extracurriculars for students

FYI, beginning next week, I will be offering a few extracurricular opportunities for ABE/ESL students. (See descriptions below.) These are non-credit classes, and registration is not required--though regular attendance is encouraged.

These might be good to recommend to your student if they need/want extra help in a certain area. Fliers are posted on the tutoring office window and are available inside the tutoring office or the main BTS office.

Also, I have one lovely volunteer for Talk Time, but I am looking for more! Being a Talk Time facilitator involves leading conversations with ESL students (no lesson planning required) and a commitment of one hour per week for 10 weeks (see times below). Email me if you are interested.

Talk Time
For students: ESL all levels
Tuesdays 10 - 10:50 a.m. OR Wednesdays 5- 5:50 p.m.
Begins April 13
Room 3119
Talk Time is an informal, encouraging environment to practice speaking English. We talk about a new topic each week and spend a lot of time in small group discussion.

Memoir Writing Workshop
For students: ABE all levels, ESL 4B and up
Mondays and Wednesdays 10 -10:50 a.m.
Begins April 12
Room 3119
Students will explore the genre of memoir writing, guided by various writing activities. A new writing prompt every Monday. Peer editing and revising every Wednesday.

ESL Reading Club
For students: ESL 4A and up
Thursdays 10 - 10:50 a.m.
Begins April 15
Room 3119
Every week, we will learn a new reading strategy and apply it to a short story. Students should then be able to use these strategies while reading the novel required in upper level ESL classes.

Tutor Check-in Meeting Agenda (Mar 31/Apr 1)

For those who missed the tutor check-in meeting or those who would like a reminder, we covered the following topics at our Mar 31/Apr 1 meetings.

1) Flaky Student Policy (FSP)

Have you ever come to tutor only to find that your student isn't coming? To cut down on student flakiness, we will be introducing a new procedure: If your student doesn't show up to a tutoring session--and didn't call you ahead of time to let you know about their absence and you waited ten minutes for them--please fill out a "Missed Appointment Card" with your name, your student's name, and date/time of appointment. Turn the card in to the tutoring office, and it will be attached to the student's file. This will help the tutoring office staff keep track of missed appointments; after a student has missed two appointments, he/she will be given a warning and one more chance with the tutor. Three strikes and they're out.

Likewise, if a tutor misses an appointment without prior notification, a student can fill out the same card to turn in. The cards will be kept in a box above the tutor mailboxes on the south wall of the tutoring room.

As a preventative measure, we stress that tutors and students exchange phone numbers during the first tutoring session and have the habit of calling each other ahead of time if an appointment is going to be missed. We will be handing out business cards that can be kept in a wallet or purse for easy access to student/tutor/office phone numbers.

2) Resources

There are many resources kept in the tutoring area and office, which available to tutors during to use during their sessions or to sign-out. See the Orientation page for a description of available resources.

3) Blog

The blog was created to provide additional support to our tutors as well as a place where you can interact with each other. Leave comments, suggest a topic, or ask to guest blog!

4) Drop-in tutoring (new procedure)

Mulu will return as our lead drop-in tutor next Wednesday, April 7. A few tutors-for-credit will also be assigned to help with drop-in tutoring. Official drop-in hours will be from 10 a.m. to 12 noon Monday through Thursday along the east wall of the tutoring room.

Students will:
- sign up for drop-in tutoring on the same day they want a tutor.
- wait for a tutor to call their name off the sign-up list.
- have (up to) 30 minutes with a drop-in tutor.

Rules for students:
- Students cannot sign up for drop-in tutoring if they already have a regular, one-on-one tutor.
- Students cannot sign up more than one time each day.
- Students cannot sign up a day early for tutoring.
- Students may not get to see a tutor on busy days.

* If your one-on-one student doesn't show up for your scheduled tutoring appointment, you have the option as helping with drop-in tutoring for the day. Let Mulu know or see tutoring office staff.

5) BTS policies

During the check-in meeting, we discussed Basic & Transitional division policies that affect your students. The ones we went over this week were:

a. Attendance -- Students must attend 80% of their classes. If they miss more than 20%, they will not be able to register for future quarters and will have to schedule an appeal appointment with the Dean or Manager.

b. Repeating a Course 3 times -- Students have 3 chances/3 quarters to pass a course. For example, an ESL student in Level 1 has 3 chances to pass level one. While it is very common to repeat a level, the student must show progress after 3 quarters in order to continue studying in the program. During a student's third quarter in a level, he/she will meet with the Dean or Manager to discuss consequences and options.

c. CASAS -- The CASAS is a government required test that students must take to show progress; in turn the BTS program receives funding to continue serving its students. The CASAS test is taken upon entering the program and every quarter thereafter. Even though the CASAS test has a scoring system, the test results are NOT tied to a student's final grade or level.

See the Basic & Transitional Studies policies page for more detailed information on policies for students.

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To contribute a post:

Email Alyssa or Jessie, and we'll figure out a way to make it happen!

Welcome to the BTS Tutoring blog!

Hello, tutors!

Welcome to the newest resource for our tutors. Jessie and I will be regularly posting tutoring tips, sites to help you lesson plan, program news, etc. (Of course, any urgent information will be emailed directly to you.)

This blog was made for your benefit! It can provide a way to interact with other tutors and share ideas. Please, let us know if you have:
- questions or topics you would like to see on the blog
- feedback on a link
- a tutoring strategy that has worked for you!

Leave a comment on a post or shoot us an email Our contact information can be found on the top left side of the page. Thanks for visiting the BTS Tutoring blog!

- Alyssa