LEARNER. TEACHER. WRITER.
Writing center
During my junior and senior years at Auburn University and my first year as an MA student at the University of Louisville, I served as a writing center tutor. Though I've thought for a long time that I would enjoy teaching writing, working at a writing center was my first "formal" experience and confirmed what I previously thought. I try to incorporate my tutoring experiences into my classes by having one-on-one conferences with my students and in my responses to their writing. Below, you can read more about what I did and what I learned while working for Auburn's Miller Writing Center and Louisville's University Writing Center.
***Side note: I'm currently creating WCA's Wildcat Writing Center and beginning to train high school tutors. I'll write about it after we get into a groove.
While I tutored at Auburn's Miller Writing Center (MWC), I worked with writers of various ages and disciplines in all stages of the writing process.
I also attended weekly staff meetings, took a Writing Center Theory and Practice course, participated in the hiring process, contributed to the MWC blog, and helped develop grammar videos. In Writing Center Theory and Practice, I developed a research project that I presented at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring and Writing (NCPTW) in Nov. 2013. Working at the MWC helped me discover my passion of working with student writers and participating in conversations about better ways to teach.
Links:
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Blog Post: "From Page to Screen: Books to Read Over Spring Break"
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Writing Boo-Boo Video: "Wrong Word"
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History of the Miller Writing Center (written for the website): "The Miller Writing Center: A Brief History"
At UofL's University Writing Center, I served as a tutor for one school year. I had similar responsibilities as I did at Auburn, such as contributing to the writing center's blog, and took a second Writing Center Theory and Practice class, where I developed a research project about using Twitter to teach engaging with sources that I presented at the Southeastern Writing Center Association's (SWCA) conference in Feb. 2015. By tutoring 20 hours a week, I gained more experience in individual conference sessions, which I believe are an important part of writing classes, in teaching writers based off of their writing needs, and in responding to writers. I've used these skills to respond to my students' papers in all of the classes I've taught.
Links: