How to Manage Tutoring Expectations

How to Manage Tutoring Expectations

 

It’s not uncommon for both student and parent expectations to be higher than usual as the exam dates get closer, so how should tutors manage these tutoring expectations? What if your student isn’t putting in enough effort or the expectations are simply unrealistic?

Read on to discover lots of actionable advice about how to manage tutoring expectations:

How do I deal with unrealistic expectations from my student’s parent?

It’s 4 weeks before little Johnny’s English exam and his parents come to you for some tutoring sessions. They believe their son is good enough for the top local school, but they’ve left it too late before his exam to start having tutoring sessions with you. What should you say? A good initial response could be: 

“There are no guarantees, but I want to meet Johnny’s needs”.

Ideally, you want to avoid a long discussion with the parent in front of the child, instead of calling the parent after the session to discuss any concerns that you or they might have. It’s important to talk with the students and parents separately in this situation. 

As tutors, it’s our role to make the goal realistic for our students. If it’s clear that a child isn’t going to get the grades to enter the desired school, move the goalposts; aim high, but identify several 2nd and 3rd choice schools as a backup. Identify their current level at the beginning of your first session and aim to make a significant improvement within the next 5 sessions. Then review their progress and identify where they are now and where they can progress to next.

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What can I do if my student isn’t putting the effort in?

Get them to love learning again by identifying their learning style. This is a top priority if you want to provide maximum help with their learning. If they love watching YouTube, use YouTube videos for homework. If they need motivating, show them one of the motivational videos available on youtube.

We’re motivators as well as tutors and we need to emphasise to our students that if they want to succeed, they have to work hard.

Students often don’t have the study skills they need to become a better student, so we need to give them these skills. For example, one offline way to help students continue learning after an online lesson is to encourage them to use sticky notes to revise new content. Get them to stick these flashcard style Post-its around the house and replace them with new ones once they’ve learnt what’s written on them.

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Should I offer support to parents for timetabling their child’s study plan?

Yes, but get the child to plan their own schedule. This is preferable to having the parent telling the child what to do and when. It’s good to spend some time on this because creating organisational structures, and learning to stick to them, are among the key soft skills that can progress students from C and B grades to A grades.

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Should I offer crash course learning?

If you decide to offer this type of learning, make it clear with a verbal agreement that you will only do so if they agree to work on a medium-term goal after any short-term cramming. 5 hours of tutoring is not enough to do anything significantly educational so try to encourage a more appropriate learning schedule for the future.

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How do I communicate progress at the end of the lesson?

To avoid overrunning, leave time before the end of the lesson to discuss progress. Tell the student or student’s parent what they’ve done, what they need to do to consolidate and what you’re going to do with them next time. This only needs to be a couple of minutes but is invaluable. As tutors, we need to plan the lesson, provide homework if needed, and measure progress. Letting students or parents know there is a plan, and how it’s progressing, is reassuring and lets them know they are working with a professional.

​​​​Another option is to make it clear that you have to leave or finish the call immediately when the session finishes but agree that you will update them later at a specific time via an email or call. This could be after the 3rd, 4th or 5th tutorial. Whichever way you choose, it’s important to set this expectation from day one so that the student or parent knows what to expect in terms of what you will and won’t do.

How To Effectively Manage Your Child’s Education

How To Effectively Manage Your Child’s Education

 

Managing your child’s education is one of the most important jobs that you, as a parent, have. While there are hundreds of tips and tricks that could be of use to you, there really are only three major things to remember to keep your child on track to receive the best education available – communication, repetition, and critical thinking. If you focus your efforts in these three places and incorporate them into everything you do, your child will be ahead of the game.

Communication
It may seem a bit like a no-brainer, but communication is the absolute key to making sure your child is making the most out of the available educational opportunities. This means being on a first name basis with your child’s teacher(s) and knowing exactly what the lesson plans are going to be so you can be ready to field any questions your child may have. It’s also important to keep the communication lines with your child open. When you show interest in what your child is doing, it validates the importance of their work. Not only will you be validating the work, but you’ll also be able to point real-world examples out and show your child that what is being taught in school really is vitally important.

Repetition
In addition to great communication, repetition is key to student success. Sure, having seen something in class once and discussed it may work for some students, but the majority don’t pick up on things this instantaneously. This is where you, as a parent, have an opportunity to help your child learn. You can take the lessons being taught and create additional materials that reinforce these lessons. While this isn’t an overarching management technique, it absolutely makes a difference. The more often that a child does something, hears something or reads something, the more likely it is to be remembered.
The biggest challenge with repetition is having the time to come up with activities for your child to do. This is where the help of an experienced tutor is invaluable. When you simply don’t have the time you’d like to dedicate to your child’s education, a tutoring program is the best way to get the repetition and extra practice that is necessary for your child to excel.

Critical Thinking
While children in kindergarten aren’t quite ready to dive directly into a full-scale critical thinking session, it’s never too early to start asking them to come up with their own explanations for things. Asking your child what he or she thinks before giving them the answer makes them think about all of the possible answers first. Learning how to reason from the question to the answer is an essential skill for dealing with problems all through life. When you are managing your child’s education, the ability to reason should be at the top of the list.
Managing your child’s education isn’t difficult, but it is something that many parents fail to do effectively. By remembering the three main facets of a good education – communication, repetition, and critical thinking – you’ll be well on your way to making sure your child gets the most out of the education experience.

How to work from home with kids during Covid-19

How to work from home with kids during Covid-19

 

Finding a happy medium between working from home, and ensuring your children manage their remote learning isn't easy, which is why it takes a range of skills to get it right. Here's what you need to know.

Have a designated work area

Hot-desking at home just doesn't work. If you want to get into work mode, you need a designated work area, in the same way, that your child needs a study area. Your space should be easy to access, be customised to your needs (equipment-wise), and have agreed on boundaries around it. For instance, the family should know that this is your area between the hours of X and Y and that no-one can take equipment from your desk without asking.

Don't work in the same area as your child

As tempting as it is to work in the same room as your child, this won't work for several reasons; firstly children don't know the rules around working life so are bound to annoy you. Secondly, your child will have their way of studying, and it's likely not to meet your standards. Constantly policing them is also distracting for you and frustrating for them. Allow them their own space and autonomy, and they will get their tasks done.

Let an expert help you both

The vast majority of us are not teachers, which means while we can help with some subject areas and explain specific methods, we don't always have the right skills or processes to help our children. If you and your child are always at loggerheads over their work, it can help both of you to bring an expert in.
This could be a YouTube vlogger (there are several teacher channels aimed at all key stages and subjects), online resources of which there are plenty or the help of an online tutor. This will take the pressure off a charged situation and allow your relationship to move back to one of parent and child.

Plan the day

To work more efficiently, it also pays to get your critical work tasks done at the start of the day. It's only when you can focus with undivided attention for at least 10-15 minutes that you can get into the flow state, where you'll be able to be productive. Accessing this early then allows you to be able to switch your focus between work and helping your kids for the rest of the day.

Be clear about what you're going to work on

When you are not entirely clear about what you're going to work on, it's hard to be productive. You'll either switch between multiple different tasks too quickly or get distracted. To help pick one specific job that you're going to work on each day and stick to it.
This technique also works well for students. Rather than have them structure their day as they would at school with a different topic every hour, have them focus on one area per day with clear goals and outcomes.

Be realistic about work and study hours

It's tough to work from home so you have to be realistic about the hours you can work while your kids are home. If work or studying takes precedence, it can lead to life at home becoming too overwhelming for everyone, especially your children.
To ease this, set aside time to chat and listen to each other's concerns each day. Think about what's working and allow everyone to have a voice in what's happening. It also pays to keep to a flexible routine where you all check-in multiple times a day, perhaps around lunchtime, dinnertime and a break mid-morning. This way, you keep a connection going and avoid any boredom related behaviours.

The best remote learning tips to see you through lockdown

The best remote learning tips to see you through lockdown

 

Remote learning isn't an easy concept, especially when you're used to classroom scenarios with peer-to-peer input and a teacher on hand to help. But it is possible to make it work, here are some of the best tips to make it work for you.

Accept that online lessons are difficult to engage with

Learning online is just different from learning in the classroom. It's more challenging for students to engage with as there is no one to talk to. What can help here is to have someone to chat to about assignments so you can make sense of them aloud. A peer study group can help here as can talking to parent as you view the work.

Ask for specific teacher feedback.

Qualitative feedback is essential to student growth, and it can be forgotten when teaching remotely. If this is happening with your work, then ask for feedback. You need to know how you are doing and that your remote work has a purpose, to feel motivated to study.

Ask for autonomy

It takes skill and time to learn to work in a self-regulated environment. Use this time to refine your ability to organise and plan, to feel comfortable with working alone. Point this out to parents who want you to stick to a schedule and prove to them that you can do it.

Find relevance in what you're doing.

Right now you might be thinking what's the point in doing algebra or even learning the Periodic Table? However, finding a sense of meaning and purpose in the work you're doing by reminding yourself of why you are doing it can help you to stay focussed.

Make learning interactive.

As you're not in the classroom, you need opportunities not just to read, but to actively process the information being presented. Why not quiz yourself post-lesson as a form of retrieval practice, or get together with your classmates and have a trivia quiz to see who can remember the most. Make it fun, and you will learn more.

Be honest about your learning barriers.

Is it your phone, PS4 or the simple fact you find it hard to work alone? For many students having to work on their outside of a class, the scenario is hard. It's distracting and also hard to stay motivated, just staring at a screen. What can help is to print a hard copy of your lesson and work on that, then scan it in for submission.
Working in a room where siblings or other family members are working can also help. Lastly, keeping in touch with your teachers and asking for advice will also help here as it keeps the connection alive between work being set, you and your school.

Work with someone you trust.

Whether it's a parent or a tutor, working with someone on your set work can help you focus and get through the workload. Aside from helping you to think positively about work and your ability, it can help you get through your lessons faster and with fewer distractions.

Don't panic about the future.

If you are in years 10 and 12, try not to panic about what you're missing out on from lessons. Yes, there will be areas to cover when you return for 2021 exams but in the meantime now is your chance to catch up on missed lessons, fill your knowledge gaps and revise what you do know. All of this will prep you for your next academic year.

Master new skills outside of lessons

Remote learning is a lot to take in all at once, and it's not ideal for teaching new skills. It's why much of your remote learning work will be practice and revision. If you feel demotivated by this why not master new skills on your own. It doesn't have to be study-related but something that challenges you and keeps your mind active. Knowing you can learn something new can help motivate you to get through remote working with more enthusiasm.