3 Questions to Answer before Hiring a Tutor

Few experiences are more exciting to me than providing the convenience and flexibility that my private tutoring clients enjoy. If this sounds boring to you, it's because I didn't mention the light bulb moments - wide-eyed prayers, clutched pearls, breaths of relief, and glowing smiles of accomplishment. Empowering clients with the knowledge and confidence to take on new challenges and demonstrate mastery is a skill set found only among the best tutors. This begins with advocating for strong home-school partnerships and taking massive action to bridge gaps - gaps in achievement, gaps in communication, and resource gaps.

Helping families partner with educators
Homework time and parent-teacher conferences are opportunities to identify gaps before they become potholes. We know that building strong home-school partnerships (not to be confused with homeschooling) is key to ensuring learners don't fall through the cracks. As learners age, historical patterns in parental engagement data tell us that participation drops significantly after elementary school. This is a challenging epidemic for educators and parents and family members to outrun when you're feeling overwhelmed and haven't taken a class in years. You know it's time to find a tutor.

If you're on the fence about tutoring, consider these questions.

1. Are double shifts or school commitments preventing you from being involved?
2. Are concerns about student performance snowballing?
3. Are you struggling to cope with a learning disability?

No one has to know how you answered these questions. It's only important that you're honest with yourself and your needs (and your child's needs). I'm speaking to the parent or adult learner who typed 'tutor near me' in Google search and scrolled through pages of private tutors and tutoring agencies either without taking action or without finding a suitable tutor. Keep reading if you want to hire the best tutor the first time (or next time).

Whether math tutor, English tutor, chemistry tutor, reading tutor, or writing tutor, the best tutors and tutoring companies are committed to meeting your needs. Expert private tutors ensure the quality of service you receive reflects this commitment to meeting your needs (not the other way around).

National Tutoring Week is October 1 - 5, 2018.
Watch the video below to be the first to win one of four
#NTW2018 GIVEAWAYS.

It's time to find a tutor. Ask yourself these three questions.

1. Is the tutor certified by the National Tutoring Association (NTA)?

If the tutor isn't certified by NTA, does the professional have training and practical experiences that back up their claims to be an expert? What about referrals?

Many educators, professionals, and students tutor on the side to earn extra income. A teacher's license is different than tutor certification in the same way that a personal trainer's skill set is different than that of a team coach. Teachers and tutors are equipped to provide different experiences; the distinction is based on experience providing both kinds of learning experiences.

Though undoubtedly beneficial, learners who excel in whole class learning environments and require temporary support to tackle setbacks may not require the services of a certified/trained tutor; this type of student makes A's and B's most of the time. The imperative phrase is 'may not require'; still, some concepts may need to be taught by a certified tutor to achieve mastery. What's more, staying ahead often calls for the support of a professional as well.

On the other hand, learners with poor performance records benefit most from working one-on-one with a trained and experienced private tutor. For this second type of student, assessment data translates to D's and F's on a traditional grading scale. Moving forward without a private tutor may be likened to building a home on unstable foundation: at some point the home will no longer be able to serve its full purpose without intervention. Unfortunately in a classroom setting, intervention usually equates to missed seat time or instruction. Students receive remedial instruction instead of sitting through currently relevant instruction, which is a double-edged sword that makes tutoring the preferred alternative.

2. Does the tutor offer added value as part of the return on your investment?

Tutors step in when parents and family are unable to help with homework. The best tutors are not only experts in a particular subject area, they're also invested in tutee success. This commitment to the process manifests as quality service: providing timely feedback and flexible communication options, serving as a school parent liaison, engaging learners with creative activities, personalizing instruction, and tracking performance data.

Effective tutors also help learners reinforce instruction provided during tutoring sessions through planning. They prepare materials in advance or help students refine classroom notes in a way that extend learning beyond one-on-one experiences, beyond in-person and online tutoring. Expert private tutors look ahead and anticipate upcoming challenges using classroom correspondence.

You probably didn't know that the best tutors communicate with classroom educators and interpret performance data (e.g., graded papers, score reports) to personalize learning experiences. Hiring a tutor is like having a personal assistant; if your tutor doesn't make your life easier, it may be time to type 'tutors near me' into Google search again.

3. Are you ready to commit to the tutoring process?

If your tutor doesn't seek first to understand your unique challenges and goals, consider it a red flag. If your tutor doesn't personalize a learning plan to get you from where you are to mastery, consider this a red flag. If your tutor doesn't ask for performance data before meeting or during the initial tutoring session as well as periodically during the business relationship, consider this a red flag. If your tutor makes the grade, prepare to commit to the tutoring process.

Commitment looks different to different tutors and tutees. My clients who experience success consistently do these three things: communicate scheduling needs in a timely manner, volunteer performance data regularly, and complete reinforcement activities (or homework from tutoring sessions). You're ready to work with an expert private tutor if you're willing to make time to meet these expectations.

If you apply the advice shared in this post to your tutor search, then the expert you decide to work with will usher you into more challenging environments with ease.

I'm excited to highlight that I am National Tutoring Association certified, hold a Master's in Education, and held a teaching license during my time in the secondary science classroom.

My firm, Jackson Education Support is the only education firm in Mississippi where you can find a nationally certified tutor. This sets us apart.

We're eager to train tutors interested in joining the community. Don't let geography keep you from reaching out. You're invited to take advantage of online and in-person tutoring and training solutions.

SMARTening up your targets

New Year’s Resolutions... those fantastic goals for the coming 12 months. We all set them: to lose weight, take up running, get a new qualification, travel more, join a gym, etc., etc... We force ourselves to enjoy these challenges for the first two weeks of January, start to slip in the middle of January, and the gyms are again empty by February. The diet clubs lose members, and we avoid going for a run in favor of watching TV.

These vague targets are soon forgotten, but with some tweaking you can transform vague targets into SMART targets making them useful, far easier to reach, and a great way to improve learning.

Let’s say you decide to Help your child with homework. What does this actually mean?

Specific

Helping with homework sounds great. But, is it sitting with a child each evening and gently guiding them? Or, buying them books to help them learn? Is a tutor a better plan? Are they struggling with a subject you know nothing about? Or, is time management an issue? Are they constantly losing worksheets?

Targets:

1. Help children become more organised.
2. Improve maths skills.
3. Reduce the amount of screen time.

Measurable

Help is a great word, but it needs to be defined further. This could mean a number of things. I could hand them a sheet of paper, so they don’t have to get up. I could read their work before submitting for a grade and offer feedback...  Make sure there is a way to measure when you’ve reached the specific goal.

Targets:

1. Watch a maximum of 2 hours TV per night.
2. Set a goal to achieve 80% on a Year 4 Maths test.
3. Create study area with folders for each subject.

Achievable

We’d love to be helping every night and achieve A's by the end of the year in all subjects. But, that just puts too much pressure on you and your child. You’re going to be helping them stay organised? Plan to work on this one or two nights a week when it doesn't clash with your work schedule. Plan to boost performance by two letter grades per year. (If children achieve more, that’s fantastic!) Avoid setting unobtainable goals.

Targets:

1. Review papers and organise them together two days a week.
2. Improve Maths grade from a D grade to a B grade.
3. Set aside homework time each evening.

Relevant

Do they actually need homework help, or is a different issue to blame? As a professional charged with the responsibility of helping struggling students, I normally sort out learners' problems in one move: limit screen time. Between social media, games consoles and their favourite programmes, often the issue with too much homework relates to an issue with too little free time.

Targets:

1. Reduce screen time.
2. Set aside a specific homework times for them to do homework.
3. Improve handwriting so students can read their own notes.

Timed

When are you going to start helping? How long is it expected to last? By when should grades improve? If you need to set aside daily homework time, are there other obligations to consider?

It seems like a small change, but rather than Help with Homework, your improved target could be...

1. Download a workbook and two textbooks to work through together for an hour each night to improve their D grade in math to a B grade by the end-of-year exam.
2. Reduce screen time outside of schoolwork to a maximum of two hours each weekday evening by removing their phone and tablet from the bedroom and turning off the television.
3. Set up a filing system to help organise class docs and plan for the week ahead on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

Can you see how the targets now are more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed?

Try redefining one of your targets. I don’t need to be more organised. I need to timetable two hours per night, Sunday through Thursday, to mark student work and plan the next day’s lessons. How can you SMARTen up your targets?

_______________________

A very special thanks for this contribution goes to guest blogger,

Ruth McDonald, B.Sc., M.Sc., pgDTLLS.

Ruth is an educator with 
Sailing Through School.

Her role is to improve learning for children and adults outside the classroom.

Parents, are you on the Fence About Tutoring?

Are you  considering tutoring for your child?  Did your child struggle to end last year on a high note?  Has the classroom teacher expressed concern about academic performance? Well, you're not alone...

Jillian Smart, M. Ed., launched Jackson Education Support.

I launched Jackson Education Support (JE) to support the educational goals of learners in literacy, math, and science subjects. If you haven't heard, JE is a Mississippi-based education firm that offers personalized in-person and online services which allows parents like you to enjoy family time.

While classroom teachers are often expected to provide children with individualized attention during class, the likelihood of this happening decreases as class size increases - not to mention the growing number of assessments that take precedence during lesson planning.  

Jackson Education Support support learners by providing homework help and study skills support.  Each service is personalized to meet individual need. Clients schedule in-person and virtual tutoring sessions to address gaps in achievement that hinder progress in literacy, math, and science classes.

Tutoring is the new normal, reports scholastic.com.  "When specific, basic skills are not developing as you would expect, or when a child has a diagnosed learning disability, having a tutor can help her build those special skills or compensate for the ones she lacks," says learning specialist Susan J. Schwartz, M.A. Ed., clinical coordinator at the Institute for Learning and Academic Achievement at the New York University Child Study Center. Parents of early elementary students are feeling the pressure to ensure that children meet and exceed rising educational  standards.

If you think your child struggles in school, I encourage you not to wait for the problem to resolve itself. I say this, because many parents regret hiring a professional at the end of the school year. Children who receive support early on become more independent over time, so working with an educator outside of school times may not have to be a long-term arrangement for your child.

But, adding an experienced educator to your team is the best way to start the new school year. Let's discuss your child's academic needs in greater detail.  Schedule a free consultation today!

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