[nabs-l] Tutoring, and College Success

[Koby]

Arielle,
Would It be possible for you to tooter me In my English class at  college?

Right back soon,
Koby.
Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 24, 2012, at 7:29 PM, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> First, I'd like to share a few thoughts on the other side of the
> tutoring desk. I have been a part-time tutor for the athletic
> department at my school for the past year and a half. I originally
> signed up for the job to make a little extra cash, but now that my
> expenses have gone down substantially (living with my boyfriend helps,
> :)! the primary reason I keep tutoring is for the joy of being able to
> help students succeed. Most of my students are freshman athletes who
> are required by the university to have subject tutors, so there is no
> stigma associated with having tutors for them. If you go to a tutoring
> center, everyone there will be working with tutors and so you won't
> stand out. I know athletes are stereotypically supposed to not be that
> smart. Based on my experience with a dozen or so students, they vary
> in their grasp of the subject matter, but most are motivated and
> serious about their studying. It is really nice to work with students
> who are motivated and the best thing is to have a student who is
> struggling or has weak study skills at the beginning of the semester
> and to watch them get better over time. I don't think anyone should
> worry about being judged or laughed at by a professional tutor at your
> school, and if they are rude or impatient with you, they probably
> shouldn't be in that job and you have a right to complain.
> I think it would be great if NABS set up a volunteer tutoring service
> where advanced blind students could offer free tutoring to other blind
> students in their subject area, i.e. an English major could tutor
> someone in freshman English. My offer still stands to tutor any of you
> in psychology or statistics for free over the phone or to look over
> papers or provide general research advice.
> And, to Beth and Desiree: I don't know much about your career goals,
> but it might be good to sit down and think about what your abstract
> goals are for what you want to do with your life, and then figure out
> if a college degree would help make those goals happen. These goals
> could be something as general as "earn enough to get off SSI" or as
> specific as "make a lasting positive impression on the education of
> blind children in this country". If it would, then please don't let
> fears about "what-ifs" stop you from getting one. Keep the long-range
> goals in mind throughout the process, and if you fail or come upon
> some obstacles, think about what you can do differently to clear them
> out of your way.
> Desiree, what happened to you during your elementary education sounds
> awful and unacceptable. A blind child's right to use a Brailler in
> class should never be determined by other kids' preferences. However,
> I truly believe that you can recover from these early setbacks with
> hard work and determination, if the prize--your ultimate life goal--is
> something you want badly enough. I hope you will continue to dialogue
> with us blind students as I have found that the support of other blind
> folk is one of the best defenses against the negative attitudes of the
> sighted public. I am happy to talk off-list about any specific issues.
> Beth: If your long-term goal involve college, and it sounds like it
> does, then think hard about what went wrong before, and how these
> things can be changed. You mentioned difficulties with research; we
> can give you resources and suggestions to help you deal with these
> issues. If it's bipolar stuff, can you find a different doctor, or try
> a different combination of meds, to mitigate the problems you were
> having before?
> Best,
> Arielle
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/kobycox%40gmail.com