<p>Hi. As I some of you know from other posts I am supposed to be tutoring this semester. In order to tutor you have to take a class. The calendar here says that the last day to drop a class is Jan 24th (without any notion on transcript). Then it says the last day to drop without a grade is Feb 21st. If the center doing the tutoring cannot find a student soon would you all recommend dropping the class? I don’t want to wait until it is too late to drop and not be able to or remain in it waiting and waiting and losing time to tutor because you have to tutor so many hours a semester and it is part of your grade (I don’t want this to bring GPA down if I end up not getting the required number of hours).</p>
<p>I’m not sure parents can be very helpful as your question is rather school-specific. Through my S’s experience, I would guess that students come in for tutoring some time after the semester has started and they realize they are not getting it. In other words, you may not have students for tutoring at the beginning, but you may get some later on.<br>
There may be other ways to do your tutoring. Instead of waiting for students to come in (or be recommended to come in), would it be possible to ofer your services to a class and serve as a sort of aide? I would expect that every class would have some weaker students who would be grateful for some support, especially if they did not have to go to the bother of going to the tutoring center for it. Ask your school about different approaches to tutoring.</p>
<p>Hi. My instructor sent an email saying that she has not be able to find anyone for the times I asked for so far. I guess I will wait a few more days and see. Otherwise I’ll just be unemployed…heh…that’s not new since I’ve never worked before. But hey I can do community service instead…</p>
<p>Marite is right that this is a school-specific question that we really can’t address.</p>
<p>But I will say that I think the design is screwy. What happens even if they find a student and then the student decides not to get tutored after a while? Your GPA should not be hostage to this. Fwiw, I don’t think tutoring should be a for-credit class anyway.</p>
<p>I have to agree, thedad. I’ve never heard of tutoring as a class. How do they grade that? And who would do the grading? Sounds a little crazy to me. At my kids’ schools, peer tutoring has always existed but it’s done on a volunteer basis after a teacher recommendation, and is done either at lunch or after school.</p>
<p>I concur with TD, this plan is screwy – you shouldn’t have to go find your own subjects, but educators have strange ways of doing things that often times defy rationality – sometimes I often wonder why no one asks if the emperor has any clothes?</p>
<p>That being said, I’ll get off the soapbox, and reinforce Marite’s point: can you aide in a classroom? For example, our HS allows honors kids to ‘volunteer’ in non-honors classes to assist a teacher with anything from making copies to leading small discussion groups, or helping struggling kids format a research paper.</p>
<p>It’s a college. Anyway, I discussed this with my advisor and it appears there’s really nothing to do other than drop the class and forget about it.</p>
<p>Bluealien, you need to talk to those who run the program about what happens if you do not get student to tutor while you are taking the course because of lack of demand or hours that do not match. Does it affect your grade in the course? Can you still take the course and thereby be eligible to tutor later without taking the course, just taking a refresher seminar or something? Do you think you want to do this later to make a few extra bucks? If it is worth investing the time now for future flexibility, go on ahead as long as lack of students won’t cost you a grade. Your advisor may not know the specifics of the program. I know my son’s advisor at college was pretty good about his field of study, but anything outside of that area was useless. He had to go directly to the source of info, and the times he did not, he paid dearly. I would talk to the head of the program with your questions.</p>
<p>"Does it affect your grade in the course? "</p>
<p>yes. it is part of the grade.</p>
<p>"Can you still take the course and thereby be eligible to tutor later without taking the course, just taking a refresher seminar or something? "</p>
<p>No. in order to tutor you have to take the class and in order to take the class you have to tutor.</p>
<p>“Do you think you want to do this later to make a few extra bucks?”</p>
<p>I guess the most directed question is what specifically happens if you do take the course and they cannot get students for you for whatever reason? Do you get a poor grade, can you fail, can you go pass/fail and just pass? What has been done with this situation in the past as it has to have come up?</p>
<p>"But I will say that I think the design is screwy. "</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>"What happens even if they find a student and then the student decides not to get tutored after a while? "</p>
<p>I don’t know. Someone else told me that this happened to them, but they have been tutoring for years so they don’t have to worry–they’ve already completed the class and are on continued employment.</p>
<p>"Your GPA should not be hostage to this. Fwiw, I don’t think tutoring should be a for-credit class anyway. "</p>
<p>I thought this would be interesting to do and that maybe if I got continued employment for future semesters that the teacher could be used as a reference or something.</p>
<p>“I guess the most directed question is what specifically happens if you do take the course and they cannot get students for you for whatever reason? Do you get a poor grade, can you fail, can you go pass/fail and just pass? What has been done with this situation in the past as it has to have come up?”</p>
<p>"I have to agree, thedad. I’ve never heard of tutoring as a class. How do they grade that? "</p>
<p>Based on how many hours you tutor and assignments related to tutoring and class attendance.</p>
<p>“And who would do the grading?”</p>
<p>The person teaching the course.</p>
<p>“Sounds a little crazy to me. At my kids’ schools, peer tutoring has always existed but it’s done on a volunteer basis after a teacher recommendation, and is done either at lunch or after school.”</p>
<p>I’m in college–I guess your talking about a high school?</p>
<p>“That being said, I’ll get off the soapbox, and reinforce Marite’s point: can you aide in a classroom? For example, our HS allows honors kids to ‘volunteer’ in non-honors classes to assist a teacher with anything from making copies to leading small discussion groups, or helping struggling kids format a research paper.”</p>
<p>I think I am going to just drop it this morning and forget about it. I am actually behind on my own work anyway. I don’t see how people can work 20+ hours a week and do good in school. That’s beyond me.</p>
<p>I would just like to add that I would rather do volunteer work. At least you can do it ANYTIME, and do not have to do it everyday of the week at times chosen by someone else, right?</p>