TRC Training Part 2

well,

I hope that you find your time at

the tutoring center a great opportunity and enjoyable.

There is always the potential that you might face some difficult situations and

so I do have some strategies for what to do at these times.

Um,

whether you have a student who seems to be getting really frustrated or

seems to want to buy into that gossip I talked about earlier,

just make sure to bring the focus back to a specific problem.

Even if they don't have one that they're working on and

you feel like things have kind of gotten off the rails,

just say,

you know what

earlier we talked about such and such.

Why don't we

try to work out a problem like that or um,

do you have

a specific question on that concept that I didn't answer earlier?

So bringing the focus back by doing that, you do tend to ask some new questions

and then

this again, could be a time where you

have the student do some of their own work.

You can say something like, you know,

I really appreciate hearing some more from you about the overall class and I think

you know based on everything you told me it might be helpful if I can

See how you solve a certain problem or how you answer the specific question.

So I'm going to give you a few minutes, have you do some this work on question five

and then

when you're finished

or if you get to a point while working on it that you

want to stop and ask me. Um, just let me know and we'll go from there.

If there are any

major questions or concerns that you have though, Report those to me immediately.

Huh?

My office

is

um a cubicle type office at this point.

And so

if the student is still there

in the tutoring center, it would

not be really easy to discreetly discuss things.

And and even if they're not, you want to make sure that you

really consider

noise level, how loud you're talking to me about something.

But we do have some other offices that are

a little more private that we could use if you

have

a concern and you can always send me an email as well detailing

everything.

You could report questions or concerns your learning resources coordinator.

So currently that is chandra based,

If he is my supervisor,

so if I'm out of the office, this would be a great resource to use um

other immediate people who work in our area are Rachel,

Garrett and steven phillips.

But if the issue is, you know, for whatever reason with me

and you don't feel comfortable talking to me about the issue,

then it might be best to discuss with my supervisor.

And then if the issue is on the severity of it's not, you know, an issue of

a students just not listening or they seem to just

want to complain or they're getting frustrated all the time.

But if it's more of an issue of um

they've told you something incredibly serious that is far out

of your your scope and you think it might fall

under title nine which you can look up some title

nine resources to to see if you think it does.

Uh Then please do search S. I. U. S. Website.

Um We do have title nine officers on campus and that might be the best option for you

or

the student.

Now one thing whether things are going really well with the student or you

are facing a difficult situation or you just have a student who started to uh

trust you and has been asking you some more questions for help

that's outside of the scope of tutoring.

We do have some other great resources that you can

absolutely discuss with students or potentially recommend to them.

We have the writing center if you are working with a

student in say sociology and you've been helping them a lot

with the concepts and even discussing a sociology paper assignment with

them kind of helping them figure out what's going on there.

But

now they're asking for help with

grammar issues in the paper.

This would be a great time to recommend them to the writing center.

There are often times when we

have a student that we work with on some

concepts in the class in the tutoring center and then

on some concepts in the writing center and if you're

ever really not sure which resource the student needs.

Um You can ask me or you can ask steven phillips who runs the writing center,

We also have supplemental instruction.

Again, if you're not sure about this,

talk to me or talk to Rachel Garrett who runs supplemental instruction,

but this resource is one where um some of our

traditionally very difficult classes that we have at S. I. U. We

have supplemental instruction

and so

there is

a student who has done very well in that class

who

is now taking the class as an S. I. Leader.

So that means that let's say it's

and I'm just making a class up here,

but let's say we had Kim 325 and it was a really difficult class

and Rachel find someone who

passed that class with an A.

And they want to be an S. I. Later,

they will go to that semesters

Kim 3 25

class sessions. So they're going to see everything that the students see.

You know, all the lectures,

they'll have all the class notes that the instructor provides.

Uh and then they will have you know group study sessions,

they'll be able to work with students in kind of a different way because they are

taking the class again with them,

you might want to bring up faculty office hours sometimes, especially for

brand new students.

They don't really

use the office hours, you don't really know what that means or how to go about that.

So you might talk to them about that as an option

and then we do have success coaches, um advisors, other faculty and staff,

there might be someone who

we can connect the student with help them

with some of those bigger questions or concerns.

We do have some supplies, some of them like the large white boards.

We tend to keep out in our tutoring center all the time,

but we also have some that are stored away in a cabinet.

If you are looking at the tutoring resource in a room when you

walk in and you look all the way at the back wall,

you will see our file cabinets.

You might not be able to see them from some of the dividers.

Um but if you just keep walking back, you'll find them

and

I will show you on one of your first shifts how to access our supply cabinet.

It has typically a variety of things, uh more dry erase markers, erasers.

Uh sometimes the board cleaner, it has some current and previously used textbooks.

If you want to find some sample questions, things like that.

If there's ever either anything that you think, wow, you know,

I'm really surprised that tutoring Resource center doesn't have this I

think would be helpful or there's something that you know,

we do have and it looks like we're running low on um Ask me,

you can just send me an email and I will either um if I have that supply somewhere else,

I'll let you know otherwise um the next time we do put in

an order I'll make sure to add that to the list if possible.

So for my W. C.

I'm not going to say a lot about it now because

there is going to be that separate training video but please know

that you should have this open for the duration of a shift

no matter um if you're working on campus or online only.

Again this is where you clock in and out

and the students will use this to make appointments.

So make sure before the end of your first

shift that you have viewed the my wc online video

and then finally have a little bit of a checklist for you.

So when you're starting at the tutoring center you

have to have completed all your required H.

R. P.

Pay work

and paperwork. I cannot

until you've submitted everything like your I nine's your tax forms,

all of that paperwork that I give to you.

I can't

do the payroll form that I need to do that says yes this person can start working at the

resource center. So you could have looked at all the training material.

You could have um

met with me and give me your schedule and all sorts of other things. But

uh

I cannot

have you start working at the center until

all of that is complete and submitted to me.

Make sure to create um Iwc online account using your

email

and report your ideal schedule methods of tutoring of course as you can

tutor to me at least one week prior to your first shift.

Once you start working at the tutoring center,

there are a few things that I want you

to remember um Clocking in an outreach shift is important

if you have an online appointment

and you don't have another appointment right before it,

go ahead and try to check in to that appointment a couple minutes early.

Sometimes I think if a student is just kind of

sitting out there

um

waiting for you to

uh

sign in, they get a little bit nervous

and so they might close out the appointment or start you know sending emails.

So if you do have the option to sign in early, that's great

balance face to face and blended sessions by being mindful. So what I remain what?

Excuse me what I mean about that is um

if you are working one of those um

blended sessions where

you have

a face to face student in the center and even an online appointment that's starting,

make sure you let the person that you were working with

face to face know that you have an online appointment.

Um but that you'll still be there and you could potentially answer questions um

at a later time

and be aware of your surroundings.

We do typically have a greater at our front desk,

there may be times when we don't uh And if you see someone kind of

standing at the front desk or they look like

they don't really know where to go, like they're looking for someone.

Um Please, you know take a second, get up, see if you can

show them where they need to go.

Also really consider that there are a lot of other people in the area.

So again consider things like your

volume level, um appropriateness, things like that.

Try to have fun though.

I mean with training you're going to learn a lot of basic rules.

Uh So it seems like a lot and um

again it is important that we try to provide the best service

possible for students that we try to provide a professional service.

But

you should still have fun. If you are not enjoying the job, then

it tends to show in your tutoring sessions

and that can really affect the students as well

and make sure any necessary changes that you have report to me as soon as possible.

Now, one thing that's not on this list, but I wanted to add

is

any day that we are closed. That campus is closed.

You do not work even if you had online only appointments,

you will not work them.

So if we have an inclement weather closure, all appointments are

canceled.

Um

Do not show up to work. Don't hold the online appointments.

If any, there's any holidays where we don't have classes. Um Labor Day

Memorial Day, four July all that stuff.

Um we don't have tutoring available so keep that in mind.

Especially if you're working with a student

um through the semester and we have an upcoming break coming up.

Please do let them know that there won't be any tutoring.

We do potentially have tutoring for final exams and

I'll talk to you about that in a second.

So leaving the tutoring center um you don't really have to worry about this

if you plan on coming back the next semester because I will contact you.

Usually the first email I sent is just saying,

hey do you think you might be back next semester?

Yes or no?

Um

Then later on I'll say, hey um do you have an idea of what classes your schedule?

All that fun stuff.

If though you have to endure tutoring prior to final exam week,

please let me know as soon as possible.

You have the option of working during finals week

and I will ask you guys at some point your final exam schedule.

Um We typically tutor monday through Wednesday of finals week and

you can do a different schedule than you're used to.

Um So even if you say you can't schedule can't tutor finals

week that doesn't mean that you have quit the tutoring center?

Okay this means like if you know three or

four weeks prior to finals or something like that.

You can no longer tutor. I need to know as soon as possible.

Do not delete your IWC account, which we'll talk about in a little bit.

Um, and if you are leaving early,

please notify students and we'll talk about that later in the

WC video as well.

TRC Training Part 2

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