Re: tutor dead time

[96BANDY@wmich.edu]

I would like to add a little to Jane's excellent list of things for tutors to
do when they aren't tutoring.  We have the occasional problem of client
no-shows for weekly or scheduled appointments.  Policy has been that the
tutor waits 15 minutes, gets paid for that time and then leaves if they
aren't previously scheduled for back-up.  Obviously frustrating for a tutor
who has come across campus or from off-campus.  We have set up a confer group
(I'm new to most of this computer stuff but I think this is universally
possible) where our tutors can log on and take part in on-going discussions
about practical matters of tutoring.  I use this forum to post those
interesting web-sites I have found (MLA pages with excellent resources on
electronic media citations, places we can refer ESL students to for non-tutor
assisted practice time etc.) and other resources I am constantly discovering
or developing.  As an aside, I have addressed the issue of heirarchies to the
tutors to sound out which sort of relationship they find most productive
under what circumstances.  No offense, but the discussions here are sometimes
skewed more towards the theoretical, or the managerial and I wanted to see if
we could develop some practical strategies for identifying and applying
heirarchies in our tutoring sessions.  Some of our tutors have an innate
aversion to this confer group at first, but it is picking up steam.

James Bandy, GA
WMU Writing Center
Western Michigan University
96Bandy@wmich.edu