This is my first post.I have launched into another job which is working for Anonymous* Learning in Johnson City as a tutor. As an educational model I could make a better one in my sleep, and maybe I should. Still, my goal now is to hold this new job for at least a year, with a sub goal of 2 months to start. I have quit tons of jobs since 2012 graduation, and so it is finally something that I intend to stay with this job. A former professor says gratitude is key to holding on to a job, so I am following that rule. As I complete computer tutorials to train me to do what I should be training computers to do, I am grateful for the computers, the hours that pass, the pay, and what this is setting me up to be able to do - tutor. Maybe some day I will create my own model for tutoring. That would be fun. Or supremely challenging. Something about my personality is well built for tutoring. Earlier this month a student of mine who I independently was tutoring Algebra had a break though on his first lesson opening all of his blockings. I was actually sitting at the tutor training computer thinking "but really though, what is better about my teaching method?" Could these aspects be redone or are they quirks of my personality? The Maggie Method uses aspects of poetic metaphors, individually built for each student I encounter. When a boy comes in with a baseball look, I explain to him that Algebra is like learning a game, but not always having the rules. As his tutor, I am the one who will tell him the rules. Then Algebra will become fun like a sport, because he will know how to be super good at it. Will I be able to use the Maggie Method at Anonymous? Maybe not as much as in Maggie Learning Center, but the work will give useful fodder for writing my Method into being. More important than metaphors, which was just one example of success, the Maggie Method's underlying key is connection and mentoring student confidence. In all the years that I have been tutoring, I learned about the importance of confidence early, a virtue manifested through connection. Anonymous gives one sentence to greeting the student, and brushes over what I feel is the biggest thing in tutoring. In tutoring, you have to dig into the psyche of the student, in easy going, simple conversation, but to tap into the heart of what might have changed to put the student behind, practically or emotionally. The Maggie Approach is the whole student approach, with mental aspects underlined. There also is the Overlying Educational Principle which is super important. With equal experience and practice, students have equal abilities to perform. The Maggie Approach sees through whatever diagnostic lens conventional teachers have been looking at students. The students either succeeding or not succeeding for simple reasons. It's not ADHD or Autism that's holding your student back. Let the student be who they are and that Autism will be a shining aspect of who they are. So you dig in and apply sincere praise, empathy, and interest. Teaching is with some sort of classroom. Anonymous tutoring can have 3 students. Maggie Tutoring never is more than 1:1. The tutor's job is to focus on that student. Give them what they need to grow up to write their own curriculum.
*Company names have been changed to protect the innocent.