I’m currently sitting in the Writing Center, my first day on the job. No one is in here, so, I thought I’d take a moment and begin my journaling for the credit I’m getting by working here. I’m really excited to be working here — I’ve been told it’s a lot of fun, and it seems that those who do work here have created quite a community. I decided I wanted to do this because while teaching, some of my favorite time has been spent working with students one-on-one with their writing, asking questions, giving feedback, and probably, above all, listening to them. It’s been a great joy, and now, I will get to do it a few more hours a week. It’s going to be tight, trying to fit all this into my schedule, but I thought this was important. Especially since, as a teacher, I’m requiring students to come here sometime throughout the quarter, I thought I should be giving my time to the Writing Center as well. It’s only fair to contribute.
What benefits do I hope to gain from working at the Writing Center? Well, I hope to gain an understanding of how students write. I guess I have somewhat of an understanding (I was a student, I am a student, I teach students), but I would like to understand better. And there is no one way a student writes; indeed, there are a multitude of approaches to writing that students take, and I guess I’d like a better understanding of those ways. Also, I’d benefit by helping others out — I guess that’s my motivation for a lot of things, is to feel good by helping others. Thus, why I’m working toward becoming a counselor as well as studying English.
Additionally, helping a student with his/her/hir writing is much like counseling, and I look forward to the opportunities of taking what I’ve learned in counseling and apply them here: positive regard, listening skills, feedback, reflections of contents, summarizations, good open-ended questions. These are skills that I think any teacher should have, especially when discussing writing.
Well, people are starting to trickle into the writing center, so I guess I’ll write more later.
We’re very glad to have you with us, Michael. And I second everything you say about the benefits of working at the Writing Center vis-a-vis your teaching. Quite a long time ago now I directed the thesis of a TA who wrote a thesis reflecting on what tutoring taught her about teaching and vice versa.
Lisa