Matt TP #1

Wednesday night was my first tutoring session. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it a disaster, it certainly was a mixed experience. I was scheduled to meet with my tutees, Abdulrahman and Saif, at the Starbucks on Tennessee street. When I biked up, I saw a likely looking Middle Eastern man sitting expectantly outside. Not wanting to offend if I had the wrong person, I walked up and simply said 'hi.' He returned the greeting with a confused look and we both stared at each other awkwardly before I briskly walked into the shop and pretended to order a coffee. After a minute or two of pained deliberation, I decided that this guy had to be my tutee, so I went and sat next to him. I introduced myself as Matt, a tutor with CIES, and was he possibly my student? In return, a blank and vaguely hostile look. After a couple minutes of stilted interrogation and handwringing on my part, my tutee Abdulrahman arrived and was thankfully able to translate. Yes, the man was a student with CIES. No, he was not expecting me. I think he may have been waiting for another tutor? Whatever the case, this clumsy episode only served to rev up my already considerable anxiety about tutoring.

From there things proceeded a bit more smoothly. Saif never showed, but Abdulrahman and I were able to make some spotty conversation and get to know each other. I found I was really unprepared. I was heavily relying on the tutoring guidelines we'd received in class, and I soon realized that reading questions and directions from a sheet was a great way to distance yourself from your student. After abandoning the guide, Abdulrahman and I were able to determine his goals for English study, and what he hoped to get out of our sessions. Abdulrahman is studying for the TOEFL so that he can enter business school; in listening and speaking he is strong, but in reading and grammar he needs some extra help. I told him I would be happy to help him prepare for his test, and as a diagnostic had him write out a short prompt on why he wanted to study English. In contrast to our conversation, Abdulrahman's writing was simplistic, fragmented, and full of grammar and spelling errors. I think in our upcoming sessions we will try to focus on developing his reading and writing skills.

My main takeaway from this experience was to just relax a little. I found that when I let my guard down, things flowed more easily between us. Despite my lack of preparation, I accomplished what I needed with my tutee and I'm looking forward to our next session.