#tutoring tips

So, one popular student job is private tutoring. I’ve been tutoring for quite a while now and I’ve picked up a few tricks. When I started I was spending hours prepping lessons and it honestly took ages, but I can now plan a lesson in about 15-20 mins.

One thing I’ve found that’s very useful is the teaching resources at tes.com. There are powerpoints and questions for almost anything, and my approach is generally to download some of their resources for a topic, say Simple Harmonic Motion, and then I tend to paste them into a powerpoint, then find a set of exam questions or similar, and put them onto the same powerpoint at the end, then I write down the answers on a piece of paper I’ll have near me during the lesson.

I also look on the specific exam specifications and then cut and paste / screenshot and then put it into the second slide (after the lesson-title slide) so we know our lesson objectives at the start. This way both you and the student have in the back of your mind what it is you need to learn, ie. you’re Learning Objectives.

I often leave a blank slide or two in the middle, so I can write on it in the session (I use an online tutoring agency so I upload it to a lesson space where you have a set of slides and then on the right hand side I have the video).

Then, at the end of the lesson I have the last slide with the Learning Objectives from the start of the lesson and work out which bits we have achieved, which bits we might want to continue next week, and make some suggestions like “you could have a look at these before next lesson” - but my advice would be never said ‘should’ because you’re there to help them, but not tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing because you don’t know what other stresses and subjects there are going on in your tutees life and just pointing them in the direction might actually make them more inclined to have a look because they don’t feel pressured into doing something before the next session. Help don’t hinder!

Also, making sure you save this to your computer or Google Drive, because if you happen to be teaching this topic / specification again I can just use the same slides.

Now, I’m a tutor. I never studied it, I’m a high school graduate who was looking to earn some money to pay for driving lessons so their parents wouldn’t have to. But somehow I apparently got better results than any adult that taught those kids before. So here’s what I learned.

People know the things that make them comfortable in learning. They know them better than me. On my first lesson with any student, I make it very clear that this is not school, and if there’s anything that makes them feel more focused, be it music, or playing with their pencils, or drumming on the table or anything at all, they can do it. So one of my students always fidgets with her pencil. Another student I had would mix cards. One had the tv on as background noise.

Learn different ways to do the same thing. Not every method of teaching works for every student, and sometimes I had to go through five different ways of explaining the same assignment before my student got the idea. That’s okay and natural. Everyone’s brains work differently.

Learn not just how to do something, but why. Especially important if you teach maths. Teachers don’t actually teach what Pi means until high school, and sometimes not even then, when you use Pi since 6th grade. For most of my students, learning what Pi actually meant made it a lot easier to study circles and learn the formulas related to them. So many other formulas too. When you teach your students the “Why”, it can help them make sense out of the “How”. It doesn’t always work, but in many cases it does so it’s worth it.

If there’s a difficulty somewhere, try playing with outside factors. The problem might be somewhere different than you think. In the year I’ve been doing this, I met kids that told me “I hate reading, I can’t do it” (I teach most of my students English as a second language, so it’s usually English where I encounter it, but I got it in Hebrew too). But the simple act of moving the text to Word, dividing it to smaller paragraphs and changing the font to something more comfortable to read (you’d be surprised how nice Comic Sans can be to read), made a huge difference. She’s thriving. No, it didn’t solve all the problems. She still has a very small vocabulary, but all of a sudden she can read. She doesn’t mix the letters as much as she did. She doesn’t skip lines or struggle with words she knows as much as she used to.

Divide the studying time. I work on full hour basis, and some of my students take an hour and a half, or two hours. Divide studying times.If you have multiple subjects, divide your lesson into different parts. If you have only one subject, allow short breaks. I let my students complain about their school experience. I share some of mine with them. I let them tell me about their day or week while we’re working, or when we take a break. Maybe this works just because I’m closer to their age, but I seriously doubt that, because I used to do the same with my seventy years old piano teacher.

Shorten the studying time if you need. Leave something in the end that your student actually likes as a reward. Like, we studied boring maths for a whole hour? Let’s finish with thirty minutes of talking about black holes, cause holy shit they’re cool. The subjects are endless. In those end segments, I already discussed god and biblical stories, Greek myths, black holes, hemophilia and how Queen Victoria almost killed all of Europe’s monarchies, axolotls, water bears, and platypuses (she didn’t know they were a real thing. She thought they’re something Phineas and Ferb invented). This Sunday I’m planning a short lesson about the immune system and vaccines (we didn’t get to do them in a while because of tests).

Music is the best way to learn a language. When I teach 6th graders English, I let them analyse Beatles songs. That way they enjoy music while also learning vocabulary and grammar. Disclaimer on this one: Queen songs are NOT good for this. They’re for older students to learn English. Not for 6th graders.

Can’t believe I have to say that, but don’t talk over your students. Be on their level. Kids learn a lot better when you are their equal instead of an authority figure. Humanise yourself. Tell them about a failure you had in the subject you’re studying, cause they’re most likely failing the subject now and are terrified that you’ll judge them.

While we’re at it, establish that you’re never going to judge them for failing, not understanding or asking questions. You’ll need to remind them every lesson that if there’s anything they don’t understand they need to stop you and ask, and you’ll never judge them. No matter how stupid they think their question is, no matter how many times they asked it, it’s okay and you’ll be happy to explain it again.

Don’t let your students say “I can’t do it”. A kid that says “I can’t do it”, or “I’m just not good at it”, is a student who is giving up. Change that way of thinking. Turn “I’m not good at it” into “we didn’t find the right way to do it yet”. When they say “I can’t do it”, point at a similar assignment that they already completed, and say “I don’t know about you, but this makes me think you can definitely do it”. Let them know you believe in their abilities. Challenge them to think that they can do it.

While answering an assignment, ask the student to tell you everything that comes to their mind. No matter how stupid they think it is, ask them to tell you their first thought. I learned that often those first thoughts, and the entire thought process, are really close to what needs to be done. They just need to look at it differently.

Sometimes, you won’t be able to teach. Accept that. In some lessons, your student will be unfocused, or bothered by something else, or distressed after something happened in their life. Maybe they had a fight with their siblings, maybe they have a relative who isn’t doing so well, maybe they had drama in their friend group. It happens. It’s out of your control. Try your best to help them focus, but accept that maybe you won’t succeed. Accept that maybe they’ll need to just vent it all, or they won’t be cooperative, or they’ll take their anger and frustration out on you (especially relevant in younger students). It happens. Don’t let them take their anger out on you, but don’t get angry back. Be kind and patient. Even if you didn’t manage to teach anything that lesson, you might be able to help a little, and that matters just as much if not more.

For the love of everything that is good, back your student up in front of their parents! If the parent belittle’s the child’s achievements while the three of you are together, tell them that you think they’re making a great effort and improving very well. If it was a hard lesson, and you didn’t manage to learn a lot, say you decided to give them a break in studying in order to learn to understand them better, so the next lessons would be more beneficial to all of you. Don’t get me wrong, if the kid doesn’t make an effort it’s a whole other story, and you should make the parents aware that there is a problem (still, without pointing fingers and shaming your student, and with as much subtlety and gentleness possible). But back your student up in front of their parents. Let them feel that if their parents are pressuring them too much, they have some form of authority that says “yes, things aren’t as good as we’d like them to be, but your efforts and improvements are recognised and appreciated”. If possible, help the parent acknowledge and recognise the improvement and effort.

Dont assume that your student is neurotypical!!! Please, don’t assume that your student is neurotypical, because if you do, you won’t be able to recognise the signs that they might not be. And if you don’t recognise the signs, you won’t know to help them. Many kids who need tutoring are ND. I suspect the majority of my students are ND. If I didn’t look for the signs I know (being ND myself and learning in a class full of other ND people), I wouldn’t have been able to help them study the way I did. According to their parents, I managed to help them in a way no other tutor ever did. One of my students’ grades in English jumped from 60 to 100 after two lessons, just two, because I knew how to approach the problems differently, in a way that would help and make sense for her.

With the advent of faster internet and connectivity, online tutoring has become a great source for students and parents to access great tutors. Here are three tips shared by our mentor Ramana Gogula for anyone that teaches online:

Tip 1: Be Super Engaging - Nothing beats a tutor being physically present, online tutoring is way less engaging than a tutor being physically present. A tutor must practice being attentive and find creative ways to be super engaging.

Tip 2: Be Super Patient With Technology - Technology is great but, not always reliable, especially in rural parts of India. It is no one’s fault if a wind storm disturbs one’s internet connection. A tutor must be super patient with technology and give students, benefit of doubt with technical issues. 

Tip 3:  Be Super Pleasant - A positive vibe leads to positive results. It is often tough for students to open up with the tutor, more so when the classes are online. A positive vibe and empathy can help a tutor understand the student better and help fill the gaps. 

These days, online information explosion has behoove a voice part in connection with coaching inflowing colleges and schools. It is the champion way in relation with teaching extracurricular and book-minded subjects in contemplation of students. However, digital world has not been able to overtone subjects like mathematics to brother an bulk. <\p>

Tough proposition do class teachers fail over against build the concepts concerning students?<\p>

Mathematics is parallel to physical world. This subject is very much needed to build a splendid flounce. However, before teaching mathematics to a student, the educator must create a good educational environment. At this juncture, teachers are roger pressurized to complete the vast syllabi entryway a abstemious period as for time. <\p>

This is the main reason why they are not fitted headed for invest comfortable time headed for school every critic individually. If the pathfinder offers limited amount of assistance, the students fixity of purpose not a speck establish mathematical concepts easily. Every student has a unequable learning style. Hence, many in relation with them are not able to understand the concepts, which are delivered in standardized manner. <\p>

Get with it the problem initially<\p>

In case, your children proclaim missed something in the class and not able in transit to develop good foundation in the subject, not an illusion could affect their future studies. If their garbling in a particular topic is not cleared, it will make their performance dull. <\p>

Not only this, many students contest their coordination to understand a topic and consider themselves mediocre as compared in their classmates. Poor knowledge in mathematics resolution surely decrease their grades far out unlike subjects insomuch as spout.<\p>

Consider blowhole for a solution<\p>

At present, once subconscious self travail identified the problematic areas about your youth, i have to find well-timed solutions. You could consult passionate teachers, who believe in enhancing the knowledge speaking of your child. Many students are comfortable studying with the help of online resources. <\p>

You could also search for free math tutoring online videos passing reunion networking sites like YouTube. You could use them to increase your knowledge about a event subject. <\p>

How till select an online tutorial<\p>

Rather selecting any online tutoring site for your child, myself have headed for go wound up heterogeneous parameters. See whether number one have an efficient guy service saving where the representatives could clarify your doubts 24\7. <\p>

Exclusive of this, check whether the tutors pass on understand your child's learning prevailing taste, needs and area of difficulty and provide lessons therefore. They use e-Classrooms to help you to understand a concept better. The top train students in virtue of topics in other words pre-calculus, disequalization, differential equations, algebra, and basic mathematics too. <\p>

Before proceeding ahead of time added to any tutor, you could check-<\p>

· Experience in the field of mathematics<\p>

· Their qualifications - envision whether they drag down done masters ocherous PhD in mathematics<\p>

· Hold at bay whether they offer free sessions so as to the students.<\p>

· Check what level of instructions they offer their students<\p>

Tutoring Image via Shutterstock

Choosing the perfect tutor can be daunting. Whether you’re hiring a tutor to help your child get a boost in school or getting assistance for yourself with an advanced subject, you want to make sure you get the best possible match.

A private tutor can make learning tremendously easier. But with the wrong tutor, you could invest substantial amounts of money and time only to end up disappointed and not any smarter than when you started.

Be sure to ask these 7 questions before you get started, and you’ll be well on your way to a great tutoring experience: 

1. What’s your background in this subject?

Make sure your tutor knows what they’re going to be teaching you!

It’s easy to be impressed by a tutor with a Ph.D. or ten years of experience, but is that person with an advanced degree in Computer Science Algorithms really the best choice to teach you web design? Make sure your tutor is truly an expert on the exact subject you’re learning, not just a related one.

Ask your tutor about the subject you’re studying — and don’t be afraid to get specific. You can even show him or her a copy of your syllabus or textbook and ask them to confirm that they’re familiar with all the concepts.

This post originally appeared as a guest article in The Teachers Lounge as a summer guide to tutoring.

With the end of the school year, many of you may want to use your free time tutoring this summer. Yet it’s difficult to know how much to charge, or what average prices are by city. Here at Tutorspree, we've put together several pointers and statistics to guide you, so that you can begin getting students to tutor or even look for a tutor yourself.

1. What subjects do students look for most?

The most common subjects year-round are K-12 math, English, and (as a bit of a surprise) computer programming. For high-schoolers preparing to take SAT or ACT exams in the following school year, summer is also a popular time to seek test-prep tutoring. Many students also want to learn fun, recreational subjects – try teaching music, cooking, a foreign language, dance, or art.

2. How much should I charge?

In the end, this number is really up to you, but you should use the average prices in your area to gauge your final price. The cities that charge the most are New York, San Francisco, and Palo Alto at approximately $55/hour. If you’re in one of those areas, you can probably raise your price a bit. Meanwhile, Los Angeles averages just above $30/hour and Boston, a little more than $40/hour. The absolute minimum we’ve seen is $10/ hour. Take a look at the in-depth breakdown of average tutoring prices.

3. Where should I go to find students?

Because of the messy word-of-mouth system, it is usually difficult for students and parents to find a great tutor. Yet the reverse process of tutors looking for students is less complicated. It’s easier for tutors to showcase the wide range of subjects they can teach, than it is for students to look for specialized help on one subject. Having your tutor profile on Tutorspree makes it easy for students and parents to find you, look through your skills, and get in touch (sign up is free).

4. Where should the lessons take place?

It’s very common for lessons to take place in the student’s home. Other options are the local library, coffee shops, or whichever location the parents prefer.

5. How often should lessons take place?

One of the advantages of tutoring is that the day, time, and hours are built around your schedule. Some students may want to meet weekly, some only on weekends, some every other Tuesday. It’s best to decide on a fixed schedule and location (re: #4) from the beginning to prevent lessons from falling out.

6. A final pointer: Individual tutoring vs. teaching to a class

It's important to note that building trust with an individual student is easier and quicker than if you were teaching to a large class. From the start, it is important to get a picture of the student’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Tutoring then allows you to follow up continuously for student and parent feedback, and tailor your curriculum accordingly. You can also take note of what type of learner the student is (such as kinesthetic or auditory). Finally, as you would for a class, don’t forget to have fun! Incorporating jokes, funky-colored stationery, laughter, and stories are just some of the ways to make your lessons something to look forward to over the summer.