What is
tutoring?
A private tutor is a private instructor who teaches a specific educational subject or skill to an individual student or small group of students. Such attention allows the student to improve knowledge or skills far more rapidly than in a classroom setting. Tutors are often privately hired and paid by the student, the student's family or an agency. Many are used for remedial students or others needing special attention; many provide more advanced material for exceptionally capable and highly motivated students, or in the context of homeschooling. Tutelage is the process of being under the guidance of a tutor. Tutoring also occurs when one adult helps another adult student to study a specific course or subject that he/she is taking to get a better result. The adult can also let the student work on his own, and can be there if the student has any questions.
How to meet your tutor
Make sure that you speak with your tutor on the telephone before your first session. Since you are finding him/her online, you want to make sure that he/she is a legitimate tutor.
Do not be afraid to ask your tutor questions about himself/herself and his/her qualifications. You are going to be paying this person money to help you so you have the right to question his/her capabilities.
Do not rely on electronic communication to schedule your tutoring sessions. Online communication is often difficult to interpret.
Let someone know where you are going, who you are meeting, what his/her phone number is, and how you can be reached before you leave for the session.
If possible, have a parent or friend come with you to the first session to make sure you are in good hands.
When do you need tutoring?
The role of a tutor is to help you when your academic skills are not at the level you think they should be at. If one or all of the following indicators are true for you, there is a good chance that you need a tutor:
- You are having trouble keeping up in class
- You have difficulty completing class assignments in the allotted time period
- You have difficulty completing homework assignments. No matter how long you spend on homework,it's neither complete nor accurate. This may indicate a lack of basic skills or a weakness in a specific academic area.
- You feel that the other students are smarter than you are
- When your class is divided into groups, i.e. reading groups, you are consistently in the lowest group
- You consistently receive failing or below average grades independent of how hard you seem to be working, where before the grades were improving or holding steady. Your teacher or school counselor recommends it. This may happen at a parent-teacher conference. It may also occur when progress reports are issued, or at report card time.
- Caught in a cycle of frustration and failure, you show an increasing lack of confidence and motivation.
- You have lost interest in learning.
- You experience extreme anxiety before tests and exams.
- You are reluctant to go to school, fearing failure and criticism from others.
- Your teacher reports to your parents that you are acting out, becoming a behavior problem in your class.
- You say, "I'm too stupid. I'll never understand this stuff." You hear yourself say, "I give up".
There could be other reasons, however, that you are having trouble in school, rather than the need for a tutor. Perhaps you are under stress due to family concerns or illness. Or you may have a learning disability that you were never aware of. If you are questioning the reason for your academic problems, you may want to seek professional help to see what factors are truly contributing to your difficulties in school. If you are a parent, you know that nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what to do.
How to use your tutor
The tutor is not doing your assignments for you but only helping you to complete your work. Be honest with your tutor; ask him/her for assistance because you don't understand the problem, and not because you just don't feel like completing it.
It is important that you prepare for each session by completing all of the work that your tutor has assigned to you.
Keep a list of the problems you had difficulty completing, and any questions that may have arisen when you were doing the assignment. Make a list of questions that may have arisen while you were in class or while doing your homework for school. By doing this you will know exactly what to ask your tutor during the session.
Tutoring will only be effective if you do the work that is required both during and outside of tutoring sessions.
Bring all necessary supplies to your session such as your school notebook, textbooks, notes from past tutoring sessions, work assigned to you by your tutor, pens, pencils, extra paper, and any other supplies that you may need.