Tutoring NYC – Part 3

 While tutoring New York City based clients through CUTTA, among such a wide array of clients from varying skill-sets and backgrounds, you are likely to find yourself tutoring someone older than you. How, as an undergraduate or young graduate student, would you maintain a sense of professionalism with an older client?

Here are a few key tips from essortment.com:

For a long time, we could gauge the approximate age of a college student by his or her class standing. A freshman student was obviously fresh out of high school, no older than 18 or 19. Graduating seniors were no older than 22, and most candidates for advanced degrees were in their mid to late 20s. This concept became so ingrained in our way of thinking that we automatically define these age brackets as 'traditional'. The few older students who did not fit this narrow parameter were saddled with the moniker 'non-traditional student'.

But times have changed dramatically, and it is not uncommon to see 36 year old freshmen sitting next to their 18 year old counterparts. Retired citizens are taking advantage of free college courses and pursuing degrees well into their 70s.

THE GOING GETS TOUGH

Tutoring NYC Part Two: How to begin with a new client

Some of you have been tutoring for a long time now, which means you know that every client brings a new set of challenges and a new set of learning opportunities. In this way, it is important to treat every client uniquely, with the same care and attention that you brought to your first session.

How do you plan for your tutoring sessions?

Cambridge School Volunteers have set up a wonderful outline for their tutors. I would encourage you to follow this outline when tutoring in New York.  It will help immensely. Preparation and organization will make you a good tutor. Preparation, organization, and care will make you a great one.

Find CSV’s techniques below. 

A Few Basic Reminders…

THE GOING GETS TOUGH

Tutoring NYC Part One – What it means to tutor ESL

While tutoring in New York City, you may have found that you are entering a more diverse clientele. A wider range of students than existed in your previous hometown. New York is, after all, an international city, a city of the world.

In which case, you may find yourself tutoring a student in ESL, English as a Second Language.

When tutoring someone in ESL, it is important to consider some of the questions you would when tutoring any of your students: How might I bridge the gap between my knowledge and my student’s? How might we learn from each other? How might I teach in such a way as to avoid embarrassment, shame, to help my student view learning as an opportunity?

But in tutoring someone in ESL, there are a number of specifics that we as tutors must consider.

The following resource is from The Dartmouth Writing Program’s website. There is a wealth of information here, and I would encourage you to dig deep.

Thank you, Dartmouth, for sharing your expertise, lending a hand from Hanover, New Hampshire, to those of us tutoring NYC. J

Inspiring Quotes for Aspiring Writers:

THE GOING GETS TOUGH

What’s in the News with Writing

Bit-size morsels of interest (I hope) that can be applied to your writing, or the writing world at large

·      “Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, a pioneer in the study of hemispheric (left vs. right brain) specialization describes ‘the Interpreter’ - a left hemisphere function that organizes our memories into plausible stories.” To better understand what’s happening to your brain when you write from memory, watch and learn.