Peer tutors

I have always believed that the minute when you´re not learning, you are dead. Through peer tutors I found out that one of the best ways of learning is helping others  to understand, find a structure, or discover a motivation.

Peer tutors are a group of students in RCN that after receiving workshops on how to help other companions with their subjects are always available for consultation and help. Dividing the different subjects among ourselves, we had been perseverant organizing workshops or promoting our availability, and in many cases, I believe we have broken a boundary of shame that many students had when they think about asking for help.

On the one hand, my experience as a peer tutor along this year let me helped some students with particular topics on the subjects that they struggle with (like trigonometry in math, or poetical analysis in Spanish); help in precise examples (like homework in math) where I showed them how to look at the question in a different way; help with the structure of IAs and how to follow order (in subjects like History and Human Rights); oral practice in Spanish AB looking for an improvement of vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation; confusion with the syllabus requirements for English A2; or maybe questions in Environmental Systems in which the main problem was the more the understanding of vocabulary in itself than the subject content. Outside the strictly academic help, I consider that it has been also important to show how to have a more organized timetable for study time, how to find motivation, or how to overcome problems of confidence in subjects.

On the other hand, I have learned a lot from these experiences:  the importance of prioritizing what to do (as the help that you can give to someone in 5 minutes of our “busy” time can save hours of confusion for them); the significance of showing to the student a different angle in which they can look at the question; the need to make sure that they have understood the explanation, and they will be able to answer later on by themselves, or to correctly understand where the problem is; and particularly of showing that it is fine to ask for help and to cooperate with other students when it comes to studies. It has also helped me to revise concepts of subjects that I had forgotten, or to plan clearer structures of my work.

Tutoring has been a new challenge, but it has helped my greatly to develope new skills that I will surely use in the future.