Decorum in Tutoring

29th November 2021
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Decorum in Tutoring

Category : Tutors

One reason that many if not most tutors go into tutoring in the first place is that you have a love of children or of youth and you not only love tutoring them but you love hanging around with them. Tutors are very often driven by an inner passion for their students and for the subject matter that is their primary reason for showing up to teach the children of others in the first place. It takes that kind of passion to overcome the many obstacles, difficulties and roadblocks that are thrown in the way of the tutoring process not to mention the low pay.

As a result tutors as a rule tend to be people driven more by passion and values than by money or even career advancement. Tutoring is a profession where you will see a tutor work for decades just tutoring algebra to 7th graders and never moving on. He or she is not stuck at that job level. That is just the nature of the tutoring profession because tutors at heart are driven to teach.

But it is important to know about decorum in tutoring as well. You enjoy your students and that warm relationship between tutor and student creates the chemistry that makes class time work so well. But there are limits to how much you can show your affection and areas you need to be aware of to avoid any appearance of impropriety between tutor and student. Some rules of behavior that must become as much a part of how you tick as your lesson plans and grading system are…

. Limit your expressions of friendliness to smiles and supportive statements about the student academically. Never compliment how a student looks or imply that you like or love a student even though the act of tutoring does generate warm relationships and emotions about your kids.

. If at all possible, never touch a student. This is a difficult rule to follow because the very act of being in the same classroom with 20-30 students for hours at a time makes physical contact hard to avoid. But limit intentional contact especially if it is to show affection. It can be misinterpreted way too easily.

. Watch your eyes, especially male tutors and especially in the junior high and high school grade levels. Students are very aware of the physical picture they present to the world. It is especially difficult to mind this rule when the girls in your class dress in a way that draws the eye even if you mean nothing by it. You have to develop almost a physical discipline to focus your eyes on the faces of the students you teach because even if you are thinking of something else entirely and your eyes rest somewhere that might be misunderstood, that can lead to trouble.

. Never be alone with a student of either gender. This is even more for your protection than it is for the protection of the student.

Many of these kind of decorum rules are to avoid the possibility of being falsely accused of some form of inappropriate behavior. Sadly because there has been widely publicized inappropriate behavior between students and tutors, good tutors everywhere have had to learn to live in this austere way because overzealous parents, fellow tutors, volunteers or even students can see something and decide to make an issue of it. And once something like that gets started, it is very difficult to stop.

17th November 2021
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The Brass Tacks About Tutoring

Like any job, tutoring children is often idealized and romanticized by young people preparing for a career in education. Then once the reality of what life is like as a tutor hits, it can come as a rude shock. This does not mean that the ideals and values of tutoring the next generation of youth and the great thrill of seeing a young mind come alive with knowledge are not wonderful and worthy of respect and praise. In truth, anyone who makes it in the field of tutoring must have that idealism that is a deep part of your motivation system because it will be those values that will help you get past the hard times that tutoring, particularly in a public school situation often brings with a job of tutor.

But along with the values and ideals, we need to mix that inner drive with a strong dose of reality so that when you show up for your first day and work through your first year of tutoring, you are not broadsided by some of the challenges and frustrations that lie ahead. A few moments talking about the brass tacks of a tutoring career can help you prepare for the negatives so they are less potent and less able to stop you from being a success in your tutoring career.

Probably one of the areas of tutoring that often causes high tutor stress and burn out is the level of government regulation and the extent that the administration of a school gets in the way of the tutoring process. Many times in public school it almost seems like education is of a lesser value than paying attention to rules and regulations and maintaining order and discipline in the school.

When you come to that tutoring position with priority placed on tutoring students the subject matter at hand and see them begin to excel academically and you find academics taking a back seat to the schools administrative issues, to discipline issues and to what seems to be a nonstop flood of forms and requirements for every governmental program imaginable, that can cause frustration about the job you have taken in that school.

Under funding of education probably ranks second greatest frustration with the working world of tutoring. This lack of funding is evident in your pay and in how well the classes you need to teach are funded. You may not have the supplies you need and many tutors actually find themselves buying supplies from their own money just to make sure their tutoring is successful. That is the contrast between the public’s lack of substantial support for education and your deep commitment to it. But the funding issue can also result in overcrowding of classrooms because the school cannot afford more classrooms or sufficient number of tutors to handle a high student population.

The third problem that often broadsides new tutors is that many students are not the angels we wish they would be. Especially in a public school setting, you will have in every class some students who don’t care about academics and would rather disrupt the class than allow you to teach those who do want to learn. It takes some real experience and some coaching from experienced tutors in how to handle this kind of student but at least be aware that they will be in your classroom day one and all year long.

It takes some innovative thinking and almost stubborn insistence on staying positive to be a successful tutor under circumstances like this. But if you keep your focus on the kids and on those moments that do come in each school year when you really connect with students and you see them get excited about what you are sharing, that one moment makes dealing with all of the other frustrations entirely worth it.

16th November 2021
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Good Reasons to be a Tutor

Tags : part time tutoring jobs pune tutor FAQ tutoring jobs

Category : Part time Teaching Jobs , Tutor FAQ

The tutoring profession is a unique career field in a lot of ways. Because you are taking on the challenge of educating children or teenagers, along way you will become very much a part of their society with all the positive and negatives that go with that. Its for that reason that before you make even the first step toward making tutoring your career, its good to examine your motivations to make sure you have good reasons to teach.

The downsides of tutoring are well known. Tutoring historically does not pay well, particularly if you teach at the public school level. You can find niche situations that pay well like working for a wealthy private school, tutoring or working for a “for profit” tutoring operation. But by and large, you don’t go into tutoring for the money.

That said it is also true that if you are a good tutor and your resume is strong, you can expect strong job security. There is always a need for good tutors. Unlike going into business, you do not have to make your employer profitable to be a success tutoring. You are judged in lives and in the results of your tutoring that is evidenced in the grades and strong academics of your students. If you can learn to teach young minds and bring them wisdom and knowledge, you will have a job for life.

Many people go into tutoring because they love the academic environment. For those who grieved the closing of each school year and who never wanted to leave high school and then college, tutoring lets you take up residence in that part of society that fits your personality so well. To those who have no idea how the calling to teach works, this seems insane because for many getting out of school a stronger motivation than continuing on in the academic world. So if you have an affinity for the social setting of a school system and the idea of taking up residence in a culture that the pursuit of knowledge is, at least in theory, the primary goal of the institution, tutoring is for you.

Another motivation many have for going into tutoring is love of your subject matter. If you have always been passionate about math, history, philosophy, art or physical education, one way to feel fulfillment of your passion is to pass along not only your knowledge about your field of expertise but your passion as well. This is particularly true of a field of study where there is no direct corollary in the business world such as history or philosophy. By making a career in academics tutoring the field of knowledge you love and excel at, you keep the legitimacy of that area of knowledge alive by passing it along to the next generation.

If the core reason you love to teach is the love of your subject matter, you do have to be a realist especially if you find yourself tutoring in the public schools. Don’t go into a classroom of 30 high schoolers and expect every one of them to be come a zealot about your field of expertise as you are. Yes, from time to time you will light a fire under a kindred spirit and see the light come on about the love of your subject area. That experience alone can make the sacrifices of tutoring worth it. But be reconciled that if all you do is at least hold the attention of the students and broaden their knowledge and appreciation of your field of knowledge, for many that is all you can expect. But you are still an educator and you have done a good thing at even that very basic level.

Tutoring is a calling no matter what your core reasons to teach is. A true tutor does not go into the field for the money or for a glamorous or exciting career. The excitement of tutoring is seeing young minds come alive in class and to take youth people one step further along their path to becoming truly educated individuals. And if that is your passion and what gets you out of bed each mooring to go to that school and deal with the negatives of a tutoring day, they you have found the right reasons to teach which means you will be successful, well liked and remembered by your students as a great tutor.

15th November 2021
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Breaking into the Working World of Tutors

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Category : Uncategorised

In every college in the country, there are ambitious and starry eyed youngsters who are preparing for a career in tutoring. At some point that army of graduates will hit the streets to find jobs in the field of tutoring. What is not often taught in colleges are the real world skills of how to actually find and land a good tutoring job right out of school. And while there is always a need for good tutors, the new graduate should develop some skills in finding the kind of tutoring job that they always dreamed of so even from that first engagement, their career in tutoring gets off on the right foot.

There is a lot you can do even before graduation day to get your job search moving and to make yourself desirable as a tutor so when school administrators get flooded with applications from newly graduated tutors, you stand out as the one they want to call in for an interview. One thing you can do at any time during you academic career is to intern as a tutoring assistant and volunteer to teach in underprivileged schools.

You can teach just a few hours a day and work it around your academic work. By taking on the working world of tutoring even before you have your degree, you will be able to present yourself to employers post graduation as someone who has real world experience in the classroom and “knows the ropes” of getting through an academic year with real live students. That is tremendously valuable to a school administrator with a spot to fill because it reduces the concern that a new graduate who has never faced a classroom full of restless children might wash out when the reality of what tutoring is really like.

Another way to get a jump start on the market before students flood the schools for jobs is to start your search early in your last semester of school. Schools know by February or March if they will have jobs to fill for the next academic year. So if you begin your search for a tutoring position in March or April, you can often land an interview or even secure a position for the fall long before many of your contemporaries in school begin their hunt for their first tutoring job.

Becoming proactive like this always gives you the advantage in finding the job you really want rather than just “any job” in the tutoring profession. Spend some time narrowing down exactly what kind of tutoring position you want and at what level you feel your personality and tutoring style will benefit students the most. You may do much better with young children than with teenagers or you may wish to focus on high schoolers because they are more intellectually equipped to grasp the subject matter with you. By knowing well in advance where you want to teach, you can target those kinds of positions in your job search and improve your chances of finding that perfect tutoring job.

You should make the phrase “leave no stone unturned” your motto for hunting up the tutoring jobs that are open in your community. First of all, be very proactive in your search. Just because you are graduating, even with honors, with your tutoring degree, that doesn’t mean the schools will seek you out with jobs. So you take the search to them before someone else does. And in doing so it will be you that gets the premium tutoring positions rather than have to take “what’s left” after the good tutoring positions are snatched up by more aggressive graduates.

There are lots of ways you can flush out those tutoring jobs. Check the HR or employment offices at the schools you would like to be a part of and keep an eye on their employment bullion boards. Use the internet wisely, watch the newspaper and even get in touch with placement agencies who are known for placing new tutors.

But above all, network, network, network. Use every contact you have and forge new relationships to get the inside scoop on jobs before they even become public. Networking is the number one best way to find great tutoring positions so you should use it extensively to find a position to get your tutoring career off on a great start toward a great future of success in the field of tutoring.

11th November 2021
0

Can You Teach as a Tutor if You Are Old?

Tags : part time tutoring jobs pune tutor FAQ tutoring jobs

Category : Uncategorised

If you are just preparing to enter the ranks of professional tutors and you are not a recent college graduate, its easy to feel a bit insecure and ask that question, “Can you teach if you are old?” Its a fair question even if you are not so far along in life that you consider yourself to be “old”. But it is easy to feel old if you are a middle aged or senior adult among 20 year olds in teacher college and if the competition for the teaching jobs are kids that could be your own sons or daughters.

There are a lot of jobs where there is a noticeable age bias against older workers. In the business world, sometimes companies prefer to hire younger workers because they work cheap and if they work out, there is such a longer career life ahead of them. But even in the business setting, many forward thinking employers are beginning to realize that the ranks of older workers contain a group of workers who are stable, hard working and devoted employees. So too schools are realizing more and more that hiring an older worker is not a disadvantage at all but that you bring a lot of good with you that the school should be thrilled to have.

If anything the profession of tutoring is a perfect environment for someone who has seen a bit of life and who has matured and perhaps raised children of their own. Tutoring full time while rewarding can be a huge challenge because it is sometimes hard to establish your authority in the class room and there are so many ways for a disruption to hurt the flow of tutoring that is so important to accomplish your academic goals each day. An older worker is less prone to panic about disruptions or sudden problems that might come up as you teach and you have the experience and maturity to handle the problem efficiently without upsetting the rest of the class and get everyone back on task quickly.

It could be that one concern those who hire new tutors might have with an older worker is energy. Younger workers are able to keep up physically with children and they need to know that you won’t tire during a long school day and that you have the physical stamina to get through a school day and come back for more tomorrow. There are a number of ways you can demonstrate that you are in shape and up to the challenge of teaching. You can put on a show of energy and enthusiasm during the interview. Or you could go so far as to offer to substitute teach or be a tutor assistant for a day so the administrator can witness first hand our energy and ability to “keep up” with those kiddos.

There is a good chance that not only will you encounter no age based bias or discrimination from school administrators, you will find that they already have a number of older tutors on staff so they know the value the school gets from that experience and wisdom. But the relationship that may give you more concern is whether the students can accept an older teacher and give you the same respect and regard that they would give to someone just out of college.

It may come as the biggest surprise of them all that children and even teenagers really do not mind older teachers or older people for that matter. After all, to a child, every adult is an older teacher so they may not even notice that you are 20 years older than their last teacher. To a kid, old is old so what’s the difference? Moreover, children have relationships with parents, uncles and aunts and grandparents that are loving and respectful so if they lump you in with those role models, you have it made.

What students don’t like are older people who try to deny that they are old, who are ashamed of their age or who try to act younger than they are. Youth crave honesty. And youth are also quite aware that older age awaits them down the road so the last thing they want to see is you showing shame or discomfort because of your age. By being honest about your age with the kids, they will embrace you easily and you will have no difficulty teaching them.

10th November 2021
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Becoming a Truly Professional Tutor

Tags : tutoring jobs

Category : Uncategorised

There is something so satisfying about working with a true professional in any line of work. When you have a professional on the job in any area of specialization watching that person in action is like watching a work of art. They exude the knowledge, the skill, the devotion to doing a top notch job and the confidence that they are the professional who can do the job that is missing in a lesser talent.

That is the level we all want to reach in the field of tutoring if that is your calling. Not only do you want to be a true professional in your area of specialization which is tutoring, you want your students to notice your professionalism and recognize that it makes a big difference having a professional running the class rather an a lesser talent.

When a professional is on the case, everybody relaxes because they know the job will be done right. In the movie, Pulp Fiction, when the gangsters needed help because of a killing, they called in Mr. Wolf. And Mr. Wolf was well known for being the man that always knows what to do, who moves fast but is as courteous as he is efficient and who knows how to get the job done right. When Mr. Wolf was on the scene, the problem was as good as solved. And even though that movie was a bit grisly and profane, Mr. Wolf is a great example of true professionalism at work.

So how do you show your professionalism as you go about your craft of tutoring? For one thing, you dress the part. Take pride in your wardrobe and present to yourself to your class each day in a garment that says, I came ready to teach so you should come ready to learn. That is what happens when a professional is on the premises. Everybody wants to get on board with the program.

A professional always knows what to do both long range and right now. That means you come prepared. Your lesson plans are in order, your room is prepared and you paperwork is organized so at no time do you have to pause and get yourself together when you are into the process of tutoring your students. This will take some time for you to get to that level of organization when you walk in the door of your classroom the next day. But putting in that hour or two each night so you are that organized not only makes you a better tutor, it lets the students know that this is a professional operation so be ready.

Students, particularly youth and children can tell the difference between someone who knows what they are doing and someone who is floundering. As the saying goes, they can smell fear. It gives young people confidence and a sense of security that you are organized and not only know what you are going to do each moment of the teaching day, you know what they are going to do as well. That is professionalism and it will make a world of difference in how your tutoring goes.

A professional tutor also responds to interruptions and even disturbances calmly because you have seen it before and you know what to do. Of course developing a history in teaching to where you really do know what to do in each circumstance takes time. But if you are completely prepared in every other respect, interruptions won’t throw you because you can address them and be right back to you lesson smoothly and calmly.

A byproduct of being consummately prepared and so well versed in what your lesson plans say and what you are tutoring is that it gives you a calm confidence that frees you up to be relaxed and even humorous with your students. When your students see you smile because everything is going exactly the way you want it to go, they will respond and open up to you because they sense your confidence and they want to see where you are going to take them. And because you are relaxed and at ease, your students are at ease as well and they can ask you questions and interact with you as you teach. And that kind of interactive dialog is what makes the difference in the lives of students and makes you a true professional tutor.

8th November 2021
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Start Your Career in Tutoring After Covid

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Category : Uncategorised

Not everybody goes into tutoring by getting a degree right out of high school and making it a profession from there on out. Many wonderful tutors take on the profession as a second career. There are a lot of reasons it happens like that. Perhaps you are unhappy in your current career but you keep doing a certain job because it pays the bills. It is very easy in youth to just fall into a job niche because it happened to be a job you got, Then after you developed a resume and got additional training, you found it difficult to leave that job to pursue your passion.

Tutoring is as much a calling as it is a profession. As a profession, its often a career that does not attract the best and the brightest to become tutors because the pay is low and the frustrations and demands are high. So many people who may at heart be “born tutors” spend some of their adult life in other professions. If this is your story, you may be coming to a place in your life when that inner tutor is struggling to get out and get you into the career you of tutoring young people full time.

The good news is that in this modern time, much progress has been made to offer you a way to get the degree, the education and the certification to make that transition from your current career to a life of a tutor with little disruption to your life. One such way is to get your tutoring certificate from an online website as a remote student In that way, you step through all of the requirements for your certificate using the internet and eventually get that degree so you can easily transition into a life of a full time tutor.

It used to be considered far fetched to get an entire degree online. But almost every university in the country now offers a remote study program so you can satisfy every aspect of a degree plan on your own schedule using the internet as your classroom and your tutor. The lectures can be presented as video files and you can even participate in group projects and discussions via chat, message boards and wikis that the instructor can set up to bring you along through each class.

The good of this kind of program is that you can go about getting your teaching certificate while continuing to hold down your full time job. Because the “classes” you take are online and recorded, except for live events such as team meetings, you can take each session when you get home from work and even pause them to deal with family issues and then continue when things quite down. This is an ideal situation for adult education when quitting your job to get another degree is just not practical.

The hard part about getting your degree online is that, like study by mail programs, the discipline to keep up, to “attend” class and to do your reading and homework is entirely put on you to stay with. Its very easy for life’s demands to draw you away from your degree plan and to slow or stop you which then makes getting the momentum going even more difficult.

But if you enlist the aid of your family and establish times when dad or mom are “in class” even if you are just locked in your study doing your online coursework, that regimen can help you get through your classes and successfully graduate ready to start a career in teaching. And when you are finally doing the job you feel is your calling to do teaching youth, the hard work of taking that degree from an online program will pay off.

Monthly Archives: November 2021

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