We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. 
Just do the thing already -c.tice
Someone once said “In order to learn the thing, you got to do the thing”. Or is it the other way around? Or was it Kim that said that? Like the mystery of the tootsie pop the world may never know, however this post is not about tootsie pops but in essence doing the thing to learn the thing.
For me personally, just being thrown into something is the scariest thing ever. Especially if I feel like I have no clue what i am doing. I could make this short and sweet and say that this has been my internal experience with the internships, but then this blog would be really boring to read and you’d probably walk away scratching your head.
I won’t do that to you so don’t worry.
After a few weeks I learned to see the ESL resource center as not so much a tutoring place but a place of business, the only real difference is that no money is exchanged. Students come in as needed for help with different things and they are helped. They are greeted and helped much like a business. I can do that. I can greet like nobody’s business but the act of tutoring, this is the area that I watch. With the exception of last week (it’s a whole new blog to tell about what i was going through internally.) The center itself is a resource, a tool. and within the tool are smaller tools (tutors), and smaller tools (dictionaries, thesaurus, writing tools, etc…).
so to learn the thing you gotta do the thing right? Well those that come in for tutoring are active participants in what i will refer to as the “you do learn thing”. They are immersed with the English language and come to the center as a tool to continue to learn the thing as they are doing the thing. At the same time, as an intern I am also in the act of the “you do learn thing”. I can watch all day long but eventually if i want to become proficient and even confident about doing what i am learning I must branch out and do the thing and use the tools available to me as the students that use the center as a tool do.
and if you can’t see the whole featured image here it is in whole
One Reply to “Just do the thing already -c.tice”
I have to agree that the tutors are a form of a tool in helping the ESL students learn and that there are other tools available to them such as computers, books, and reference sheets. I feel like when teaching the students in the ESL center observing can only take you so far in the field. You have to actually help the students in order to learn from the experiences. I have noticed that the ESL center is kind of like a place of business, but I have to wonder if it is good thing or if it makes the students feel uncomfortable when working on their assignments? Is there any way that we can improve this atmosphere?