Top 10 Tips for Tutoring - Mytour.vn

Prior to tutoring, you must consider your teaching targets. Who are they? If you lack patience and love for young children, avoid tutoring primary school students, especially first graders, as they are very young and preoccupied with play, paying no attention to academic results. They only listen to their teachers in class and view you as an elder sibling at home, so they won't heed your instructions.

However, if you're less patient and excel in natural sciences like math, physics, chemistry... consider tutoring secondary or high school students. Those with strong English skills should focus on tutoring English according to their strengths. I find that foreign language and talent subjects pay well and aren't overly burdensome.

If you're a college student, only accept classes that suit your abilities, don't greedily take high-paying classes pretending to be a teacher. Because parents' demands for teachers are often for very difficult classes requiring specialized knowledge and teaching experience. Students are not well-behaved types sitting quietly like good children for you to teach. They will employ many tricks to annoy you and make you bored and unable to teach them. Additionally, if you encounter gifted students from specialized schools, your knowledge and experience may be limited, making it impossible for you to teach them long-term. Once the class breaks, you will be the one to suffer the consequences.

Female tutors often worry about being deceived and encountering bad parents. Therefore, the first meeting of tutors with parents and students is crucial for us to evaluate the parents. If someone accompanies you to meet the parents for the first time, even better.

If you meet parents who are more concerned about their child's education, you can feel more assured. Scheduling teaching sessions is also very important; it's best to schedule them in the morning or afternoon, which not only helps you avoid late nights but also provides an excellent time for both you and the students to be mentally alert for learning.

When you choose to teach at reputable tutoring centers, there is hardly any risk involved. Even though there may be difficult parents, unruly students, or weak academic performance... If you are confident in your knowledge and skills, have reasonable teaching methods, and help students make progress, you will succeed and be respected.

Do you need a lesson plan for teaching? This is crucial, especially in the first few teaching sessions. In the initial sessions, you should assess the students' abilities to determine what to teach them in the following days. For exercises, you can create your own or refer to advanced textbooks and online resources to select suitable exercises for the students to do during class and as homework.

Moreover, there are many midterm exams, quizzes, and 15-minute tests available online that you can easily find. Following these preparation steps will make you more confident during teaching sessions and when facing students' questions. Be well-prepared to boost your confidence.

Success in any endeavor requires significant investment of effort, and the same applies to tutoring. In fact, teaching common knowledge to a university student is not difficult, but a little preparation can yield better results.

The first session is crucial. It's important to discuss teaching methods, course objectives, and future achievements with both parents and students. Conducting a short test in the first session to assess students' levels and strengths and weaknesses helps determine the teaching approach and tailor lesson plans accordingly.

Spend 10-15 minutes in the first session getting acquainted, listening, and sharing the students' difficulties and concerns. Experienced tutors advise that besides being a teacher, you should also strive to be a friend to your students.

When taking on new classes, never ask parents questions like, 'How should I teach?' or 'Should I start from scratch or continue with the curriculum?' Generally, questions like these will make the family perceive you as lacking both knowledge and teaching skills, as if you didn't know how to teach, why would they hire you?

Remember to dress modestly and neatly when going to class, avoid creating a bad impression with parents and setting a bad example for students. When speaking with parents, be decisive, avoid lowering your head and speaking softly. When teaching, be confident yet gentle, explain things simply and clearly.

Be friendly and approachable with students but also command respect with your solid knowledge. Students often feel pressure from parents and teachers at school regarding academic performance, so you need to create a comfortable atmosphere for them to learn effectively.

Absolutely no phone usage during teaching sessions. Maintain a quiet atmosphere. If necessary, listen and end quickly! Do not guide students to play electronic games during class. No breaks during class.

If you need to take a break, ask for permission and teach because if you arrive late and students are anxiously waiting for you at home, this will reflect positively on you with parents and their relatives. Another characteristic is that students who study with tutors are often lazy students, arriving late will give students the opportunity to ask for breaks and reduce your teaching hours, which is not beneficial for you because parents will evaluate you as not teaching with enthusiasm, dedication, and may look for another tutor to replace you.

Tutors must understand that, while they are teachers, their students are not like the students and teachers in regular schools where you can scold and bully them. Sometimes they are not only dumb but also cunning, mischievous, and come from wealthy families, so tutors often play the role of babysitters. Their parents usually don't have time to check how the tutor is doing, so all information, good or bad, about the tutor, whether additional sessions are needed, sessions should be reduced, or if the tutor should continue teaching or take a break, usually goes through their beloved children.

Therefore, tutors must understand the students' psyche, be close and friendly to them to create a good impression. You need to have solid knowledge in a field that the students are interested in to impress them, make them feel 'super.' You must be able to incorporate storytelling into your lessons, and in the first few sessions, you may spend a few minutes staying to play with the students if they want. Once the students have a positive impression of you, only then can you confidently scold them when needed, and they will sit quietly without reacting.

You must understand that today's students are not unintelligent, but their academic performance is weak because they refuse to study and lack interest and motivation, so you need to encourage and motivate students to create enthusiasm and a comfortable learning atmosphere, which is easier said than done but requires perseverance and patience.

Aside from teaching moments, you can chat with students, through messages or direct conversations, to see what they need and what they like?

Not only in front of parents but also in front of your students, you must maintain the most professional demeanor: You must dress neatly, stand upright to create a friendly appearance and build your confidence. Students always prefer tutors who are easygoing, sit beside them with a briefcase, rather than those with a dusty face, always nervous, which can make students uncomfortable.

Another good experience for creating a favorable impression on parents is that tutors should be punctual, or at least be on time. Just arriving to teach on time and leaving 5 minutes late is enough to give parents a better impression of you. On regular days of the month, take some time to discuss with parents about their children's studies. You must show them progress, existing weaknesses, and your solutions. You must always demonstrate that you are a tutor who knows how to make their children change and improve.

Knowledge is vast, and it's normal not to know about a certain issue. Sometimes there are basic or simple knowledge that you forget; just admit it. For topics beyond your ability, you can introduce students to various sources, including asking teachers. You can also take this opportunity as a learning experience for yourself, researching and then providing answers later. This also helps you learn and improve your own skills. Good luck and success with your tutoring job!

Tutors must understand why students struggle to learn, as it's crucial to address the root cause of the issue. Doing so is akin to playing the role of a counseling expert. If there's a problem beyond your capabilities, it's best to decline.

Avoid lecturing without connecting with students' assignments and textbooks. Explain theories related to their exercises and help them complete homework assigned by their teachers. If there's extra time, work on similar exercises and strive to solve all the problems in the internal school exercise book because this shows students that the tutor has a lot of experience closely following the school curriculum and will gain their trust.

Students come in various types: depending on each specific case, you must have appropriate teaching methods for each group of students. Avoid rigid teaching methods; instead, be flexible and tactful.

• For quick and independent learners, guide them through methods and let them work independently while you supervise, providing guidance where they struggle. However, be thorough in checking because these students, although quick, can be careless, leading to high chances of mistakes. Be quick but accurate in correcting them.
• For lazy and passive learners who prefer detailed explanations, despite the topics being elementary, they may still require detailed teaching. Although it can be exhausting, remain patient and teach them meticulously, avoiding scolding as it may lead them to perceive you as indifferent, affecting your reputation with parents.
• For students with slow cognitive development, they tend to forget what they learn quickly. However, you must understand and empathize because nobody wants themselves or their children to be in such a situation. You need to be genuinely patient and calm when teaching them. Simply review the knowledge they learned in school, have them redo school assignments, and give them similar exercises to those assigned by their school teachers. Make them redo these exercises repeatedly because “repetition is the mother of learning.” They will remember and be able to apply basic exercises for tests and exams. You need to skillfully motivate and show them the significance of the phrase “hard work beats talent.” Once they become eager to learn, their learning outcomes will improve.

This is an issue that many tutors often overlook. Nowadays, there is no shortage of tutors who do their students' work for them to ensure high grades, intentionally or unintentionally disregarding the harm they're causing. Families that hire tutors to teach their children at home are usually well-off. The students often don't have to do anything themselves because there's always someone to help them. Consequently, they gradually become reliant on others. They either copy solutions from answer keys or ask tutors to do their work for them. They refuse to think critically about any problem.

Students may threaten you, throw tantrums, or speak ill of you to their parents. Nevertheless, don't get too stressed and give up hastily; stay calm and intelligently untangle each situation. In reality, teaching mischievous students can be more rewarding than you think. Demonstrate that you're a competent tutor who knows when to be firm yet gentle, understands children's psychology, and makes them genuinely value your words.