Jaimes - Communication Skills

I was involved in a rather difficult tutoring situation this week. For me, this was a first. I had a student come to me for help and I wasn’t able to understand the material myself. To begin with, the student got really discouraged when I told him that I didn’t know some of the information presented in his chapter assignment. I didn’t want to “leave him hanging” so I let him know that I would go and research the material and find out what I could to be able to help him. He still seemed discouraged and said that he felt that he would just rather drop the course all-together. When I heard this, I felt like I wasn’t doing my job as a tutor. I told him that maybe he shouldn’t give up yet. Just give it some time. That’s when he told me that his first test was just in a couple of days. This is when I realized he was just really desperate and frustrated. I could understand him completely. I let him know that he still had a day or two to study and that I would be back with more knowledge of the material the next day. He asked me if I was really willing to re-learn the material just to help him. I told him that I would absolutely do this because this is my job as a tutor. He then agreed that he would not drop the class just yet, and that he would give it a try. So I went home and studied up on some of the material and also had help from a fellow tutor (she was a tremendous help). Sure enough, I sat down with him the following day and reviewed some of the material with him. He said that he had gone home and studied, but was having trouble “connecting the dots”. When we figured out where he was getting lost, he then started to become encouraged and it was like a light bulb turned on over his head. He understood everything and he was very proud of himself and told me that he wasn’t going to drop the class and he was very thankful for my help. I felt very proud of him and I also thanked him for allowing me to help him. It gave me a great feeling of accomplishment and I’m sure he felt the same way.

If I could give advice to another tutor that was facing this type of situation, I would tell them to figure out why the student seemed so discouraged. I wish I would have known beforehand that he was really frustrated because his test was coming up very soon and he still wasn’t comfortable with the material. I would have been able to encourage him from the start not to give up and that it may take a little time, but he would get through it as long as he dedicated himself to his work.