How to become a good Home Tutor
Helping students learn and achieve is one of the most satisfying things you can do, and being a home tutor is an excellent way to lend your experience to young students who need a little guidance. Many parents are looking to hire tutors to provide tutoring services to students during this pandemic situation COVID 19, if you are a teacher or have a background in education will be easier to be successful in the field. If you are good in a subject and likes teaching students, these skills can help to become a successful home tutor.
Getting started as a private tutor requires some preparation and planning. Steps to follow to prove yourself as a good home tutor.
1. Choose and tutor the subjects that you are good at.
As a home tutor, you are expected to be an expert at the subjects you tutor. When you’re choosing the subjects you'd like to teach, consider subjects, where you think you scored the most back when you were a student and focused on subjects related to your degree. Having a degree certificate, is mandatory for many home tutor jobs, it's necessary to have at least some schooling education or training in the subjects you decide to take up.
2. You can opt the age groups and grade levels that you’d like to tutor.
Think about any child of no matter which age group or a particular grade that you feel confident and most comfortable while tutoring. If you love working with younger ones, then tutoring lower primary (i.e. 6 to 10) would be a great market for you. Or perhaps upper primary or even high school (i.e. 11 and 12 & 13 to 18 respectively). Helping high school and college students with their syllabus, academic performance, test preparation, and even with their boards could really help them out a lot.
It will also make you feel familiar with childhood development and know the shades of kids between the age groups.
3. Stay updated and thorough with the curriculum.
Once you’ve decided of which subject you're perfect at, and what age group you'd like to teach, it’s your responsibility to make yourself thorough in the curriculum and the procedures you’ll be teaching through. If you have friends or colleagues who work in education, reach out to them for previous class notes, keeping the syllabus and lesson plans updated. Preparing for the classes beforehand is a perfect way to plan out a tutoring session, and referring back to your context for a refresher.
4. Find different and your own interesting methods for them to find it easier.
Your teaching and approaching methods will reflect every thought and reaction towards every education-related event that a tutor discusses with the student. A tutors methodology must keep changing, depending on the age group and IQ level of the student they’re tutoring. For younger students, using interesting activities at the time of your sessions can turn to learn into a fun and frolic interaction. If you’re tutoring older students studying in grade, try bringing in technology into your sessions it could turn the sessions, interesting and interactive. Social media, discussions, showing them clippings related to real-life activities can bring a regular lesson, to real life and capture your student’s attention, and even increase their memory power.
5. Communicate regularly with your students and keep updating their parents.
At the end of every session, take up some time to find out where and in what corners of the subject, the student is having difficulties in grasping, so you can tally their specific needs and redesign a lesson plan to fulfill their needs. Some students might approach you for help with an entire academic subject, while others just need help with brush up in a few key areas.
Once you’ve revised your student’s needs, brush their basics at the beginning and at the end of each session, to make sure they are up to date with what is being taught and if they’re digesting it with your teaching skills and if your lesson plans are effective and clear or are to be still modified.
The whole time that you spend with your student, it’s always a nice way, particularly for the younger aged students, to keep a regular with their parents as well. Just like parent & teacher meets, a tutor should communicate with parents at regular intervals, keeping them updated on how their child is performing, whether they’re performing well if there are areas that still need improvement.
6. Keep knowing your student's performance by contacting their grade mentor, if necessary.
Keep communicating with your student’s teacher at regular intervals, this ensures if your lesson plans are consistent or if you're moving parallel with what is being taught and what the student is learning in the classroom.
The grade mentor can also provide great source information about what may work or what a particular student could do and succeed in. Teachers/grade mentors will look in if your student can get what they require out of your tutoring sessions, so their feedback is
quite valuable for a tutor.
7. In order to join in a tutoring association a degree is a must.
A tutor must have 100% knowledge on the subject that they teach, you never know, if your teaching is effective the kids come up with plenty of doubts, and a tutor must always be in the state of clarifying all of them. However, a complete tutor is the one who has a strong attitude, a good grip on the subject, and self-confidence. This is the most effective way to overcome all the obstacles, it mainly helps a lot in building up recognition if you're a fresher, regularly stay in contact with other teachers/friends in education. The right steps taken can put your life into the right professional track.
8. Be flexible
Tutors need to be patient and adaptive to the child's nature. A good tutor seeks to know the child and finds their needs and then adjusts the order to fit those specific needs and learning methodologies.
It is also important to be flexible with the location of taking up sessions of tutoring. Decide whether you’ll go to the student's house, tutor from your own residence or any other specified location.
9. Advertise yourself.
All you need is clients! In order to be a successful tutor, you have to be ready to sell yourself and your services. If you know any of the teachers, mainly the ones who teach in the grade you are focusing on, contact them and let them get to know that you are open for tutoring. Know if they have extra students that they're unable to take up their classes, reach them out for an oppurtunity.
r to be a successful tutor, you have to be comfortable with selling yourself and your services. If you know any teachers, particularly ones who teach in the grade you’re focusing on, reach out to them and let them know that you’re open for business. If they have students that could use a little extra help, they can refer them to you.
Advertising is another way to find potential clients. Create a profile on sites like Care.com in order to advertise your services, or apply for positions on the many online job boards. If you’re working with high school and college students, consider taking out a small ad in the school newspaper or putting up a few flyers around campus and in the library. Also consider advertising on social media within your community, at schools, recreational centers like the YMCA and your local library.
One of the most effective ways you’ll get new tutoring clients is through word of mouth.
Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from happy clients, and consider offering discounts for established clients if their referral turns into a regular student.
10. Consider starting with a tutoring center
If you're struggling to get your business going, try working with a tutoring center or company. They handle finding clients and dealing with paperwork and might just be the support system you need. A predetermined percentage will be deducted from your earnings before you're paid.
Take note: Some companies do have their tutors sign contracts including a "no competition agreement," which means you will only tutor with them.
