a podcast by Tyson Baker
a video by Zak Jordan
a video by Kai Moskow
by Lily Balmer
by Anna Thach
by Kat Wright
I enjoyed tutoring with Asheville High School this semester — it was a great learning experience for me, especially with us being unable to do any other type of field experience in my education courses due to the pandemic. To be honest, I think the only thing that really frustrated me during this experience was myself — I am a fairly introverted and anxious person, so it was hard for
me initially to “break through” with my student, and really provide helpful feedback.
Luckily, I eventually learned that I felt less awkward/anxious when I made small jokes here and there, or spoke more casually while adding comments and helping the student rework their writing! I also loved helping the student develop their writing in a way that is unique to them — especially when it comes to personal writing like college essays, I feel that it is important that they keep their voice and creative style, while still working on the paper structurally. We expanded on their ideas, especially the ones more personal to them, like their future dreams and past experiences. I think that tutoring taught me a lot about how I want to teach writing in the future, and how I work best. I learned that I prefer when a student gives me the essay to skim over before our tutoring session, so I have more of an idea and understanding of what I’d like to accomplish in our time each
week, but I don’t want it too far ahead of time — maybe just five minutes to skim through it a bit. I enjoyed seeing how different writing styles vary, and I’m so excited to see that on a larger scale, like when I’m teaching an entire class!
I think the most important thing I learned was that I don’t need to completely hide away my personality or replace it with a cold, professional one — that doesn’t help anyone. I do it subconsciously almost, but I am more aware of it now, and will do my best to combat it in the future. Hiding my personality and acting like my idea of a strictly-professional entity like a “coach” or “teacher” made me uncomfortable and nervous, and I think it makes students feel like I’m more closed-off, and less human. As I said earlier, when I started to get a bit more casual in tone, and make the occasional joke, I really became a better tutor!
All in all, this experience has taught me a lot. Although I only worked with one student one-on-one, when we discussed our service learning in class, I caught a glimpse of how varied Asheville’s students are, and in turn, how varied our community is — and I’m so grateful for that! Everywhere in life, we can all be at different levels, and in the end, it all turns out okay. When I am a teacher, I will ensure that all of my students get what they need, no matter where they are in the learning process. We all have room for growth, and we all have room to learn!
In Spring of 2020, just months before the whole world would shift due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, first-year writing students at UNC Asheville began coaching at Asheville High School’s new Writing Center. Although this service-learning partnership was short lived as both schools moved to remote learning in mid-March, UNCA’s Writing Program Coordinator Jessica Pisano and AHS’s Writing Center Director Amanda Galvin reworked the collaboration in August to accommodate online learning.
Using Google Meet, high school students were paired with first-year college students for more than 300 virtual coaching sessions over the course of the Fall 2020 semester. This service-learning partnership not only provides local high school students with one-on-one support with their writing, it also gives new college students opportunities to develop interpersonal communication and apply the writing skills they’re learning.
Later in the semester, upper-level teaching licensure students joined the partnership, crafting and facilitating a five-week college essay writing workshop for seniors at Asheville High. One pre-service teacher explains, “It is one thing to write it down on paper, but to actually help students write their own papers was an amazing experience.” This partnership was invaluable to licensure students and college seniors alike.
Jessica Pisano and Amanda Galvin are excited to continue this collaboration into Spring 2021 and beyond!
by Josephine Wilson
Overall, working with Asheville High surprised me. I thought I would be met with a student who didn’t really want to write the essays, or who wouldn’t really listen to what I had to say. Instead I found that the student was easy and pleasant to work with. He actually listened to and tried the tricks I had to share. The tutoring made me more aware of writing in that I had to figure out how to teach what I already knew how to do and did. Explaining the tips that I used for my own college essays and teaching them made me more aware of how they work and how they might help the student.
I learned that I really enjoy teaching. I wasn’t too sure before this class, but I’m more sure of it now. I realized that I felt really invested in helping make this student’s essay shine. I also felt bad whenever I thought the student felt frustrated and wanted to figure out how to prevent that in the future and make him feel more confident. I think I got a better understanding of how difficult teaching can be. I can see how teaching multiple students this type of thing in a classroom setting can be difficult as you can’t take nearly as much time to help each individual student.
I really enjoyed this class and the insight tutoring gave me towards teaching. I’m sure the experience will help me in the future.
by Chris Sarbaum
by Alex Sullivan
- What stands out to you most from your work at Asheville High School? What was especially interesting, surprising, rewarding, or even frustrating?
It was very rewarding to see my students have an “aha” moment when writing. I also found it rewarding when I could see them be much less stressed about their writing after working through it with me. I wasn’t really frustrated nor did I find much surprising or interesting, but the
entire experience was very enjoyable to watch them grow with their writing in the short time I was with them.
- How has your service-learning experience influenced your understanding of writing? The writing process? Of teaching and learning?
It helped me understand that students will be at different stages in their learning/writing and that many students have extremely different writing processes. Noticing one of my students preferred writing an outline with the other student liked writing more of a “stream of consciousness” was especially impactful on my understanding for that. It helped me become a better teacher and listener trying to decipher what the students needed from me.
- How has your service-learning experience influenced your personal growth? (For example, what have you learned about yourself from this experience? About your own biases or assumptions? Have your ideas changed? Have you discovered any new skills or personality traits?)
I have learned that sometimes, as a tutor and person, it’s okay to hold back and just focus on what is most important rather than more intricate details. Helping your student with the very basics of things is more important than small mistakes that can be touched up later. My personal biases I don’t believe have changed but definitely assumptions that students may not
be as far or may be farther with their writing have changed and I have realized that you can’t have any assumptions when experiencing a new student’s writing. I have found that because of this class I am passionate about teaching.
- How has your service-learning experience influenced your understanding of the Asheville community? Of the public school system?
My service learning experience has changed my opinions on public school systems because I never went to a public high school and did not understand it much. I did not believe that students from a public school could be as smart as my students were, which I guess was on me, but I have not been around many public high school students or been to a public high school. I think especially the fact that this public school has a writing center will be a great addition for helping students in their classes and with their learning. It did not change my opinion much on the Asheville community just because I am from Asheville, but it gave me much better insight on the public school system around here.