How I've Grown
Being a tutor in Lakeland STARs has helped me grow as a person. It has given me the chance to reflect on myself and what I need to work on. I have realized what changes I need to work on in order to improve this experience for myself and my tutee. Reflecting has helped me to become more communicative, authoritative, and confident. I think this will carry over to helping me grow both academically and professionally. To show this I am adding one of my journal entries. I chose this journal entry because it shows how reflective I was and how important communication was. As an introvert I don't particularly like interacting with other people. I almost never raise my hand in class, but in this journal entry I mentioned talking my tutee's teachers. I could've told them that everything was fine and moved on, but instead I told them that my tutee was struggling and they helped me figure out what to do. This was actually a big moment for me because I was nervous about talking in front of a group, but I knew that helping my tutee was task at hand and i needed to accomplish that. I also think that is when I realized that I need to be more of a tutor and less of a friend which was a little hard, but necessary. In the past I've been told that I'm too nice, so this has helped me to become more authoritative as well.
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March 5, 2020
Today we had tutor in-service. We went over the rules of thera-play and tried some of the activities ourselves. We then did some silly ice breakers and group bonding activities. The most important part of the session was that we talked to the teachers from the school and discussed our tutees with them. I explained that it can be hard to get my tutee to focus, because he really wants to play with his friend, and they told me that he is behind academically and needs the extra help. We agreed that I need to make sure that he finishes his homework before he can play, even if that means taking away some of his free time. One of the teachers said that free time is a privilege not a right and that the schoolwork is more important. I think I need to remember that next time.
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