Top 10 Ways to Become the Most Effective Tutor to Young Students

Being a tutor can be easy or tough at times. Well, it depends on the student that every tutor has. Below are the top 10 ways on how to be a great tutor:

1. Observe proper hygiene. Remember that you will be having one-on-one session with your student. It means that you are close to your student when you talk. The last thing that you would want to happen as a tutor is to distract your student from learning the lesson just because you have bad breath, body odor or smelly feet.

2. Always come on time. You only have limited time to teach. Always think that your student is a busy person and that he/she will not be tolerating tardiness because of invalid reasons. Any minute missed for the set appointment is already considered as time-wasted. Most of the time, students (or parents of the students) do not allow overtime work. Normally, tutorials last for one to three hours. Anything longer than this is too exhausting and brain-draining on the part of the teacher and, as well as, of the student. So if you come late on your appointment, expect two things: first, your salary would be deducted; or second, you will be fired soon.

3. Know how to set priorities. The limited time would put pressure on you as a tutor to completely teach what needs to be taught. Set aside the first 5 minutes of your conversation with your student to discuss your objectives for today’s session. Write and rank these objectives on a list according to importance and urgency. Also, take note of the things that can be done simultaneously so that you could save time.

4. Be a good communicator. Nothing ruins a tutorial session other than the incapability of the teacher to relay the correct information or explanation to his or her student.

5. Always come prepared. Make sure you have a copy of your student’s scope and sequence per subject. This would help you a lot in studying the lessons that are to be tackled in their classes. Some students (or parents) ask the tutor to prepare lesson plan for their sessions. Remember, a tutor should be knowledgeable enough to teach his or her student the topics that need to be tackled.

6. Never stop learning and reviewing. Even though you are smart and old enough to know some elementary or high school lessons, you still need to refresh your mind. This is to make sure that you would not mess up in case your student asks you a lot of questions like why certain theories apply in such equation, or why did Renaissance people even existed. Most importantly, if you are teaching math subject then you should practice solving math equations. It would be awkward if your student would turn out to be faster than you in performing simple math.

7. Be creative and innovative. The best strategy that a tutor can make is to know the personality of his or her student. There are students who learn best when they listen to stories. But some students cannot stand listening to discussion for more than 10 minutes. The more a tutor knows about the learning styles that his or her students possess, the greater is the possibility that the tutor would be successful in teaching. If the student likes stories, the tutor should think of real life applications of the given theories. But if the student does not like discussions, interactive and creative styles of teaching should be performed, like letting the student solve problems through calculating statistics, or through drawing illustrations.

8. Love your job. See to it that you are happy when you teach and that you see this profession as rewarding for you. The amount of salary is nothing compared to the amount of joy that a tutor gains when she sees that her student is striving to learn.

9. Be friendly and sincere. Unless a student is alone in the house, a tutor is expected to have good manners in dealing with the other people within the household of her student. A good tutor does not only have the brains, she should also know how to be friendly and sincere to other members of the family.

10. Be honest. A tutor should be brave enough to admit any mistakes done by her part. This may refer to her lack of knowledge on the subject that she is teaching. Or this could also refer to any misunderstanding in the job contract, or specifically, salary issues. For example, if a tutor is only entitled to earn 100 for each hour and finishes 2 hours of teaching then receives 300; she should tell this concern to her student (or parent of the student – or the one who gave the salary). Now, it is up to the student to get the excess salary amount or to add it officially to the tutor’s salary. Every employer wishes to trust an employee whose honesty is already proven.

Being a tutor does not only stop at being smart and being cool. It all boils down into right conduct and good manners. The ability of a tutor to influence his or her student does not end on improving intelligence; it is also a responsibility of a tutor to influence a student to always do the right thing in the right manner. Kudos to all tutors who dream of influencing their students correctly and righteously!

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