Jane CP#3

Samantha and I decided to work out again. After class, we went to Samantha’s place to work out. We focused on our legs. We also went to Smoothie Kings to get some smoothies. I got a vanilla smoothie and Samantha had a strawberry smoothie. After getting our smoothies, we prepared our listening lesson. We did our listening plan together to prepare a CIES listening class we are going to teach. Samantha found an interesting video that was about the evolution of American protest music. We saw the video together and searched some vocabulary terms that the students might not know. The video included a lot of American history so, Samantha helped me understand the video by explaining the events. We made a comprehension quiz and a vocabulary list to help the students develop their listening skills.

Alexa TS #5

Today (6/5/2017, 12:00-1:00) I met up with Ana again, and we practiced speaking for the TOEFL.  Two of the questions we went through were questions that Ana had. One of the questions was about someone who impacted the community in some way, and the other question was about if you like to plan for trips or not and why. The questions I had chosen for her were to describe a resource that helped her do something better and to talk about something that her and her family enjoy doing together. The first question was the most challenging because honestly, it is hard to think of a person who has impacted your community. Furthermore, the question is given, but there aren't a whole lot of guidelines on how to answer. Can that certain someone be a part of our own family? This is something we both wondered after she answered that question. We had similar questions about the question asking about a resource that has helped us do something better. What do they consider a resource? In my mind, it is something that is used or something that you go to in order to help you become better in something (the tutoring center, library, etc). However, Ana described resources as when people help her with her English assignments. If that's the case, then would the resource be the fact that her teachers' office hours are always open and the teachers are always available? Although we had questions like this, we decided to stay focused on the main purpose which is to clearly and accurately convey your point. I really enjoy working with Ana because she isn't afraid to ask questions, and I've already enjoyed watching her grow in her speaking skills.

Annalise CP #3

I picked Mia up to go to lake Ella for a local farmers market. I thought she'd like to see things that were made and grown in Talahassee. She ended up buying bath salts for herself and tea for me from a local tea maker. There's a cute coffee Shop near the lake so I bought her a drink and we walked around the lake talking. Mia is fun to be with. She needs practice with English but she understands a lot of book knowledge of English.

Annalise TS #7 (CT #2)

I met with Elia for 40 minutes last week and we focused on reading. I think I'm going to try a lower level reading sample because he had difficulty understanding what was written. I had him read 2 sentences and the I would re-read the same sentences and tell him anything he didn't understand. This was so he could hear how the words were pronounced accurately. I saw that he had a lot of trouble with words ending with 'e' so I took out my notebook and wrote words like 'note' and 'not' so that he could understand why they were pronounced differently. We made a lot of progress this way.

Sarah CP #4

Date/Time: 3 June / 12:30 - 3:30

Location: La Tiendita and Catalina Café

Topic discussed: Eating out culture, our mutual love for coffee, and the weather, etc.

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: My conversation partner and I decided to get lunch at La Tiendita since she was craving Mexican food. Neither of us had been before (we were going off a recommendation that Jiwon had gotten from a friend at CIES) and it was kind of funny that we both had trouble ordering since we weren't familiar with a lot of the menu items -so our server helped out a lot. Jiwon and I discussed how different eating out is here compared to what is customary in S. Korea. I didn't realize that tipping is quite uncommon and, primarily because of this, waiters/waitresses do not really "check in" with their tables at all. In fact, she told me that a lot of restaurants have a "bell system" where each table will have a button to press if they need something. After lunch, we stopped for coffee at Catalina Café. We talked about our past experiences working part-time as baristas and how it has had an impact on our coffee preferences. Jiwon loved the hand-poured coffee that she ordered -she even went back in to try their traditional macchiato as well. When we left, it started to pour rain and it was surprising to see her so amazed by it. She told me that she is used to light rain and hot weather, but the prevalent thunderstorms followed by extreme humidity in Tallahassee is new for her. I couldn't help but laugh as she filmed the rain with her phone while I drove her home. As we all know, Florida weather is unpredictable to say the least -____-

Sarah TS #7

Date/Time: 2 June / 11:30 - 12:30

Location: @CIES

Topic/Skill: Reading

Feedback provided to tutee: This time, we read from a book that PJ has somewhat read before -it was read to him by a former tutor a while back -but he insisted that he didn’t fully pay attention that time and re-reading it would be enjoyable for him. I could tell that PJ was truly engaged by the story from the beginning. Instead of only me having to ask questions, he would come up with some of his own as we read. We paused once to just have a small discussion on airplanes since the first chapter was related and he had a lot to share on the topic.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: This session really shed some light on what happens when a younger learner gets to read something that piques their interest -sometimes they get off topic. I learned that finding a balance between talking and staying on task may be more important than you would think when working with children since time seemed to fly by.

Sarah TS #6

Date/Time: 30 May / 7:30 - 8:30PM

Location: Tutee's home

Topic/Skill: Reading

Feedback provided to tutee: PJ, my child tutee, is officially out of school for the summer so our focus from now on will be reading primarily for leisure and enjoyment. We started a novel together, and I went over unfamiliar terms and vocabulary with him as we came across them. After a few pages or so, I would ask him to minimally summarize what happened so far just make sure he was following along alright and I found myself having to explain some background knowledge for him to help with this.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that it is a little more difficult than I had initially thought to not only find level appropriate reading material, but also to find something that the tutee would truly be interested in. It's been a while since I've been a kid myself, so it's been a refreshing experience getting to know PJ.