Tutoring Self Evaluation – Fall 2004

Below is the text of my tutoring self evaluation for this quarter. This is technically an internal document for use by the Center’s Director, but I see no problem with sharing it with everyone else.

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Tutoring Self Evaluation – Fall 2004
Peter Ellis

I have found that my tutoring this quarter has been a mess of questions combined with a series of realizations about my weaknesses in tutoring. The big thing I’ve noticed this quarter is the difference between program tutoring and drop-in tutoring. I’ve missed the personal connection that comes with being assigned to a particular program and tutoring the same assignments repeatedly; now, I’m forced to budget time trying to get a sense of what the actual assignment is. This is an odd issue in time management for me, since some people take five minutes just to tell me what they’re working on.

I have noticed a slight lack of confidence this quarter as well, since I have had to deal with situations where the advice I gave was often only given once. I rarely (if ever) got feedback on how a particular tactic or idea worked. I felt a little awkward at times recommending the same advice to others, since I had no idea of the advice had worked in previous circumstances or not. This is something I continue to struggle with, and I’m not entirely sure how to negate the effects of this.

Recognizing that tutoring is really an ongoing process of learning and tweaking strategies, it seems like my tool bag has remained much the same over the last quarter, with a few interesting new tricks added into it. I do wish, though, that I had more substantive information on grammar and the language to communicate with others about grammatical errors and quirks. I also feel a weakness surrounding my position in a tutoring session � I don’t always allow the student to run the session. It sometimes feels as if I am in control too much, which is something I have always struggled with.
In terms of my work as head of the Web Team, I feel as if we’ve made significant progress this quarter in developing a web presence. Some of that progress has been hard-gained, and it seems like perhaps more could have been done, but I’m satisfied with my work in that arena as a whole.

Looking ahead, I feel like I definitely need to work more on reviewing grammar and fine-tuning my communication skills. Next quarter, I hope to expand my knowledge of grammar by attending some of the Grammar Rodeo workshops. In addition, I hope to continue work on the web site so that it presents the Writing Center as a unique and creative space for writers on campus.

What Kind of Soul Are You?


You Are a Retrospective Soul




The most misunderstood of all the soul signs.
Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are.
You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life.
You’re best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor.Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily.
But if you aren’t careful, you’ll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes.
For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present.
You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life.

Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul

Woes of Comcast Cable

The story begins on a rainy day (like any other rainy day in Olympia, Washington), when I’m told by my soon-to-be-former roommate that, in order to retain ownership of the Comcast high-speed cable connection for my apartment, I need to go down to the Comcast offices in Olympia and present photo ID at their counters.

First reaction: bullshit. That’s so completely counterintuitive that it’s just not funny. After several hours worth of volleying e-mails back and forth trying to get online access to the Comcast account — “humor me and let me try online” (since my roommate has the passwords) — I give up and decide to go in today. “But I reserve the right to yell at someone,” I tell Amanda, “this is incredibly stupid.”

So I go to an appointment with a Writing Center tutor this morning, then help Amanda bring stuff back to the apartment. After that, we decide to catch friendly Intercity Transit’s route 47, going through Capital Medical Center and presumably right past Comcast’s customer service offices on Yauger Way SW. We get off a stop earlier than we had to and walk down the road to the Comcast offices, then walk in and wait for a couple minutes for a counter to clear up.

“Hi, I was told by a Comcast support representative that I needed to come down here and present photo I.D. in order to transfer ownership of a Comcast account.”

“What’s your phone number?” I give it to the woman at the counter. “We don’t have a record of that phone number.” Well, of course you don’t, my roommate opened the account. “Do you know that phone number?” No, he recently changed that phone number. “Do you have the address?” Yeah. Here you go. “Where’s your roommate?”

Well, at this point, I felt like perhaps I should be shoved into a back room with one light over a table and have Comcast support techs screaming questions in my face, just like a real interrogation.

“He’s not here.”

“Well, we can’t do that without the roommate here. We can call him.”

“We don’t know that phone number.”

A couple minutes pass with conversation going roughly in the same direction.

“Well, we can’t transfer your account because you have Comcast high-speed internet and we can’t transfer those.”

WHY COULDN’T YOU SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?

“Well, we can start you with a new Comcast account, but you’ll have to pay fees. Oh, and you’ll have to return the modem.”

“Why do we have to return the modem?”

“It’s leased.” Oh. “If you promise to bring back the modem, we’ll give you a new install kit and a new modem right now.”

Well, it’s not my problem to return the old modem, so.. “Yeah, okay.”

After about another five minutes of exchanging information and waiting for the woman to give us the modem and wish us a happy holidays, we catch the bus back.

Part II: Installing the Freaking Modem

We get home and I try to check my e-mail, only to find that, in order to start my account, they shut the current one down immediately. Okay, no problem, I was going to have to unplug the modem after I checked my e-mail anyway, so that just made me skip a step. With Amanda’s help, we install a cable splicer, plug in the modem, reboot my laptop into Windows XP Professional, and put in the Comcast install CD. After a few false starts, everything starts alright and goes through the setup, right up until we need to select a user name.

“System Error . . .”

Apparently, the service for initializing user names was unavailable. Okay, no problem. We restart the install, go through the process again, and get right back to that error.

Argh.

Now I restart the install again, and, lo and behold, I can’t even start the install anymore — the install CD can’t contact Comcast’s registration servers.

Now I’m getting a little annoyed, Amanda picks up the phone and calls Comcast, and after being passed around a bit, we get a technician who knows something about our situation.

“Plug in these proxy settings into Internet Explorer. Now, go to this internet address and try to register that way.” We do, and we get to the same user name screen and the same error we had on the CD. “Hold on,” I can imagine the tech saying as she puts Amanda on hold. Some conversation ensues, and a few minutes later the tech picks up again.

“Does this user name ring a bell?”

“Why, yes, yes it does.” Apparently, our original user name request went through, but the install system didn’t want to tell us about it. After a couple more minutes, a modem restart, a system restart, and another internet test, it works fine and we hang up with Comcast.

But now I had to deal with the router. I switch cables around, turn on my wireless connection, clone the MAC address with the router, and retry the internet. Whoops, I cloned the wrong address. I go back, type in the correct MAC address, then restart the modem again.

And that’s how I’m now paying setup fees and monthly fees for Comcast.

Bus Systems and Alternative Fuels

By way of Green Car Congress’ article, Seattle: Diesel Hybrid Buses with GM Drive Falling Short on Fuel Economy, I’ve learned a little about King County’s Metro Transit bus lines that I didn’t know before. Metro isn’t particularly unique in Western Washington for using hybrids; Olympia’s Intercity Transit runs at least one electric-gas hybrid bus, and most of their buses are fuelled with biodiesel. According to their Meet the Fleet page, they use 435,889 gallons of biodiesel and 92,779 gallons of gasoline per year; through simple arithmetic, 83% of the fuel they use is biodiesel. Certainly nothing to cough at.

Intercity Transit also provides more information on their Environment pages.

Winter Class and Work Schedules

Class Schedule for The Novel: Life and Form

Mon: 9:00AM – 12:00PM
Tue: 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Wed: 9:00AM – 12:00PM
Thu: 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Fri: 9:00AM – 12:00PM

Requested Work Hours for Winter 2005

Sun: No hours (0)
Mon: 2:00PM – 6:00PM (4)
Tue: 2:00PM – 6:00PM (4)
Wed: No hours (0)
Thu: 1:00PM – 6:00PM (5)
Fri: No hours (0)

The Winter 2005 work hours are subject to approval. Those hours also include three hours of work time on the Writing Center’s web site. That makes 16 hours/week of work.

No more class!

The title says it — no more class days remaining in Fall Quarter. The quarter itself isn’t over yet, though — I still have an evaluation appointment with my faculty late Wednesday. I have a meeting earlier that day, so I may just stay on campus and read or something. I’m also working on the 17th on the Writing Center’s web site to try and clear stuff that’s been sitting on my to do list all quarter.

All my books, with the exception of one, have been ordered for next quarter’s program, The Novel: Life and Form. I already contacted the faculty for that one, Thad Curtz, via e-mail to get a sense of reading order, and I know where to start. I’ll probably try not to read more than one of the books before the class starts, though — I don’t want to risk reading so far ahead that I don’t remember the book by the time I have to be able to talk about it.

Perhaps I’ll post some of my writings from this quarter online…

Winter 2005

Winter 2005
Dec 06, 2004 06:45
Total Credit Hours: 16.000

Novel Life and Form – PRGM NOVEL 01
Associated Term: Winter 2005
CRN: 20039
Status: **Web Registered** on Dec 06, 2004
Assigned Instructor: Thad Curtz
Grade Mode: Credit/No Credit
Credits: 16.000
Level: Undergraduate
Campus: Olympia

Another quarter almost down the tubes…

Hearts and Minds

Hearts and Minds is an Academy Award-winning documentary released in 1974 (1hr 52min) that is openly critical of the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. I decided to pick it up from Netflix and watch it again after viewing it once in class.

The film is a collection of interview clips and B-roll film put together in an astoundingly shocking way to tell the story of the real nature of the Vietnam War. Some background from the film itself (and some not): by 1954, the United States had become involved in Indochina (otherwise known as Vietnam) by financing 78% of France’s war against Indochina. As a colony of the French leadership, Vietnam was fighting for its independence against the French and, later, against the United States. The United States then went on to continue the counter-revolution against Vietnam through the Vietnam War, which really started with our subsidizing of the French-Indochina battles. The population of the United States was told that we were fighting against an evil called Communism; Noam Chomsky explains that

“Communists” is a term regularly used in American political theology to refer to people who are commutted to the belief that “the government has direct responsibility for the welfare of the people.” I’m quoting the words of a 1949 State Department intelligence report which warned about the spread of this grim and evil doctrine . . .

— Noam Chomsky, Intervention in Vietnam and Central America: Parallels and Differences (1985); reprinted in The Chomsky Reader, James Peck, ed., 1987; ISBN 0-394-75173-6, page 319

The title of the documentary is from a statement by former President Lyndon Johnson:

“So we must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there.”

— Lyndon Johnson

Interestingly, the phrase “hearts and minds” is also being used in the current war on terrorism in much the same manner.

There is a very famous scene in the documentary showing two US soldiers taking advantage of two Vietnamese call girls, twisting their nipples and trying to convince them to cooperate; one soldier is quoted as saying “If my chick at home could see this now, man, she’d flip.”

The very next scene is a soldier lighting a straw roof on fire and escorting the men away, with helicopters firing on huts in rice paddies.

The contrast between these two scenes is stunning: first, we have U.S. soldiers treating Vietnamese women as nothing more then toys, then we have the destruction of Vietnamese homes and lives, also by U.S. soldiers. The implication here is that we regarded life in Vietnam as subhuman. This is backed up by a quote later in the movie from one Lieutenant George Coker, a former Prisoner of War in Vietnam. Coker is speaking to a group of schoolchildren, and is asked what Vietnam looked like. He replies: “What did Vietnam look like. Well, if it wasn’t for the people, it was very pretty. Uh, the people over there are very backward and very primitive. And they just make a mess out of everything.”

Probably the most compelling quote from the entire movie, for me, was from Daniel Ellsberg: “We weren’t on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.” To me, this also epitomizes most U.S. wars (peace actions, interventions, etc.) since Vietnam: the U.S. has consistently been the wrong side. This holds true in Iraq as well. One could very easily make a documentary about our attacks on Iraq and have it look a lot like Hearts and Minds.

The final scene in the movie is a clip from an interview of Randy Floyd, a Vietnam veteran. When asked “Do you think we’ve learned anything from all this?”, referring to the war, he replies:

I think we’re trying not to. I think I’m trying not to sometimes. I can’t even cry easily. From my, uh, my manhood image. I think Americans have tried–we’ve all tried very hard to escape what we’ve learned in Vietnam, to not come to the logical conclusions of what’s happened there. You know, the military does the same thing. They don’t realize that, um.. people fighting for their own freedom are not gonna be stopped by just changing your tactics, adding a little bit more sophisticated technology over here, improving the tactics we used last time, not making quite the same mistakes. Uh, you know, I think history operates a little different than that. And I think that those kind of forces are not gonna be stopped. I think Americans have worked extremely hard not to see the criminality that their officials and their policy makers have exhibited.

Overall, this is one of the most influential documentaries I’ve ever seen. I’d highly recommend it to anyone trying to understand Vietnam or our current actions in Iraq.