Journal #4 (or, A Consultation, Revisited)

A few days ago, I was able to observe RE in a consultation. The woman she was helping was a non-traditional student (that's the PC term for older people who are coming back to school, right?) who needed help with an application to the social work program. RE was friendly and welcoming to the student. She smiled and spoke to her in a relatively open manner, but was always professional. The consultation covered many topics, but primarily focused on content editing: the student was concerned that the application letter was too long and too broad in scope and she wanted to cut it down. After reading the application questions thoroughly, RE asked whether or not the student thought she had actually answered the question. She asked which parts of the essay the student thought did not fit the question. The student, who did most of the talking, explained which parts of the essay she didn't think fit. RE marked those parts accordingly.

Throughout the consulation, RE leaned forward, often using her hands to help her speak. She kept eye contact with the student and nodded occasionally to show she had understood whatever the student said. Once in awhile, the student, who was quite bubbly and talkative, would go on a tangent. RE would comment on what she said, then use a leading question to return focus to the paper. RE let the student know when there were only about five minutes left in the session, and diligently stuck to her time. She didn't make it obvious, however. I hardly noticed her looking at the clock. At the end of the session, RE suggested the student make another appointment after she had had some time to look over the corrections they had made together. The student thanked RE for her time, and told us that she was on the way to the computer lab right then to work on her paper.

Over all, this was a very successful session in my opinion, and RE handled it with professionalism and awesomeness.

In fact, everyone that I have had the chance to observe over the last few weeks has handled their sessions with professionalism and awesomeness. For some reason, I have this lingering fear that I will not handle mine with such grace. When I get nervous, I tend to fidget and talk a million miles a minute. I also tend to go on tangents. So maybe I will get nervous and lead the student, who only came in for some help in formulating a topic, quickly down the road of constitutionalism and the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. I do this to myself a lot--psych myself out, that is. Insecurity is rearing its ugly head again. I need one of those Whack-a-Mole mallets to smash it down again. I don't want be too scared when the moment comes to just jump in to consulting.

In other news, whoever purchased the fun-sized candy bars for the Writing Center, thank you. I had a very nice mid-afternoon snack of Baby Ruth bar and Moroccan mint tea. Healthy and wholesome.