Is there a better way to spend a Saturday morning in early March than picking up some new ways to better serve our community, meet like minded people, and have some delicious snacks? Eight of our wonderful volunteer tutors couldn’t think of one and joined us for our fifth Volunteer Tutor Training held at ILI March 9.
Led by Jeanne Barron, Volunteer Coordinator, and Laura Robinson, Assistant Director of the Free English Program, the 4-hour-event flew by with activities covering management of the tutor-student relationship, writing, reading, error correction, and more. Caroline Gear, ILI Executive Director, joined us for an update on the school, and was kind enough to share her delightful Auntie’s Apple Cake (recipe found below!).
Attendees worked together to discuss case studies covering issues that sometimes arise in the student-tutor relationship and gained ideas about how to mitigate them. The cases addressed questions like “why has my student seemed to have lost interest?”, “how involved should I get in my student’s personal concerns?”, “how can I establish what level my student is at in her learning?” among others. The studies enabled tutors to think through possible issues that come up and how they can use ILI resources (teachers, books, and online sources) to ensure a successful match.
Laura walked participants through a dynamic reading activity for any level, and gave tutors ideas about using error corrections that work for their tutoring style. Jeanne led an exercise to encourage writing and shared ways for you and your student to get to know each other better.
Finally, tutors paired up for a scavenger hunt through the ILI Volunteer Tutor website and together unearthed a plethora of resources they didn’t even know were at their fingertips! All in all, it was a joyful morning of discovery, community, and learning. Keep an eye out for upcoming training sessions and please join us!
