Fun with peer tutoring

Statistics student's have finally started coming to my tutoring office hour the past few times, and it's really been pretty fun. Last Friday's tutoring was really tiring, as I had three students there and they were really stressed and feeling challenged, and I ended up staying an extra half hour. Tonight was smoother; I only had one student there and she we actually had a lot of fun going through her homework questions and solving them. I try to review the material before my office hours each time but often forget to, and there are always little things that I've forgotten, so it's a nice challenge to have to remember the information and how to apply it to all the different types of homework problems people bring in, and then figure out how to explain it to them well.

Tonight also made me think on my own experiences seeking help from peer tutors at Hunter, and I realized that all of them have been quite good (not that they shouldn't be, I'd just never stopped to think about it before). Hunter has a wide variety of centers where, among many other resources, one can get help in specific subject areas. Personally I've been to the biology center once or twice, to the math center a bunch of times, and to the physical sciences (i.e. chemistry, physics, etc) once, and all of those experiences have been very good. What I like is that the tutors are always very approachable, and I've never felt like I should be in any way ashamed of seeking help - which, I think at least, I really shouldn't be, but it can be easy to fell into that. The tutors never try to re-teach me everything or do my work for me, and are happy to hear how I worked on something and what my thoughts are on a problem, and it's great to get someone else's input on a challenging problem.

I also realized that many of the highly successful students I know have worked as tutors in some capacity, be it working in the math center or the reading and writing center, volunteering to work one-on-one with a fellow Macalulay student who needed a bit of extra help, or working as a TA. And now that I'm also tutoring I'm very happy to be a part of this ongoing trend.

-Celine