Tutoring Experience

Employment and Extracurricular Activities

San Francisco State University, Learning Assistance Center (LAC) 

Reading, Writing and Study Skills tutor. Fall 2012-Present.

City College of San Francisco; San Francisco, CA.  Adult literacy tutor and library volunteer.  Spring 2012 - Present.
  
City College of San Francisco; San Francisco, CA.  Project Shine ESL coach and library volunteer.  Fall 2011.

University of California Santa Barbara, Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS)

Weekly and Drop-in tutor for ESL and Linguistics students. Fall 2010, Winter and Spring 2011.

I have always had a patience about me and a desire to share my knowledge.  I started tutoring as a novice, but now I am starting to gain quite a bit of experience in tutoring both adult literacy learners of English and undergraduate college students.  I started tutoring during my undergrad at University of California Santa Barbara.  At the time I didn't have any real experience at being a tutor, but I knew I wanted to teach English in the future so I applied for the job.  In the beginning I was just using my experience as a writing student and my maturity to guide me.  It was a little challenging at first because the writing center that I worked for didn't give its tutors extensive training. I worked directly with ESL students on a weekly appointment basis and took weekly drop-in students.  At the time I decided to take a couple of courses (Intro to TESOL and  grammar for teachers) to begin understanding how I could assist the students that were coming to see me.

I realized that I had a real passion for one-on-one tutoring when I started volunteer at City College of San Francisco.  I started out as a Project Shine volunteer, but began to make connections with the teachers and students so I have continued to volunteer every semester since I started. My tutoring consists of just offering office hours in the campus make shift library and students come to me for tutoring.  I have developed quite a following of diverse students that come to see me each week.  The teachers tease me and call my students "Michael's Fan Club."  I can't really express the joy I get working with the students, but it is an amazing feeling when I see the smiles on their faces.  

I would have to say that I have really been honing my skills as a tutor since I started tutoring again here at SFSU.  Last semester I got excellent training while working at the LAC.  In your first semester of employment you have to taking a training course along with working at the center. My fellow tutors and I had an incredible mentor teacher who prepared us for the many diverse students that come into the center.  It was like a tutoring workshop where you could discuss your challenges and successes with your fellow students.  I have also been able to hone my skills of working one-on-one through courses I am taking in the MA TESOL department, not to mention also being in the composition certificate program.  I did a literature review on the needs of generation 1.5 students transition into academic writing in my English 730 class.  I have also taken phonology/morphology, structure of English and pedagogical grammar for TESOL.  I think all of these experiences and courses have helped me develop into a much better reading, writing and study skills tutor. And to be honest tutoring students one-on-one has become my passion and really has helped me get through tough times as a graduate student.  I remember my mentor teacher asking me once if I wanted to take a day off and recharge my batteries and I said, "No, I don't want to.  I wouldn't miss this for the world!"  Of course I do miss a day here and there because I am human, but I really meant what I said.