April 2025 "Transforming into Professional Tutors" By Annie Bautista, Leslie Rivera, Adan Perez Herrera, Will Williams, Kaitlin Garcia, & Paula Rawlings

In this Transformers-themed piece, tutors will find necessary skills, tools, and traits they learn to possess in order to utilize their full potential as tutors through the personalities of various Autobots from the popular science-fiction franchise. Just as Autobots switch between forms to tackle challenges, tutors can learn to transform humor, high-energy engagement, personalization, and adaptability into tutoring sessions. We hope you find practical strategies for involving students in learning, creating meaningful connections with students, and adapting to different learning styles. We are all constantly learning to transform into a full-fledged professional tutor to build confidence, competence, and the ability to motivate students successfully. Below are the autobots and their corresponding qualities:

Bumblebee - quippy banter & humor: Bumblebee is known for his humor and will encourage tutors to utilize it to build rapport with students.

Blurr - High Energy Action: Blurr is full of energy and will influence tutors to channel this same energy to uplift students in sessions.

Wheeljack - Friendship & Camaraderie: Wheeljack values friendship and stands as a reminder for tutors to get to know the students we serve and build trust between each other.

Jazz - Personal Interest & Customization: Jazz is all about personalization and tutors will be encouraged to hold sessions that fit the personalities of their tutees.

Grimlock - Relishing their Strengths: Grimlock represents strength and will encourage tutors to highlight strengths within themselves and their tutees.

Drift - Creative Transformation: Drift stands as a reminder for tutors to be creative in how they tutor students. To start, an activity will be shown that could be used with students.

Quippy Banter & Humor - Be like Bumblebee by Leslie Rivera

 Going to a tutor can be nerve-wracking for many students. To some, it can feel like volunteering to be torn apart, and as a result, students become hesitant to ask for help. To alleviate that anxiety, tutors can use humor to make students feel more at ease and see the tutor as an ally rather than a critic.

Making Light of Technical Difficulties

Often, technical difficulties arise during a session, which can cause frustration and stress within the student. For some, these difficulties are minor inconveniences, but for others, it is the straw that breaks the camel's back; for those students, it's important to show them that speed bumps can be overcome. In making light of the situation it takes away the powerlessness caused by the inconvenience. It teaches the student to take difficulties in stride and make them a better writer.

Make your Examples FUN

Many students need examples to really understand a concept, and by making examples fun, they’ll be more memorable to the student. Humor in examples creates a positive association with the content being learned. It engages the student and can relieve any worry they might have regarding their assignment.

Use FUN Concepts

Adding a bit of whimsy can also make concepts stick in the minds of students and keep them invested in the session. An example of this would be the CRAAP test, which is used to evaluate if a source is good or not because of the acronym’s similarity to a certain word; it is likely to stay in the mind of the student.

Wear Silly Accessories

Appearance plays a role in how approachable a person seems, which is why wearing little accessories can go a long way in making students feel comfortable. At the RWC, we also give out free pins for students to take! It encourages students to attend the center and spread the word about us.

High Energy Action – Be like Blurr  by Adan Perez Herrera

Effective tutors like Blurr bring the same high-energy action into their teaching. In the classroom, tutors like Blurr use energy and enthusiasm to transform learning into an engaging, fast-paced experience. They keep students excited and actively involved through interactive activities, dynamic discussions, and creative problem-solving. Let us explore how Blurr's high-energy tactics can inspire tutors to fuel more energy, excitement, and engagement in their sessions.

Blurr's trademark is speed; he never slows down in battle or strategy. Fast-paced discussions in the classroom have the same effect: they keep students engaged and prevent boredom. They also push students to think quickly, ensuring no one gets left behind or distracted. Just as Blurr tutors utilize quick conversations to keep students engaged, ensuring they don't fall behind.

Blurr’s energy is contagious; his enthusiasm and high-speed action motivate everyone around him. Tutors must channel similar energy through interactive activities. Interactive activities make lessons more engaging and memorable. They transform passive learners into active participants, and students experience learning at a high speed. This type of immersion sparks energy in the classroom and enhances learning. Tutors must employ activities to create moments where students can actively engage and solve issues swiftly.

One of Blurr’s defining traits is his ability to think and act swiftly in high-stress scenarios. Tutors shall harness that same skill by encouraging creative problem-solving in the classroom. Tutors might present a problem and ask students to quickly brainstorm as many solutions as possible, compelling them to think creatively and on their feet. Giving students only a few minutes to find a solution with limited materials will urge students to think quickly, tap into their creativity, and collaborate in a high-energy atmosphere. Tutors must encourage students to adjust and solve problems, creating a dynamic classroom environment.

A tutor's energy is infectious, much like Blurr's speed and enthusiasm. When tutors show energy, students feed off that excitement, remaining engaged and motivated to learn. Using humor, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude can set the environment for the lesson and inspire students to stay involved. Blurr's energy isn't solely about speed; it's about presence. Tutors who channel that same energy into their teaching cultivate an engaging atmosphere where students feel motivated to learn and participate.

Whether you’re a tutor and/or a student, remember that learning is an adventure. With the right energy, enthusiasm, and creativity, we can all make learning a fast-paced and engaging mission.

The Importance of Friendships & Camaraderie – Be like Wheeljack by Kaitlin Garcia

Tutors can build a level of trust and friendship with their tutees, giving them a safe space to feel comfortable sharing their coursework and encouraging them to return to future sessions. Tutors can do this by keeping a positive attitude, actively listening, showing interest, respecting their tutee's needs, celebrating achievements, and ultimately remaining supportive.

Ice Breaker Activities Tutors can start tutoring sessions, especially with new students, by using icebreaker questions. During these, tutors and tutees can express personal interests, laying a foundation for a new friendship.

Casual Conversations: Tutors can help to build friendships with their tutees by dedicating time at the beginning or end of each session, that is, for a non-academic chat. For example, tutors can use this time to check in with their tutees, asking them how they are doing.

Positive Reinforcement: Tutors can use positive reinforcement to help lay the foundation for a friendship. Tutors can acknowledge their tutees' efforts and progress with sincere praise and positive feedback.

Reflection: Reflection can be a great tool to incorporate into each tutoring session. This may be beneficial, especially at the end of the tutoring session. Briefly reflecting on each session together will help to solidify understanding and encourage self-assessment.

Personal Interest & Customization – Be like Jazz by Will Williams

When a student comes into college, becoming passionate or even mildly engaged in their studies can be a real barrier to success. As a institution, it seems that colleges often forget the very important aspects behind education of making it both fun and relevant to the student As tutors, we can play a large part in engaging our students in the learning process through personalization of tutorial sessions.

Who is Your Student?

Knowing your student is the obvious first step in building your tutoring around the student. What are their hobbies? What are their passions? What are their greatest desires? Greatest fears? Maybe you don’t have to go that deep, but if you have a basic understanding of what interests the student, you can find ways to creatively connect those interests to the topic at hand.

Customization

Once you have the student’s personality and interests in mind, it is time to get creative. You must now examine elements of the student’s interest in order to determine how it may possibly connect to the topic at hand. These elements could be anything loosely academic, such as math, science concepts, reading, or writing. There is usually something fundamentally academic about your student’s interest. For example, there are important biology concepts behind the hobby of gardening, and there is important statistical analysis to be had in the field of sociology. Once you have identified these aspects of the student’s interest, all that remains is to adapt them to the tutorial setting in a way that is relevant to what your student needs help with, and hopefully the gap will be bridged between their interest and their studies.

Some Examples

·       A student you are tutoring for math has an interest in philosophy. Try exploring the dense historical crossover between the two subjects. What did Pythagoras, the inventor of triangles, have to say about philosophy?

·       A physics student you are tutoring is also an athlete. Talk with them about the laws of physics necessary for their sport to be played as it is.

·       A creative writing student enjoys playing video games. With them, you can examine the rich narrative elements of popular video games, such as the characters, conflicts, and rhetorical devices used.

·       A chemistry student you are tutoring loves to bake. How do laws of chemistry make baking possible?

Relishing their Strengths – Be like Grimlock  by Annie Bautista

Just like Transformers take pride in their unique skills, tutors do too. Grimlock’s character is one of the stronger autobots who stands as a reminder for tutors to highlight strengths in themselves and their tutees. Here at our center, we utilize three measuring tools to highlight these strengths: MBTIs, Learning Inventories, and Multiple Intelligences.

Through these measurement assessments, tutors could find what skills each tutee possesses and in what areas they need help improving on. Tutors help them in breaking down concepts, offering studying hacks, and overall with motivating students to continue to grow in their learning abilities.

Students who sign up for weekly appointments can expect to see their tutors often. To ensure that those tutors meet their needs best, we like to use these forms to measure their strengths during our first meeting with them. The first form displayed is our Tutee Personal Assessment. In this form, students are presented with various statements about their knowledge of reading and writing, for example: “I know what a subject is,” and then be asked to rank how much they agree with that statement from 1 through 10. This helps us better understand their level of confidence as well as their basic skills.

The second form is our Tutee Learning Assessment. This form includes a link to a website, Personality Max, that provides their MBTI personality type and their Multiple Intelligence profiles.

The MBTI test provides students with a description of what personality type they have based on four different continuums: introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. Along with an MBTI type, students also receive information on their multiple intelligences, which include musical, intrapersonal, linguistic, naturalist, visual, interpersonal, logical, and kinesthetic. The results reveal to students their strengths and help them recognize where they could improve.

Creative Transformation – Be like Drift by Paula Rawlings

Tutors provide creative transformations during the tutoring session and in the tutoring center. Like Drift, who is part robot, sports car, and helicopter, tutors help tutees get serious work done, work quickly guide tutees in producing an awesome paper, and often drift–like a helicopter—from one task and tutee to another when there are more than two tutees in a group.

As tutors, we work like transformers, utilizing all our faculties to not only execute tasks our Autobot leader, Dr. Borofka, assigns us but also make the process as enjoyable as possible without destroying too much in our path. There are several tools we use to accomplish these duties as faithful autobot tutors…

Music: Yes, I know this is Bumblebee’s territory, but it soothes the soul and makes all Autobots look good as we chair dance to Lofi or get some serious work done while sick classical beats play in the background, but there are more ways to make the center and tutoring sessions fun.

Magnetic poetry: Ah yes, poetry, the hydraulic fluid to a transformer’s mechanical heart. Leave some magnetic word tiles on a board or fridge (or chest if yours is made of steel) for others to create magnetic poems.

Scrabble: We work in a reading and writing center. It makes sense. Leave a board, word tiles, and a dictionary on a table where new arrivals can sneak in a new word here and there throughout the day and week. It helps to build a larger vocabulary and stuff.

Taboo: This is a fun word game that helps to learn new ways of expressing ideas without using typical words and phrases to describe something.

Lastly, Mad Libs: Autobot tutors still need to practice their verbs, nouns, and adverbs. They might as well work on them with tutees in story form to expand their literary understanding and have a good laugh while at it. So try it. It’s fun, and one is provided on the following page.

*Remember, NOUNS are people, places, or things, like Drift, sky, and robot, and PLURAL NOUNS are more than one of these. VERBS are action words. PRESENT TENSE VERBS mean someone is doing something right now, like Drift, drifting, drive, driving, shapeshift, shapeshifting. PAST TENSE VERBS are actions that have already been done, like fought, crashed, and rusted. ADJECTIVES describe something, like metallic or stressed.

Drift's Mad Lib

(*All credit goes to a robot prompted by Paula Rawlings)

Drift, the _______________(Adjective) Autobot warrior, _______________ (Verb, past tense) into the college writing center, his _______________ (Noun) in hand. His usual battles involved _______________ (Plural Noun), but today, he faced an even greater foe: _______________ (Writing Challenge).

A _______________ (Adjective) tutor _______________ (Verb, past tense) up to him, holding a _______________ (Noun). "Welcome! How can I _______________ (Verb, present tense) you today?"

Drift _______________ (Verb, past tense) and set down his _______________ (Noun) with a _______________ (Adjective) sigh. "I am writing about _______________ (Scholarly Topic), but my _______________ (Plural Noun) lack _______________ (Abstract Noun)."

The tutor nodded, flipping through a _______________ (Adjective) _______________ (Noun) filled with _______________ (Plural Noun). "Have you tried _______________ (Writing Strategy)? It can help you _______________ (Verb, present tense) your ideas more effectively."

Drift’s optics _______________ (Verb, past tense) as he considered this. "Perhaps," he said, "but my instinct is to _______________ (Verb, present tense) straight into battle!" He _______________ (Verb, past tense) his _______________ (Noun) dramatically, nearly knocking over a stack of _______________ (Plural Noun).

The tutor _______________ (Verb, past tense) and pointed to a _______________ (Adjective) _______________ (Noun). "Try this exercise: _______________ (Verb, present tense) your argument using only _______________ (Number) sentences. It will force you to _______________ (Verb, present tense) your ideas."

After a _______________ (Adjective) session of _______________ (Writing Activity), Drift felt _______________ (Emotion). "Thank you, _______________ (Tutor Nickname)! Your wisdom is as sharp as my _______________ (Noun)."

The tutor _______________ (Verb, past tense). "Remember—writing, like battle, requires patience and strategy. And also, please _______________ (Verb, present tense) your sources properly." With newfound determination, Drift _______________ (Verb, past tense) out of the writing center, ready to conquer his next challenge: _______________ (College Struggle).