as they can help you more than you might think. Simply asking what areas they have covered in class helps you relate to your tutees, and makes them feel more knowledgeable in conversation, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them even for little things.
So far, I have really enjoyed working with Professor Anderson. He is very down to Earth and easy to talk to, and allows me to have a lot of control of what is going on, and of my role in the class. Overall, my big piece of advice is that this experience is truly fellow driven, so if you want an opportunity, ask for it! Most of the faculty mentors are happy to let you branch out and be a bigger part of the class, if you are interested. For example, Professor Anderson had me give a mini lecture on reading notes because I mentioned that I was interested in trying to give a lesson. This program can be so much more than just tutoring, and faculty mentors are also a great resource as you begin to move on from UNE. I have learned a lot from Professor Anderson not just about teaching, but about dealing with difficult students (and people in general), as well as seeing him communicate with me behind the scenes, and then in front of the whole class. Observation of faculty mentors is very helpful in growing professionally.
Journal #7
Over the course of the past few weeks I have learned a significant amount from my faculty partner. I was placed in Professor Frank’s ENG 110 class, which has been incredibly valuable to me, as I got to take the course last semester. Going into the semester we exchanged a few emails to prepare for our time going forward. Professor Frank also gave me access to her ePortfolio course site very early in the semester, which I read thoroughly so that I could understand where we were headed in the coming weeks. I was very lucky in that I was able to be placed with a Professor that I had already taken a class with, as I was not only able to better understand her course work since I had just completed it, but I have also been able to extend my own learning from last semester. Professor Frank has done a really good job of integrating me into the classroom in a way that helps me meet the students as a peer, making my tutoring sessions much easier, as my tutees’ understanding of my role is already set. One of Professor Frank’s teaching strategies is to assign small group discussions and then walk around the classroom to hear every group’s separate thoughts. Professor Frank has really empowered me, allowing me to go around to the groups on the opposite side of the room from her, which allows me to get a greater understanding of how my tutees are interpreting our current topics, and also establish rapport before meeting them one on one. Professor Frank has also empowered me outside of the classroom, asking my opinion on my tutee’s comprehension and level of engagement with the course material, as well as their writing level. Being treated with the authority to discern my tutee’s class involvement and areas of improvement has really boosted my confidence. Talking with my Faculty Partner has also had me thinking more introspectively about my own writing. My Faculty Partner and I normally talk after I attend her Monday class, and while these meetings help me a lot as a tutor, as she has a lot of advice for tutoring that I have found really helpful in my meetings with her students, they have also helped me as a writer. Seeing how Professor Frank approaches an essay, and talks about the craft elements that make an essay, or any piece of writing for that matter, impactful, has really made me consider my own approach to writing and evaluate if I am doing the rigorous mental work necessary for a well made piece of writing. As a humanities major I do a great deal of essay writing, and argumentation in that form, so looking through this new lens at my own writing has been extremely useful to keep in my writer’s toolkit. My advice to new tutors when working with their Faculty Partner would definitely be to approach this experience as a learner. Research your professor, read the description for the class you have been placed in, understand the learning outcomes for your course and how you can work toward those goals with your Faculty Partner, ask for the syllabus and read it. Think about what projects you are most excited for and talk to your Faculty Partner about how they will approach them with the class and why you find those specific elements exciting. I personally am looking forward to hearing how my tutee’s will react to their new readings they have just started covering, as I want to help them push their response writing to the next level, which Professor Frank was excited to hear. Another thing I would advise new writing fellows is to make your Faculty Partner aware of any additional skill sets that you can bring to the classroom. I am personally an ePortfolio tutor as well as a writing fellow. Professor Frank does a lot of ePortfolio work in her class which she teaches very well, but when there is one student who does not quite understand, or is having a unique issue, she will ask me to go over and help them one on one while she continues her demo with the class. My skills outside of my writing ability have allowed me to be useful in other ways around the classroom as well as continue to establish relationships with both the students, and my Faculty Partner which has been really helpful.
The first step in becoming a tutor for research methods was to meet with Professor Stiegler- Balfour. This required me to reach out to her and coordinate a time to meet and discuss what my job would look like for the semester. This step is essential because it gave me a chance to introduce myself to Dr. SB and establish a relationship with her where expectations of each other are made clear and we can begin to work together. Dr. SB was super helpful in providing me with a much more concrete idea of what I would be doing in her class, by going over her syllabus with me, what days she would need me to attend class and why, as well as what kind of assignments I would be working through with the students. Something I would recommend before meeting with your faculty mentor for the first time is brainstorming questions that might be useful for you to ask face to face. One of those questions for me was “what is the thing about writing that your students tend to struggle with?” so that when she answered I had the answer to that question in my toolbox to figure out how to teach students to improve on before actually meeting with them and facing that problem. This meeting helped so much for me to understand what kinds of things I would have to troubleshoot alongside the students and has given me a game plan for every tutoring session thus far. Getting on the same page as the professor you’re working with is extremely important, because they are ultimately the ones grading the students’ papers. Continuously emailing and updating Dr. SB has also proved to be important, so she has some level of awareness of how things are going with her students work from my perspective.