I love to know more about the Mentoring Coordinators. -----Original Message----- From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deconinck, Lori Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:19 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Peer Tutoring Hello - I'm new to this listserve - it's terrific! I thought I might weigh in on this one. At Southern New Hampshire University, we have both professional and peer tutors. The professionals are my staff - the Business, Writing, Math, and Mentoring Coordinators - who work with the 'most needy' students -- those whose weaknesses exceed the time and skill level of our peer tutors. The peer tutors staff walk-in tutoring and also serve as 1-1 tutors and/or mentors - an example of our best 'match' is a tutee from 'Dr. Smith's statistics class with a peer tutor who not only did well in the discipline but whom also had Dr. Smith as a professor -- in that case, the tutor can assist with teaching style, testing style, etc., as well as with the discipline itself. We have a pool of tutors in each area and several who do cross-discipline; however, if we have no tutor available for a certain subject, we request recommendations from the faculty and/or look at grade rosters to recruit. We also do two-part tutor training, the first hour being CRLA-based and the second hour applying the CRLA topic to the discipline. In that way, we've been able to build a 'community' of tutors/mentors with allegiance to both the Learning Center and their coordinator. Although the pay is lousy, these tutors/mentors speak well of their experiences -- and keep coming back! Lori DeConinck Director/The Learning Center Southern New Hampshire University -----Original Message----- From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Brown Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 12:47 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Peer Tutoring Hello, At our small college, we are lucky to have a staff of eight professional tutors who specialize in writing, math or science. They each work part time, and they keep our Academic Resource Center fully staffed. At this point, our peer tutoring program is not very effective -- mainly because of the big "shadow" that the professional tutors cast. Typically, students express a preference for working with professionals when that option is available. We do make occasional pairings of peer tutors with students who need help in Spanish or Psychology or other areas where the professionals do not have expertise. I know that there are great benefits to peer tutoring (for both the tutors and the students), and I'd like to explore ways to increase the numbers of peer tutor relationships at our college. I don't plan to replace professional tutors with peer tutors, but I think that peer tutors can serve an important role beyond the professionals. I'd like to know if other learning centers have found a good model for merging these two services. I'd also be interested to hear, in general, how other centers match up peer tutors with students who need help. When requests do come in, I sometimes feel like I spend more time trying to find tutors than they spend working with students. Thank you in advance for any ideas you can offer. Beth Brown Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin To unsubscribe,send a message to [log in to unmask] In body type: SIGNOFF LRNASST-L To access LRNASST-L archives,point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To subscribe, send email to [log in to unmask] Leave subject blank.In body type: subscribe LRNASST-L To contact list owner,email [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe,send a message to [log in to unmask] In body type: SIGNOFF LRNASST-L To access LRNASST-L archives,point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To subscribe, send email to [log in to unmask] Leave subject blank.In body type: subscribe LRNASST-L To contact list owner,email [log in to unmask]