Tips For Tutors a Blog by Lainey Bloom

3/11/22

Welcome To My Blog
Hello to my lovely followers and any newcomers! Welcome to my weekly blog,
“Tips for Tutors” where I describe my experience as a college writing tutor and the
strategies I have
learned from experts in
education, psychology
and writing. This week's
blog post is very special
as I have had the
privilege to hear a
panel of writing tutors
advocate for
meditation practices in
college writing centers. For this blog post I really want to focus in on the
conversation that was had between these like-minded individuals. As most of you
reading my blog are writing tutors, I want to give you the opportunity to express
your opinions in the comments. After reading this in depth description of how
mindfulness can benefit tutors and students, let me know if this is something you
would support.
I am always very excited to attend and learn from tutoring workshops and
writing conferences. I love sharing my experiences with you in this blog and
learning even more from your responses. The conference I attended was called
“Mindful Tutors; Meditation in the Writing Center” and was held at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. I believe that writing tutors hold the responsibility of
supporting their students emotionally and academically. Coming to this
conference I wanted to learn strategies such as meditation to establish this
support and inform other tutors through this blog. This most recent panel
discussion really opened my eyes to how mindfulness can create authentic,
meaningful relationships between tutor and tutee. I learned many ways in which
mindfulness creates a non-stressful learning environment. I want to use this blog
to recap the most important information I learned from the conference and bring
the conversation to you all.
Getting into the Nitty-Gritty of the Conversation
The conference consisted of a panel of four experts who came together to
present their experiences and opinions on mindfulness in writing centers. I
arrived at the venue at UCSB, took my seat and waited patiently for the first
writing tutor to begin speaking. Lynn Briggs, an
elderly woman with long flowing hair and a very
calming presence was the first to jump start the
conversation. I was excited to hear from Lynn as
I had read her book, Stories From the Center.
This book gave me a lot of tips on how to
naturally connect with students. She began by
communicating the power and importance of
writing centers. She inspired me and all of the
other writing center consultants in the
audience. Hopefully this recap of her words will
inspire you as well. Lynn grabbed our attention
as she stated how the connections made in writing centers can be healing to
both the reader and the writer (Briggs,1). I became very pleased as I could already
tell that this panel of speakers was going to make a strong impact on me as a
tutor. Lynn Briggs shared a moving story about how she was able to make an
emotional connection with a writing center student by embracing meditative
qualities into her tutoring. Briggs was able to clear her mind and pay attention to
her student with meditative awareness. She found a flow during the writing
session that allowed her and her student to peacefully and organically let ideas
come to them. They didn’t have to force thoughts onto the page when they
allowed themselves to converse about the writing content (Briggs,11). Briggs
explained that with mindful attention, she was able to gently guide her writer to
an “aha” moment.
Magin Gregg, a very experienced writing center tutor from Louisiana, joined
in and expressed that he related to Lynn Briggs' story. He explained that through
meditating everyday he was able to connect to his students without a hierarchical
barrier between tutor and tutee. Magin said that he began speaking to his
students freely and unscripted just as Lynn had described. Magin’s newfound
practice of mindfulness helped him to relate to his students as people and peers
coming together to create flow in writing (Gregg, 4). He no longer shut down his
own ideas while tutoring. He accepted the thoughts that came to him when he
allowed time to relax and breathe. I appreciated how the speakers built off of one
another in this discussion and felt free to jump into the conversation at any time.
Getting into the Psychology
Lynn Briggs’ story and Magin Greggs’ input showed me how important it is
to keep an open mind during tutoring sessions in order to find flow with my
students. Even with this gained insight I was left with many questions on how
mindfulness meditation could benefit tutoring sessions. I was almost feeling
dismayed at the lack of answers I had gotten but my attitude quickly turned
around when Sarah Johnson joined in on
the conversation. Sarah was a younger
college writing tutor who I related more to
than Lynn and Magin. She had a more
modern, scientific perspective from her
experiences as a writing tutor at the
University of Texas. Sarah told the
audience that Lynn’s book had inspired
her to research the benefits of mindfulness
in tutoring. She thanked Lynn for
expressing her story because it showed the
natural connection between writing and
meditation. She said she wanted to dive
deeper into the psychological benefits of
meditation in the writing center context. Sarah wanted to show us how
mindfulness meditation can help tutors create a de-stressful writing center
environment. She explained that mindfulness can open up the mental capacity
students need to write and tutors need to listen. Using studies from psychology,
she described how students and tutors have less memory capacity and room to
listen when they are feeling high stress levels. (Johnson) She then explained how
her studies show that mindfulness meditation can counteract this stress
(Johnson). Sarah impressed us and her fellow speakers as she presented visual
slides that described the Cognitive Load Theory. This theory proves how the mind
has less memory capacity when it is overwhelmed with too much information at
once (Johnson). Sarah reeled in her argument, stating that meditation can help
relieve anxiety, low-self esteem and improve attention span (Johnson). All of this,
she said, creates a better experience during tutoring sessions for both tutors and
tutees.
Gregg Magin chimed in and told the audience he resonated with Sarah’s
ideas on having tutors practice meditation. He had done this himself and
experienced the benefits firsthand. He believed that he could provide a personal
account of Sarah’s scientific findings.
With daily meditation practice he felt
his attention span was better during
tutoring sessions and that he could
really hear the details of his students'
concerns (Magin,3). Lynn Briggs also
praised Sarah’s work and said taking
moments to pause and de-stress is
what led her to come up with ideas in
tutoring sessions that she would have
never had (Briggs). At this point the
writing consultants in the audience started whispering to each other. We all felt a
little uncomfortable with taking on this role as writing tutors. I wanted to gain the
most information to write this blog so I decided to ask the panel a few questions. I
asked them how a general writing center consultant would be qualified to
practice mindfulness with their students. I also questioned if this meditation
practice was similar to the job of a wellness counselor.
Jared Featherstone, a panel member and writing tutor, answered my
question. He first introduced himself by saying that like Sarah Johnson, he had
studied the psychological benefits of mindful tutoring using his own survey based
studies. He really wanted to make it clear that the role of a tutor is separate from
the role of a counselor. Jared described how tutors must be properly taught how
to guide or introduce meditations. He taught me that experience in this practice
is crucial in order for tutors to skillfully support their tutees and create a positive
learning environment (Featherstone). Jared suggested that we follow the example
of his writing center by creating a meditation training program that tutors can
participate in. This training consists of meditation as well as evidence of its
benefits from neuroscience and psychology. This is to ensure that the trainees
see the credibility of the findings. Jared was very confident in this method as he
had performed his own study where 74% of tutors felt that meditation training
improved their teaching and collaboration skills (Featherstone). Sarah added how
the mindfulness strategies she was advocating for are always offered to tutors
and tutees as optional experiences so that no one feels pressured to do
something they are uncomfortable
with. She explained that this way
mindfulness doesn’t come off as a
counseling session to the students
(Johnson). I felt at ease with these
responses and I am now motivated
to advocate for meditation training
in my writing center. I definitely
agree with letting meditation be
optional to students and tutors. I
would also always advise using clear
evidence to lay out the psychological benefits mindfulness has for teaching and
learning.
Using Meditation in the Writing Center
With a lull in the discussion, another audience member asked the panel
what meditation practices would look like in the writing center and how a tutor
would carry them out. I had been wondering the same thing as I was inspired to
use these mindfulness practices but wouldn’t know where to start. Magin Gregg
once again jumped at the opportunity to explain his techniques with mindfulness
as a writing center tutor. He prefaced that he was mainly going to be discussing
his personal experiences with mindful tutoring. To answer the audience member’s
question he described that he has his students write in a journal to contemplate
the intentions of their writing. He also has them perform meditative practices
such as walks and breathing patterns to embrace their emotions when it comes
to writing (Gregg,5). Magin added that he advises his students to use these
strategies when they lack confidence in their writing skills (Gregg,5). Jared
Featherstone spoke up in agreement and added how tutors practicing
mindfulness are more aware of students' poor self esteem about writing. Jared
also said that students who practice mindfulness will be able to change their own
negative attitude more easily (Featherstone). Magin seemed pleased that he had
Jared’s support from the field of psychology.

Wrapping up
All four guest speakers came together to conclude that their unified goal
was to inspire us to include contemplation and meditation practices in our
writing centers. They wanted us to be able to engage with our students in more
supportive ways. Featherstone passed out many pamphlets to meditation
trainings we could try and even opportunities to become certified meditation
teachers. After the discussion I looked back at all of my notes and tried to digest
everything I had learned. The discussion showed me how the older writing center
tutors, Lynn and Magin, laid out an initial less concrete form of mindful tutoring. I
compared this to the younger tutors, Sarah and Jared, who had a more clear
plan of integrating mindfulness into tutoring. They both used psychology as
evidence. The overall topic struck me as very beneficial to writing centers. As you
all know, having a warm and welcoming environment is a crucial aspect of
learning. I definitely feel inspired to join a
meditation class and introduce mindfulness to
my writing center. I also want to spread
awareness on these benefits which is why I am
now sharing my experience with all of you!
I came into the conference having a slight
understanding of how meditation helps mental
health. I didn’t understand how impactful it
could be to build connections between tutor
and tutee. I learned how mindfulness prepares
the mind to write and listen without force. I am
hoping all of you writing tutors were able to
gain knowledge from my experience and these wise speakers. I truly believe
mindfulness in any form could benefit your experiences as tutors. This writing
conference left me curious about mindfulness in the broader aspect of all
education. I am thinking about making a specialized blog series on my further
research into meditation and education. This would be focused more on
psychology and teaching behaviors so please comment if you would be interested
in reading this! Thank you all for supporting “Tips For Tutors” and don’t forget to
comment your thoughts on these guest speakers’ arguments as well as your own
experiences with meditation in tutoring.

Tips For Tutors; Weekly How To

Find a Quiet Space. For ten minutes a day choose a mindfulness script to listen
to. Always come back to the breath!

Sign up for a mindfulness meditation program! Find meditation teachers in your

local area to come and guide a meditation in your writing center.

Talk to your tutees about their potential interest in practicing mindfulness during
tutoring sessions.
 Works Cited
Briggs, Lynn. “Understanding ‘Spirit’ in the Writing Center.” The Writing Center
Journal, vol. 19, no. 1, 1998, pp. 87-98. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43442637
Featherstone, Jared; Rodolfo Barrett; Maya Chandler. (2019, January 15). The
Mindful Tutor. In Johnson, Karen G.; Ted Roggenbuck (Eds.), How We Teach
Writing Tutors: A WLN Digital Edited Collection.
https://wlnjournal.org/digitaleditedcollection1/Featherstoneetal.html
Gregg, Magin LaSov. (2010). Seeking the spiritual: An adaptation of contemplation
and discernment in the writing center. Writing Lab Newsletter 34.7, 1-5.
https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives.php
Johnson, Sarah. “Mindful Tutors, Embodied Writers: Positioning Mindfulness
Meditation as a Writing Strategy to Optimize Cognitive Load and
Potentialize Writing Center Tutors Supportive Roles .” Praxis: A Writing
Center Journal • Vol. 15, No. 2, 2018.