How to Choose a Private Tutor
There are many things you should look for when choosing the right private tutor. Sometimes though it will come down to trying various tutors out and seeing which one works best with you. Outlined here are the characteristics you should look for and the steps you should then take to ensure you’ve chosen the right person.
Choosing your tutor – Male, Female?
If you’re choosing a tutor for your child, be aware that with all the best intentions you and your tutor may have, children can take an instant unwarranted dislike to new adults in their home. Your child may relate better to male teachers than female teachers or vice versa. Ask your child which they would prefer as they will then feel involved and it will become their decision to select the tutor rather than it being forced upon them. It can be very difficult to judge how a person will get on with your child without actually trying it. We encourage our clients to try our tutors out, if they don’t work out with the children there’s usually another tutor available to take over. There’s a fine line between perseverance with a tutor that isn’t getting on well with your child and giving up too early before a tutor is able to make a “breakthrough”. We all know how stubborn children can be!
Experience and Qualifications
Depending on the level of private tutoring you are looking for you will obviously have different experience and qualifications requirements. Qualification checks are the one way you can be sure that your private tutor knows what they’re talking about. For primary school all you really need to look for is someone with either a teaching degree or a university student (undergraduate) that has a great rapport with children. The way to find out if they’re good with children is usually through word-of-mouth. Our tutoring service has online feedback for all our tutors so look for something like this if you are going through an agency. The higher the level of tutoring you are looking for the higher the qualifications requirements will be. If you are studying for a degree you will probably be looking for a post-graduate tutor who is specialising in your subject. It can be difficult to check your tutor’s qualifications so we recommend you go through an agency that’s reputation is hinged on providing high-quality tutoring services and will have checked these kinds of things out for you.
Experience is more important with younger people as experienced tutors will have devised ways of keeping focus and disciplining your child covertly! A friend of mine rewards her children with biscuits which makes them extremely attentive and willing to listen! As with anything, expect to get what you pay for. Highly experienced private tutors generally will charge a premium for their services. There really is no substitute for a highly experienced, qualified and reliable private tutor.
Location/ Availability
Try to pick a private tutor that lives fairly close to you. Traffic delays, especially if you live in a built-up area, can be frustrating for both parties. The closer the tutor is to you the easier it will be for them to arrive on time. Make sure that your tutor’s availability doesn’t clash with other pre-arranged activities. Childrens diaries are so full these days that it’s easy to mix up booking times. Try also to pick a time that leaves enough breathing room for your child either side. The last thing your child wants to do is walk in from school and straight into a home tutoring lesson! It also shouldn’t be too late at night as tiredness has a big impact on concentration levels.
Reputation/ Word of mouth
The most compelling motivator to selecting a private tutor is a positive referral. If you can find a tutor that has great feedback from others, especially from your own social group then you’re on to a winner! If you know someone that is using a private tutor, ask them if you can sit in on the lesson and watch it. The tutor may be uncomfortable with this so be sure to check with them first. First-hand experience is the best way of choosing a tutor that’s right for you.
How do I know I’ve chosen the right person?
When you have chosen a tutor for your child, be sure to sit in on the lesson if possible. If this is proving distracting to your child then talk to them afterwards and ask them to go over what they covered. Reinforcement of the things they have learned is a proven technique in improving memory skills. Showing an interest in what your child is learning can result in your child taking much more interest in the subject themselves. The proof of the pudding is in the eating so you should see a marked improvement in confidence at school or grades in exams. Private tutoring can be expensive so make sure you are getting good value for money.
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How to choose a tutor.?
My 12 yo daughter is in 6th grade & is below grade level in just about every subject. Unfortunately, I trusted the schools decision each year they moved her to the next grade. I thought if they didn’t hold her back that year, that she must be doing well enough to move ahead, yes, even though she had C’s and D’s. Because of my ignorance, I feel I am the one failing her now.
I do not feel that keeping her back now would be a good decision. I should have done so years ago, but as I mentioned before, I thought it was up to the school to hold her back or at least suggest that I do so if that was the case.
So, I’m thinking the school system is also at fault for failing my kid so I’m going to need to "grab the bull by the horns." My thoughts are to get a private tutor, but how do you choose? Do I have them work on every subject with her or just one or two so she’s not failing them all?
Sometimes the worst thing about being a single mom is making all the tough decisions alone.
When we hired a tutor for our niece, her teacher told us to call around to local colleges because many of them have lists of students who tutor for extra money. We found a great one that way and she helped our niece a lot. They met once a week at our local public library. If I were you, I’d probably just start with the worst two subjects first. Another thing you might look into is finding someone to teach her things like study habits and test taking strategies. Those are two things our niece’s tutor taught her that really seemed to help her in every class.
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You need to figure out what the problem is first.
If she has poor study habits, doesn’t turn in her work, doesn’t know how to study for tests, etc., then a tutor can work with her on all of the subjects at once. He can help her organize her materials, learn how to study, learn the value of turning in work every day, etc. If there are tests coming up, or materials that she doesn’t understand, he can work with her on those.
If the problem is more basic, if she really didn’t learn enough previously to understand what is going on now, you might need to have a tutor concentrate on one or two subjects at first. I’d suggest working on reading first (since that affects most other subjects) and then math (since that’s also so basic). The tutor should probably spend a portion of the tutoring time going over basic things that she’s supposed to know already, but doesn’t, and part of the time working on current assignments. (If she doesn’t work on learning the basics that she missed, she’ll always be behind. If she doesn’t work on current assignments, she’ll keep failing. So the time needs to be spent on some of each.)
If the problem is emotional, counseling might be a better use of your time and money. A lot of kids from single parent homes are angry about their family situations, but feel that they can’t speak up about it, so they often act out their anger by refusing to do well in school. They think that it will hurt the parent that they are angry at, and don’t realize that it hurts themselves instead. I’ve seen this happen a lot of times, and often the parent doesn’t realize that it is the source of the problems, so it is a possibility to consider.
You might want to sit down with her and calmly get her to talk about what the problem is. Then you’ll better know how to deal with it.
To actually choose a tutor, you want to talk to them about their methods, about your daughter’s needs, about your schedule, about their costs, about where the tutoring would take place, etc. and find the one that seems to best fit with what you want. Have an idea about what you want the tutor to do (should he test her skills first or just start helping her, should he work on all subjects or focus on one, should he come to you or you go to him, should he let her direct the tutoring session by telling what she thinks she needs to work on or should he take the lead); then you can communicate what you want and see if he’s willing to provide that or not. Be flexible, since the tutor may see things that you don’t and may see a need to approach the problem differently, but don’t give up all control–speak up if you think he’s going in the wrong direction.
There are a lot of tutoring companies out there. They usually charge a lot but they’ll offer comprehensive testing and will have a detailed plan on how to deal with the problem. You can ask at your daughter’s school (a lot of teachers will tutor after school hours; some schools have free tutoring available). Or at a local college. Or post an ad in the newspaper. Or check the newspaper’s classified ad listings. Or ask at the local library–sometimes they offer tutoring services or know of local tutors or have a bulletin board for listings.
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