Through my experiences tutoring at Study Hut Tutoring Center I have learned a great deal about kids, how they learn and how they cope with their educational struggles. I have one particular student that forced me to think outside of the box and come up with a plan to start from the basics. Sara came to me with what she described, unabashedly, as “straight F’s.” She plopped down in the chair and swung her backpack onto the table like a ton of bricks. I instantly felt overwhelmed as I opened her backpack and found loose papers coming out of everywhere, crumpled and shoved into books. She had a separate mid-sized sack just for her pencils, pens and various other small objects. She objected the whole time as we went through her pencil sack and attempted to eliminate all of the items that were not necessary for her success (our definitions of this were very different). We weeded through all of the loose papers and began to organize them. I quickly learned that her deficits were not in conceptualization but rather organization, motivation and discipline. She breezed right through the assignments and proved to be very smart; however, she often lost her homework before she brought it to class and was distracted by criticism from her teachers because she was labeled as a trouble maker. Her assignments, when she left me after our sessions, were not just about finishing her homework and studying for upcoming tests, but were also about practicing filling out her planner completely, keep all assignments neatly in their own folders, getting to sleep by 10 pm and staying focused in class. Before working with this student I had taken these basic skills for granted and did not recognize how they play a pivotal role in a student’s success. Despite my assumptions some students do not learn these skills along the way and need to be taught how to stay organized, disciplined and focused on academic success. Since I began working with Sara she has improved by leaps and bounds in learning these skills. As a result, her confidence has soared. Her grades are up from “F’s” to “C’s” and she is warming up to the once implausible idea of getting “A’s” and “B’s” even in her weakest subjects. This has been an extremely gratifying experience for us both!
Tags: academic success, academic successes, confidence has soared, grades up, improvement through tutoring, staying focused, student success, tutor success, tutoring success, tutoring successes
