Yes, I really do enjoy working with writers to hone their writing skills for essays and other texts. But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy job. As I work with a writer or a text, I am racing the clock. I must review the essay, comment in-line to the text, and explain what skills the writer may need to learn and how to apply those skills as they revise. And all that must be done as quickly as possible. After all, the writers don’t want to pay any more than is absolutely necessary for my review. They want to revise the essay to be the best they can possibly craft at this moment … and submit it before it is due.
BUT sometimes technology feels like the wrench dropped into the works that grinds the machine to a halt. Don’t misunderstand me, I only tutor online now, and I’m grateful for technology which makes that possible. Had I found online tutoring platforms when I retired, I might have embraced this career 8 years ago.
No, I don’t think I would have. Though I did some out-of-country tutoring online that year when a friend asked me to teach his children, at that time, I didn’t know how to harness the technology to our best advantage and success.
What I really wanted to do at that junction in my life was to narrate audiobooks to bring in an income to supplement my pension and tiny, little social security checks. And that’s a story you can read in my Audiobook Narration blog Career after retirement. I do very much enjoy narrating books, and editing them is fascinating. I look forward to the next author who asks me to narrate their book. But, in the meantime, I still need to supplement my income.
I launched this current tutoring career in February, 2023. Prior to this, I have tutored a total of 10 years, mostly in-person, during my teaching career and since retirement. I opened shop online this year. And I’m grateful it has brought in an income every month. Praise God!
Learning to use online tutoring platforms was slow-going and nerve-wracking. I read all the manuals and watched the training videos, but they didn’t prepare me, even though I practiced with the learning studios, to keep within the time-limits and to quickly manipulate those online platforms. I failed many times with many details of the technology before I asked my manager how to do what I was failing to do. I’m grateful that I received her personal instruction and explanation.
I’m grateful for a personal coach/manager who helped me—couldn’t have done it without her. Support answered many questions and resolved many confusions I had. However, I’d asked a few questions of Support that were never answered, but with enough hours online with students, I’ve realized the answers to those unanswered questions through trial and error and more time on the platform. Now I’m mostly comfortable with the technology systems and not so stressed, although I am still racing to stay within time limits.
However, I have realized that my own technology—my own computer—seems at times unknowable to me. I have failed three times in the past two days to find the essay I’ve just reviewed and must return to the student. I’m sure this is basic, and I should know it by now. My docs were saving in the last folder I had saved something in. But Recents wasn’t showing when I searched for the name of the doc. Finally, after several overtime (OT) sessions, I realized into which folder the essays were saving. What I learned: I must check the pathway through which the doc is saving and switch that to the folder where I actually want it to be so that I can find it. It will take a few more seconds with every doc at the beginning of a session and save me several minutes of frustrated search for the lost doc at the end of the session. Just to clarify, no doc was lost; I found each one—just went overtime to find it. Overtime I must NOT do.
Even that technology stress is not the most nerve-wracking part of the tutoring process. It’s the human interaction that can be the most stressful.
We tutors come to this job because we want to help students. I was so pleased to find an online channel through which I can work with writers and I can share my years of knowledge, skill and experience. It is a delight to pass all that on to this next generation of writers, always basing what each writer needs on the baseline text they present to me. Usually, the writers are grateful for my help and coaching. They are eager to learn and develop their writing skills. They listen well and can recount what they are learning. Their ratings and reviews bless my heart and help me connect with more students.
My nerves are rattled when a student comes to me, already irritated with tutors. “What’s with the tutors today?” one student quipped in the chat before I’d had a chance to offer him a greeting. I knew at that moment, this session would not end well. Still I tried to help him, without him accepting any piece of advice I suggested. Eventually, I realized the only comment he would find acceptable was for me to say his essay was well-written with no need of any revision, and “Have a nice day!” so he could submit that to his teacher to show he’d fulfilled his obligation to get a tutor review.
After too many minutes, I bowed out, unable to appease his frustration or convince him to try what I, and the previous tutors, had pointed out was what his essay needed to move to the next level. After I ended the session, he gave me a terrible rating, as I’m sure he did the previous tutors. His rating lowered my rating average and in the last few days of the month, kicked me out of receiving a 6% bonus that I had already met. That’s nerve-wracking and costly.
So I learn that my greatest joy—working with one student at a time to help them grow from where they are now—is also my greatest challenge and opportunity for growth—help every writer see what they are doing well and celebrate their current skill level. I must let each writer see that I see them and see the skill they already have developed. I must find a connection with each one. I must breathe deeply when they are frustrated and bring them to calm down and find something good about our work together. If I fail to get them to calm down and see what they have done well and to accept what I can offer them, if I fail to get them to take a break and come back later when they may be able to see a way forward to improve their draft, I must immediately transfer them to another tutor who might be able to help them.
I also learned that if the student writer continues to badger me and make derogatory comments about what I’m trying to tell them, rushing me to answer their questions and comments so much that I can’t focus on the review of their essay, I must report that student so that they will be removed from the platform and not allowed to belittle or verbally attack the next tutor.
When I learn from these experiences with difficult student writers a strategy for the next session, I relax with renewed hope and find my own path to walk away from my stressed nerves.