My Tutoring Experience

The experiences I have had whilst tutoring are far beyond anything I could have imagined. Though some students left along the way, I have watched each of my students grow, in a variety of similar and unique ways, throughout this adventure. With student teaching rapidly approaching, I feel confident that I can apply the skills, knowledge, understanding, and experiences I now have to establish a brighter future as an educator, for which I am forever grateful. Among the many lessons I have learned, the ability to embrace the responsibilities and opportunities of the teacher while still holding on to the wonder and innocence of the student is a balancing act that I am continually endeavoring to master. The great Phil Collins expresses this beautifully

As a future educator, the most heartwarming and encouraging thing that I have learned is that everyone, at least on some level, wants to learn something. Even though some of my tutees are more motivated than others, they all put in effort in some way or another to try to learn. One of my students is very organized, punctual, and always has the assignment completed. The two of us have great discussions of the daily lessons and this student always has a rad attitude. Another one of my students is not as enthusiastic about our sessions and does not always try their best on, or complete, the assignments. During our tutoring sessions, I constantly struggled to get this student to participate in discussions; some days were better than others. Labeling one student “better” and the other “worse” may seem justifiable to someone looking in from the outside, but the important point here is that both students were there. Both students made the effort to attend the meetings. Additionally, both students continued to bring the supplies they needed. Furthermore, both students listened and at least attempted to participate during the lessons. Yes, one student was arguably more interested, more social, more driven, but the other student put forth as much as was possible for them at that time. They may not “equally” display these various studious characteristics, but humans are not meant to be cookie-cutter versions of a tutor’s ideals; we must be able to accept, support, and at least try to teach every student who is willing to be there to work with us. For this reason, a tutor’s ability to “Respect Individual Differences” (MacDonald, 2000, p.13) is one of their fundamental necessities. All cards on the table, I was surprised by how easily I was able to interact with and teach the spectrum of different learning styles and personalities of my students. One of my tutees was always chipper at our