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The image that has stuck in my head was probably the first time I worked with Tristan. Tristan made such a difference in my experience tutoring. Although I wasn’t expecting tutoring to be easy, I thought I felt prepared to deal with anything considering I had taken Teenage Wasteland and currently taking Ed Psych. That was not the case of course.
The first day I met Tristan, 1st Hour was working on their weekly Wednesday interest journals. Mr. DuBe had explained to me that Tristan struggled to write and it would be helpful if I sat with him outside of class to work on his interest journal. We went outside and I made small talk as we got started. When we sat down, he didn’t know what to write. I tried telling him that interest journals seem fun because it is very low stakes and it was literally about anything he cared about and wanted to write. I asked him a few questions to get his thoughts flowing.
He explained to me how he liked riding his bike and told me about some injuries he had gotten while doing so. It was so interesting because he seemed to have fun answering my questions and talking about himself. I remember he asked me what I was studying at Carleton and about my ethnicity. I think he connected with me in some ways because he was half Puerto Rican and he mentioned how he had visited Puerto Rico a few times.
Tristan is such a sweet kid but he can be a class clown in group settings which can be annoying when you are trying to get the group on task and to do their work. The second time I worked with Tristan we were in a group and I was frustrated because he just didn’t want to do his essay outline and kept distracting the other girls in his group. I felt like my authority was undermined and I’m not going to lie, I just gave up that day. I thought I would just avoid working with Tristan but the third time I worked with him I was able to reset myself and tried to come from a compassionate point of view. That session was the best we had had since the first day. We were able to outline his essay body paragraphs in a way that was more visually appealing to him and where he understood how to follow through. It took him a while to get going, but once he actually started typing because he understood his road map, it was really heart warming to see.
Tutoring Tristan gave me a better idea and grounded me a little more in remembering that students are humans too. Sure we learn this in class all the time but when it happens, it’s hard to deal with and refresh ourselves because we feel disrespected. Allowing myself to reset with Tristan and to not give up on him, emphasizes for me that teachers have such a huge role in how students react to the class even after they have a made a mistake or have had a bad day. Giving students various chances to improve goes a long way. Students end up surprising you that they actually want to do the work, it may just take multiple tries.
Tristan has taught me that learning and teaching is about trial and error. I’ve also learned that sometimes it may be helpful to base lesson plan topics on the interest of students who may not be as engaged. I concluded this because students who have intrinsic motivation will automatically do the work. Although it also raises the question, what are teachers doing to challenge those students who are excelling?
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Clarissa,
I am so glad that you were able to work things out with Tristan. It is always great knowing that you are able to help a student with their learning. I definitely agree with you on how much of a role teachers have in a classroom. If a teacher portrays a positive attitude, I believe that students would be more motivated to participate in class. Also, teachers can have an impact on student motivation. If the teacher is able to present the subject material in a way that is appealing to students, they would more likely be motivated to do it.
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