I don't feel that I am a facilitator of anything besides mass technical chaos problems. Every email I've received from students, except for ONE singular email, have been about tech probs with either topic or the grammar diagnostic. I was so happy to deal with the one email, though. I knew how to handle it. I knew what the answers to his problems were. All I had to do was explain the difference in a summary and a paraprase and address some oraganization problems. I was so happy!
As for our second question, I see the argument that can be made- that graders are "tutors", but I've got to call bullshit on this.
I worked as a tutor in a writing center for a year. And, I can say that it's a hella different experience to sit across from a student who is struggling with an assignment than it is to sit at the topic interface and hope my wireless doesn't go out in the middle of grading a paper.
The conversation that happens when a student sits across from you, has saught you out because he/she would like to improve, even if they are only focused on their grade, is much more fulfilling to me as a teacher. I get to connect with them on a personal level. I'm not some nameless type at the front of the classroom that they feel they have nothing in common in. They become a real person to me, and I sometimes get to become a real person to them. I always end a session by asking something about their interests. Oh, you're a biology major or whatever. And, we have just a minute or two talk about what's going on in their lives. And, they leave with a smile, usually. Because I treat them like a person instead of a printed name on a list of assignments I have to grade.
I could go on about this for hours. Hopefully, we'll come back to this (all important) question in class.
brandy y
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Brandy,
It's a relief to me that you feel pretty much the same about the role we play as CI/DI's. Situations like this make me seriously reconsider my position on grading. It hasn't been that long since I was an undergraduate and I am still at my professors mercy in grad courses. I think at times DI's get a little power mad at the first opportunity to make or break someone else's academic career (which they really can't do as each assignment is worth relatively little to the course grade). I like the idea of a progressive scale of grading expectations which increase over a student's career as they gain experience. This seems more humane and provides students a chance to less painfully learn from mistakes or experience.
Haha, well Brandy you said much of what I feel about the interaction between students and their quality and level of education. There has been many times where I have graded either a really great paper on ICON or a really bad one, and sometimes I wish that student was sitting right in front of me, where I could truly interact with them as a person and not another nameless face. I agree with the Document instructors not being tutors. I too think that’s bull shit. I do NOT feel like a tutor. I feel like an emotionless machine, who’s only worth is measured by the number of drafts or the quota I reach every week. Sometimes the process feels like a bad sitcom out of Brave New World.
Post a Comment