On my first day of volunteering after the Literacy Carnival, I assumed I would be training or working on some tasks around the office, organizing something, or perhaps reading about ESL. However, a young adult preparing for her GED was scheduled to come in and there were no other volunteers to help her, so my site advisor asked if I would be willing to start tutoring right away. I was excited to begin my main role at the literacy council so soon, but naturally I was a bit nervous because I had never tutored someone for a GED before.
Yet I had tutored young adults in the writing lab on campus. I spent all of last year walking students through the writing process, explaining what a comma splice is, and helping formulate or strengthen a student's thesis. This kind of one-on-one atmosphere I was familiar with, even comfortable in. I typically approach a stressed-out freshman struggling with his final paper in WIFYS with a genuine smile and a few kind words to help him gain confidence in his writing. I give compliments while showing areas that need improvement, and most of the time, it seems as though students leave me after a tutoring session brainstorming new ideas and self-assured they can develop their work. And from my perspective, that means I’ve done my job.
Could I carry this confidence into a new environment? My worry was that I would come off as condescending rather than helpful, or just completely make a fool out of myself in front of somebody who may not want to be there but feels compelled to be so that he or she can find a job. I thought to myself in those brief fifteen minutes I had before my new student arrived, what qualities would I want in a tutor? What would I consider helpful, and what would make me uncomfortable?
The truth is, I’ve never had a tutor of my own; I’ve only played the role. I’ve had advisors and inspirational teachers, though. I knew the qualities I admired in them, the qualities that made me want to be a better learner, that motivated and encouraged me to reach my potential. That attitude is what I wanted to bring to the literacy council to help make it (even more than it already is) a place of helpfulness, earnestness, and progress. To put it simply, I want to make learning pleasurable, not aggravating and frustrating, for the students who come there so that they continue educating themselves and asking questions even after they leave the program.
I definitely lucked out with my first student. She came in motivated to work and succeed, and though she comes from a learning support background, she hasn’t let that impede her desire to test for a GED. Every week so far she has asked for homework, especially for reading assignments because she realizes that is her weakest subject. Rather than roll her eyes when I ask her to read a question aloud, she jumps right in without hesitation, only looking to me when she crosses an unfamiliar word. And best of all, she asks questions about content in the test book that she doesn’t understand rather than brushing it off, which shows me that she is as willing to learn as I am to teach.
We’ve talked about things outside the practice booklet too, especially when something in one of the questions sparks a conversation. For example, a math question involved a graph about refugees, and while it was not particularly important in answering the question, she asked me what a refugee was. After explaining that a refugee is somebody who has been forced out of his country by a government or militia, she looked at me and said, “People actually do that to other people?” She was genuinely interested in something outside her own experience and even if she never joins the Peace Corps or works for UNHCR, she became aware of a situation she may have never learned about otherwise. It sparked a reaction in her and made her curious about the world outside Franklin County, if even for a moment. And that’s what service and volunteerism is all about, right? Making the world a better and more knowledgeable place, one person at a time.
My nervousness at the beginning was warranted—I mean, this was a completely new kind of tutoring for me-- but I realized quickly that I had to make this environment comfortable for her so that she would come back. I’ve worked with her each Wednesday since then and am now assigned to work with her every Wednesday until there is a scheduling conflict or until she is ready to take the test.
I am so grateful that nobody came to volunteer that first morning of my service because it allowed me to begin building a connection with a student right away, and now I can spend my time looking for new, inventive ways of teaching the information for the GED without any anxiety whatsoever.
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