Life as a tutor #3: Another beginning

I am writing this in a bit of a rush. 

My tutor job got over in November 2013 but due to some reasons I couldn’t write a blog post  then summarizing my experiences which I felt deserved to be done. But now there’s will be another opportunity for me to do that!

I applied for the tutorship of the same course this semester too. I had quite enjoyed that experience; it made my stay at IITK much more interesting and kept my mind active which, in turn, probably proved beneficial for my own research work by stopping my brain's neurons from slumbering. So, I decided to take up this task again and luckily got it this time as well!

As before, there are about 30 students in my class and the overall structure of conducting the tutorials is the same but with one change – the class timings! I took the first tutorial class on this week’s Wednesday during the early morning hours of 0800– 0850. And I will be following the same routine for all subsequent weeks as well. Also, all the main lectures being taken by the Course Instructor have been scheduled at the same time. If you are familiar with the weather in northern part of India during this time of the year I hope you will have some sympathy for me. At least I do, for the students! The rooms in which the tutorials are conducted are not warm and cozy. So, it will pose an additional challenge to my ability to teach and write on the black-board (I mentioned in one of the previous blogs how inconvenient I initially found writing on the blackboard but now, thankfully, I have adapted to it). Plus, the journey from my hostel to the class venue takes about 5 minutes on a bicycle and even in that small duration I get to know nature’s coldness quite well, and literally. 

But ultimately my major concern is how well I am able to teach and that whether the students feel relaxed enough in my class. So, I decided to relax some restrictions which the students generally feel obligated towards abiding by, such as:

( 1) Punctuality – I have given them full freedom to enter the class (and without asking my permission) at any time of their choosing. Of course, I will start the tutorials right on time.

( 2) Attentiveness – I have also given them the freedom to do whatever they like (e.g. sleeping) in my class as long as they DO NOT DISTURB OTHERS. In a joking sort of way I requested them to sit at the far end of the classroom if they had any such intentions.

And I considerably stressed upon the fact that they are free to ask questions. In fact, I consider this to be the biggest incentive for them to attend the tutorials. Of course I think that for many of them (though I hope I am wrong about it) the main incentive for attending the tutorials is maintaining a good attendance record for which 5% overall marks have been assigned by the Course Instructor. Either way I wish them to feel as comfortable as possible while sitting in the class. From my own experience I believe this makes learning much more easy and fun. 

I disseminated the above information in a sort of non-serious way to break the ice. It will be interesting to see their response and the number of vacant seats  in the class in the coming weeks.

Oh, and I shared the web-link of an online discussion forum with them which I remember sharing at a later stage the previous time when I was a tutor. Clearly, experience has its advantages.

I got to solve an interesting problem in the first class and tried my best to make it as interesting and understandable as possible. But I ended up not being able to finish it completely and so I would have to manage my time well in the next tutorial. Of course, some time was also spent on making the above announcements/introductions to the students so that I can hope that this won’t happen often.

Until next time!