Willard Worthless Bad Tutor

Willard Worthless – Bad Tutor

Paula Pupil enters the BGSU Math and Stats Tutoring Center. She feels a little lost as she looks around and sees only one person, Willard Worthless, who happens to have his nose buried in a book. She was already intimidated before coming into the center, but is even more insecure now that it feels cold and unwelcoming. She is very uncertain that she wants to stay or ever come back. (Place sad face on Paula’s coat) Paula does decide to stay since she knows that she must get help as she received a bad grade on her first quiz. No one speaks to her or tells her that she must register or sign in. As a result, the next time Paula comes into the center, there are many more students than tutors available, and Paula has a hard time getting anyone’s attention. If Willard and other tutors like him reminded students to sign in and register, the administrators would be well aware of how many tutors are needed to effectively run the center.

Finally, Paula gets Willard’s attention and he comes over to her. She pulls out her very disorganized notebook. It takes her several minutes to find a problem that she needs to ask Willard about. When she does ask Willard, he scribbles something down on a scrap piece of paper and says “Here, this is it” and walks away. Paula is a little confused and doesn’t really understand the solution, but figures that she has the answer she needs and copies it down onto her own paper. Once she finds the next problem, she asks Willard again and again he provides the answer by writing it down. Paula finally gets the ‘hang’ of the process. She gets all her homework done by asking Willard to do the problems one by one. Unfortunately, just copying the answers did not help Paula to understand the material. . (Place picture of fog on Paula) She takes a quiz on the very questions she copied from Willard, but does very poorly. (Draw for grade-only from D’s or F’s) Paula is very discouraged with her second quiz score, but realizes she must need to spend more time in the center so that she can do better next time.

Paula comes in a few days after the quiz. She shows Willard the quiz. He takes one look at it and asks why she didn’t remember what he showed her last week. He then tells her that some people just aren’t any good at math and they just have to accept it. (Place a negative sign on Paula’s coat) Because of such negative feedback, Paula is almost afraid to ask any more questions. However, she is between a rock and a hard place. (Place a rock on Paula’s coat) If she can continue getting her homework problems answered by Willard, maybe her homework grade will be high enough to offset her bad quiz scores. Paula gets her next homework assignment done the same way she did before and turns it in for a perfect score. (Place a small100% on Paula’s coat)

Paula comes in again in a week and looks more disheveled than usual. Willard takes no notice, but then Paula proceeds to tell him how she’s had a rough week since her dog died. She tells him a very long and detailed story of how her dog met its demise. Willard then relates several stories of pets that he has had that have died and how it affected him emotionally. (Place doggie tombstone or psychiatrist couch on Paula’s coat) They talk for about half an hour on this subject when Willard receives a call on his cell phone. It is one of his buddies wanting to make plans with him for that evening. Willard talks to his friend for about 10 minutes until his plans are finalized. He then goes back to work with Paula, but she is packing up her things because she has class in 10 minutes. (Place cell phone on Paula’s coat) Paula has an assignment due which she had hoped to get done in the center. However, she accomplished nothing and received a 0 on her assignment. (Place big 0 on her coat). Now Paula is really panicking because she was hoping to do well on ALL of her homework assignments. (Place panic button on Paula’s coat) The next time she comes into the center, Willard is working with several students from her same class. It is a very difficult assignment, and so, Willard spends a lot of time with each student before getting to Paula. Because Willard did not think to group these students from the same class, all of the students are losing out since it takes so much longer for Willard to address each one individually. (Place a clock on Paula’s coat) Finally, Willard gets back to Paula again when she has time for only one more question. However, her question is so difficult, even Willard is having trouble with it. He tells Paula that he simply cannot do it and that she is out of luck. Because Willard refused to ask someone else to help, Paula leaves the center completely discouraged with unanswered questions. (Place a question mark headband on Paula) She goes to class and receives a grade of ______on her next quiz because she is so poorly prepared.

Paula returns to the center after a couple of days out of complete desperation. She has a take home quiz that she is to hand in for the next class. Willard knows that Paula is a regular and he stills feels sorry for her because of her dog. Therefore, he all but writes the answers for the quiz down on her paper. Unfortunately, Willard did not check the instructor permission form to see that Paula’s instructor strictly forbid any help on the quiz. Paula didn’t know this either and when the instructor, aware of Paula’s poor performance, asked if she received any help, Paula admitted that she got help from Willard. The instructor then gave her an F because she was not supposed to get help from anyone. (Place an F on Paula’s coat)

Because of her low performance in her math class, Paula is beginning to get depressed and needs to start taking anti-depressants. (Put Prozac on her coat) She remembers that Willard said something about her not having math ability and feels totally overwhelmed. As a result, she skips class for an entire week. She tells Willard of her absence for the past week and begs him to teach her the material she’s missed. Willard now feels very sorry for Paula and sits down to teach her the material. The only problem is that while Paula was skipping class, the instructor changed the syllabus and Paula learned much of the wrong material. Thus, when Paula returned to class, she was completely lost. Instead of advising Paula to meet with her instructor, Willard has contributed to Paula getting even more behind and confused. She feels completely dragged down by her circumstances! (Place ball and chain around her ankle) Even worse, it is the week before finals!

It is now finals week and Paula comes one last time to get help from Willard. When she arrives, Willard is helping a student who seems to be yelling at him. Willard calms the student down by appeasing him and giving him ‘just the answers’ like the student is demanding. This takes time away from Paula and when Willard finally gets to Paula, he has only enough time to give her just the answers for her review sheet. As a result, Paula pulls an all-nighter to try and understand how Willard got the answers. For the final the next day, Paula is exhausted and performs terribly. She receives an ______, which is not enough. Much to Paula’s dismay, she will need to take the course again. (Place a dunce cap on Paula’s head)

Paula is bitter about her result in math class and blames Willard for all of it. She writes a bad review of him, and the lab administrators put him on probation. (Give Willard a pink slip)

Myra Mathlete – Good Tutor Sam Student enters the BGSU Math and Stats Tutoring Center. He is greeted with a smile by one of the tutors who is on duty, Myra Mathlete. Sam thinks to himself, “Wow, I was so worried and intimidated about coming here! I feel very welcome. I think I’ll stay and check this out.” (Place smiley face on Sam’s coat) Myra asks Sam if he has registered yet to which he replies ‘no’. Myra then directs Sam to the reception area, where he is assisted by a helpful receptionist. He is given a registration number for the semester, and signs in. (Place a registration card on Sam’s coat) The next time Sam comes to the center, there are plenty of tutors available because Myra and other tutors like her took the time to make sure that students were registered and signed in. This helped the administrators of the center know how many tutors are needed at any given time and day.

Sam sits at one of the tables and begins to pull out his notes and textbook. Everything falls out of his notebook, but he makes an attempt to organize things. Sam raises his hand to ask a question and immediately, Myra Mathlete comes over. She quickly notices Sam’s disorganized notes and after answering Sam’s question, asks Sam if he has ever felt like he needed to be more organized. Sam, of course answers yes as he looks at his messy papers. Myra then refers Sam to the Secretary to make an appointment with the Math Specialist to discuss ways to improve his organizational skills. (Place appt calendar on Sam’s coat) After having a few sessions with the Math Specialist, Sam returns to the center with a prepared list of questions for Myra. As they attack each question, Myra makes certain to let Sam hold the pencil. In other words, Myra does not do the work for Sam, but forces Sam to work things out. (Place pencil on Sam’s coat.) Sam leaves feeling confident that he got all his questions answered. Later that day, Sam has a quiz over several of the questions he worked on with Myra’s help. (Draw for a grade) Sam receives an A because he was very organized and practiced doing the problems at the center. (Place grade of A on Sam’s coat) Sam is thrilled with his first quiz score.

Sam comes in the day after getting his quiz score. Myra congratulates him on the good grade and tells him to keep up the good work. Sam feels good about himself and the help he is receiving at the center. (Place a + sign on Sam’s coat.) Sam knows he will be coming back for the rest of the semester to get help.

Sam comes in a few days later. He mentions to Myra that’s he’s had a rough couple of days because his girlfriend broke up with him. Myra lets Sam vent for a short time and then refocuses his attention on the task at hand, mathematics. (Place binoculars or camera on Sam’s coat) After a couple of minutes, Sam’s ex-girlfriend calls his cell phone. Myra reminds Sam of the center’s policy of no cell phones, and asks him to take the call outside. Sam chooses instead to hang up, knowing that he needs to work on his homework. (Place no cell phone sign on Sam’s coat) This time, Myra knows that there are several students working on the same material for the same class that Sam is in. She asks Sam if he would like to sit with the rest of these students so that they may work together. Sam decides to do so. The other students are very helpful, and sometimes can even answers questions for him until Myra is available. Sam is relieved to know that there are other students just like him struggling with the same questions. (Place group photo on Sam’s coat) The group encounters a particularly difficult question. In fact, it is so difficult that even Myra is having trouble helping them. Myra then consults with other tutors until she finds someone else who can help. The students in the group feel a little better when they realize that the problem was so difficult that even Myra couldn’t figure it out. They leave the lab feeling more confident about asking questions and more confident about their ability to understand the new material. (Place light bulb headband on Sam’s head) Sam returns after a week and Myra can’t help but notice his gloomy countenance. When she asks if he is OK, Sam replies that he has been out of class for a week with the flu and needs to learn everything that he missed. Myra then instructs Sam to visit his instructor’s office hours so that he/she may help him make up his missed classes. (Place a clock on Sam’s coat)

Another week goes by before Sam returns to the center. This time, he brings a take home test that he would like Myra to help him with. Myra checks for Sam’s instructor’s permission form and realizes that she is not allowed to help with this. She tells Sam that she can help with related problems only, not the exact problems on the test. From the examples that Myra helps him complete, Sam is able to complete the take home test. (Draw for grade) Sam receives a grade of ______, which he is very happy about. He is glad that the MAST Center resource is available to him.

It is the week before finals, and Sam is getting very nervous. He comes into the center with his prepared questions. He is so nervous that he seems to be monopolizing Myra’s time with his questions. Myra gently explains that there are a lot of students in the center and that she needs to address their questions as well. She gives Sam a head start or pointers and tells him to think about the solutions. She assures him that once he makes a good attempt at a question, she’ll return to check his progress. She does not sit beside him because she feels he is leaning too heavily on his help right now. She hopes that he will work more independently. (Place no sitting card on Sam’s coat) After Sam has completed a couple of the problems successfully, he feels more confident and relaxed than when he first arrived. He is able to complete his study guide with only a few prompts from Myra. Sam leaves the center feeling like he’s walking on cloud nine. (Place cotton balls on Sam’s coat)

Sam comes one last time to prepare for his final exam. As he is waiting for Myra, he notices that the student she is working with is becoming increasingly loud. He hears the other student tell her she doesn’t know what she’s doing and why can’t she just give him the answer? At that point, Myra gets the head tutor/GA and has him/her tell the student to leave since their behavior is inappropriate. (Place Now Myra is free to answer Sam’s few last minute questions that he has. The next day, Sam takes his final and receives an ______! (Draw for a grade) Sam is very proud of himself and thankful for the center. Now he can move on to his next math class! (Place promotion certificate or big gold star on Sam’s coat)

Sam has given such good reviews about Myra’s help that she receives an hourly raise for the next semester. (Hand Myra play $) QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

PANIC!

0 Prozac