Comments 1-5

Blog Comment #1: (Oct 4) Blog Comment #2:

Professor Gibbon's presentation was very informative for all of us, but what I really enjoyed from his way of explaining the different search engines was that he truly broke it down. I have been to several "library presentations" since high school when the librarian would have a big screen and we would all sit down, bored out of our minds, while the libraries explained how there are all these places one can go into to do research. However, they always made it so difficult to understand that I never really learned the techniques needed to research for a specific topic.

If only all teachers/librarians were this patient and willing to go through the research process step by step.

Blog Comment #2: (Oct. 24)

This "bad" tutoring session only reminded me of my own so-called tutoring sessions that I used to have with my sister. When I was in high school I would sometimes refer to her about helping me with my paper because she was older and in college and my parents urged me to do so. However, in the end of our "session", I would always feel like my paper has been changed, and it's no longer my voice but hers. This is probably one of the reasons I stopped going to her and am sometimes so afraid of going to anyone to talk about my paper just in case he/she tries to do the same thing.

In the video, the tutor stole complete ownership of the paper from the tutee and changed his voice to hers. Indeed, this goes against all beliefs and ethics of tutoring in a writing center.

Oh and yes the background music was quite disturbing and I could not find its connection to the video itself, seriously.

Blog Comment #3: (Nov. 6)

I know exactly how you feel Jane. Except that some of my students are overly dependent right from the start at times. The thing is, as soon as one of the tutors in the WC staff offer "too much guidance" as you put it, they expect all the other tutors to be the same way. And I have to tell you, sometimes it is just easier to help them with that one paper. The weird thing is, ever since I've been reading up on these writing center theories, I've become more and more aware and conscious of my tutoring! It is good because I now try to implement my sessions by using advices from the texts we've been reading. For instance, I would really like to use this sheet that Kristin Walker offered in her article about finding out what one's assignment really is and whether the student has covered all the points or not. In fact, I think I'm going to make copies of the article and give it to the rest of the tutors to check out because it really offers some practical advices for such situations.

Blog Comment #4: (Nov. 19)

Though I really enjoyed the presentations by Lynn Reid and Mary Kerwin, there were many aspects of the writing centers taht I was very skeptical about primarily because of my experience as a writing tutor. For one thing, I'm not sure how effective 30-minute sessions can really be. In fact, even the 50-55 minute sessions that we have with each student in most writing centers is barely enough to get through the paper AND help the students to become better writers. I am skeptical about this approach but I would be very interested to see how it can really play out and would really like to visit Brookdale Community College to see how it works exactly. The way I see it is, in a 30-minute session, the most a tutor can do is "check" the tutee's paper. Also, when they have no breaks in between sessions, that can really not only affect the mental minds of tutors but also the amount of energy they give to students. In fact, if one sesson goes badly, the next session may be affected by that because there is no break to breathe and go on to the next session with a fresher mind. However, I do appreciate that the students in remedial classes are required to go to the writing center for a certain amount of times to see the tutors instead of having class-room settings of "labs" (which is what we do at Lagcc). This proves that they are funded greatly. Overall, it was interesting to hear them speak about the two different settings of writing centers and compare it in my mind with where I work at and where I have visited or read about in this class thus far.

Blog Comment #5:

Thank you so much for posting this beautiful poem Viktoriia! It is definitely inspiring! I know how stressed you must be feeling from the overload of work and school but just hang in there as we all should! There are only 4 weeks remaining and as long as we push a bit harder, I'm sure we can overcome this "battle" of life in graduate school!

-Mahla