"Veg Occasion"

YouTube captions work funny, they break words up or it completely reads them wrong. It was my first time using the captions and I chuckled a few times. "Education" was translated as "veg occasion", haha.

Uhm, I don't know what to honestly think about the videos we saw today (concerning Education and stuffs). I agree that one can't accurately measure intelligence through standardized testing. It's also completely unfair that art and physical education programs are being cut because they're not deemed important enough, because you apparently can't measure creativity or athletic ability and if you can, it doesn't matter because it's not necessary.

Session 3

I think I finally know what it is to have a good tutor. Last week, I went to the writing center and observed a session that was professional and effective. This specific session involved a tutor and student that had worked together numerous times before. Their level of comfort was apparent in one another and they seemed to get along great. The student was an ESL student who went in to receive help with speech that she was going to be delivering that evening, although it was definitely on short notice I feel that they both got a lot done and the student had made tremendous progress. After the speech was read by the tutor, they immediately engaged in conversation and the tutor began offering suggestions as far as placement and structure went. 

One specific moment in the session that I found to be extremely helpful was when the tutor broke down the structure and tried to get the student to explain what each segment was supposed to represent. The tutor explained things such as the thesis and why a specific order might be favorable until the student really understood it. When the student asked if she should cross what she had written out, the tutor said no and encouraged her to use the ideas that she had but to further explain them. Whenever the student seemed stuck, she would help her out with suggestions but always wanted the tutee to think about what she wanted to say. Once the student and tutor seemed satisfied with the work at hand, the student asked if she could have her grammar looked over. The tutor made it a point to mention that she was not there to "proofread" a few times during the session, although, I think that was mostly for me because she would look to me when she said it. 

But uhm yeah, that was it. It was a nice session to observe.

Live Session

My first time tutoring a college student went alright, I guess. She wrote about gentrification being a bad thing and went on to discuss how it was negatively affecting communities. One of the first things that I had asked her (after reading her essay) was if she had any concerns regarding her essay. She said that she was worried she wasn't detailed enough and I assured her that that was not the case, but that there were some ideas that should be expanded, some quotes that should have more context, or that should be explained further. I remember her being really quiet, the only time I got her to speak more than a few words was when I asked her what neighborhood she was from. We both lived a block away from each other at one point, that's not relevant, I just thought it was interesting. I was interested in something she wrote, it was something along the lines of gentrification being like a cancer that could not be cured, it could only be treated. I was interested in this idea and asked her to try to explain how it could be treated and she didn't exactly know how to answer it. I tried a writing exercise, I encouraged her to take a few minutes to write down what she had thought on the matter but she drew a blank. I also tried to get her to write down other ideas based off a part of a quote that she used, but had no results. I figured that in asking her and talking to her about it it might make things go smoother but that didn't work either. She shrugged a lot and said she didn't know. I found that to be the most difficult part of the session. 

Over all, I didn't think many corrections were necessary to her original essay because as simple as it was it addressed the assignment. She answered the question, took a standpoint on it, and used sources to help her prove her point.