Excellent math tutors abound a plenty, so how are you going to stand out from the rest of the pack and offer the best session to your students? Need a degree from MIT? How about a masters or PhD? Maybe a teaching credential? The answers are No. No. No. Say what?! Maybe you are thinking you’ve got to have a lot of great experience and a degree from a top university, and although that helps, it doesn’t have to be the case. In my opinion, I think that the only factors that matter are mastery of the topic you are going to teach, a few teaching strategies, and noble work ethic. There are, of course, other important attributes, but these, I think, are the heart of a solid tutoring session. Let’s go into detail for each of the aspects mentioned above: Mastery of the Topic You Are Going to Teach. I think it goes without saying that you should know your stuff, right? The best tutors will know all their formulas off the top of their head. They will know all the skills needed to master any topic. If a student sends you a list of concepts they need to study, you should know exactly what they are talking about and what resources to pull together for them. No need to say much more about this. Teaching Strategies. Now we are talking about what to do from the time the lesson starts until it ends. First, and foremost, know what you are covering and make a quick assessment as to what can be accomplished in one session. If it’s just one idea, then your student is likely to achieve mastery in one sitting. In more advanced math, especially in honors classes, there can be several topics covered. If you don’t feel that you can finish everything, at the very least, cover at least a few problems from each topic that the student needs to go over. They can finish the rest on their own. Remember, your goal as a tutor is to help the student understand the material at a master level, not necessarily finish their homework with them. The student should be accountable for that anyway. Once you’ve completed your assessment, it’s time to get to work. This is usually how it goes for me: warm-up (skills student needs to strengthen), teach topic (guided practice and Q&A; I explain steps with my own problem, and they simultaneously apply those steps to their homework problem), student completes problems independently (observe their process; Q&A; take a note of areas that need improvement and work on that particular skill before moving on), POP QUIZ! (one or two questions on what they just practiced completely independently-get them in “quiz mode”), and have the student teach the concept back to you. Repeat and modify as needed. You’ll notice that in all the steps mentioned, the student is continuously active, even in your teaching moments. This is intentional so that they are constantly learning and gives them no opportunity to zone out. You only have one sitting with them, which is usually an hour, so make the most of it! Noble Work Ethic. What exactly do I mean here? You may be thinking that all tutors are noble. Well, just like in any industry, there is a range of quality. Be the best you can be by doing the following: be present with your student at all times (stay off your cell during meeting…it’s just rude), observe your student’s process, ask them questions, encourage them to ask you questions, keep them focused, have them practice as much as possible, communicate with their parents about their progress and how they can improve. Applying these methods are sure to get you on your way to 5 gold stars! Happy Tutoring! Comments are closed.
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AuthorRossina here welcoming you to my blog :) Have you ever met someone who actually loves mathematics? Probably not, but that's me! I have been teaching math for 10+ years in a private one-on-one setting, helping families and students all over the country achieve mathematical mastery. Here, I share tips, insight, and provide resources to help you become a math master or tutor. I truly hope you find my blog helpful. Enjoy! Archives
September 2023
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