Working as a tutor, where to start, pros

First steps in the profession

How to become a tutor? According https://nicetuto r.co.uk a person who decides to try himself in this matter must, first of all, understand whether he knows how to work with children and whether he understands the features of this process. Much of the success of classes depends on the individual approach to the child. Whether meeting with a student online or in person, it is important to get him interested and captivated by the subject. To make sure that you understand child psychology, you need to try to conduct several trial classes with familiar children or potential students, but for free, in the format of master classes.

In addition to this, you should:

1. Study the relevant literature: current requirements for passing the final certification in grades 9 and 11, methodological materials for preparing for the Unified State Exam and Unified State Exam, modern syllabuses of academic disciplines, etc. It will also be useful to update your knowledge of pedagogy: how to conduct a lesson in an interesting way, what visual teaching aids are best to use.
2. Prepare a portfolio: structure your own achievements, create an accompanying resume.
3. Determine your work schedule, study location, and lesson format (face-to-face, online, or both).
4. Set a price for your work. Decide whether to register as self-employed or open an individual entrepreneur, in short, decide how to pay taxes.
5. Make yourself known: post your resume, look for your first students yourself, or advertise.

It should be remembered that working as a history or literature tutor is different from teaching math or chemistry classes. The lesson format, number of hours per week and meeting location will vary significantly.

First students

Where can a beginning tutor look for clients? If he himself works at a school, then he needs to find out in advance whether the school policy allows private lessons and whether it is ethical to hold paid meetings with his own students. In any case, the teacher can declare himself and recruit students from other schools in the city. How to do it:

1. Post your resume on specialized sites for finding tutors.
2. Post an ad on personal social networks.
3. Ask friends and acquaintances to spread the word via the Internet.
4. Use the principle of “word of mouth”: tell friends, colleagues, family about your new job and ask them to make word of mouth advertising to their acquaintances.
5. Print advertisements about your services and distribute them in pre-agreed places: children's centers, music schools, clinics.

Don’t forget about the possibility of finding students online; we’ll look at the pros and cons below. The advantage of holding meetings via Internet platforms will be a flexible meeting schedule, the ability to consult remotely, and no problems finding a place to study. The main disadvantage is the difficulty in the learning process. The lack of personal contact will allow the student to relax too much, complete tasks with errors without the possibility of immediate correction, be distracted by other matters, or simply turn off communication. Online classes are effective only with highly motivated students. Otherwise, they may anger parents and damage the reputation of a novice tutor. To test this format, you can set up a first meeting with a student online for a minimum payment or for feedback, which will be useful for building a portfolio.

Tutoring - the advantages of the profession

The profession of “tutor” is becoming more and more in demand every year. This happens thanks to the advantages of private teaching:

• working with one student is more convenient and calmer than working with a whole class;
• Only parents control the work - there is no need to write reports, keep an electronic journal, hold meetings with the class, etc.;
• fewer formal obligations: no class management, no responsibility for the life and health of the child;
• When conducting classes, you can rely only on your own methodology: lesson plans will be written “for yourself” without external assessment by head teachers;
• convenient format of classes: some work only online and enjoy it;
• work schedule based on personal preferences;
• often - a free first half of the day: usually the tutor meets with students in the evenings, when they finish their main classes at school;
• steadily growing income: although a beginner specialist earns several hundred rubles per lesson, the price per hour will gradually increase. Many tutors earn more than subject teachers at school;
• the ability to choose students according to your criteria;
• the opportunity to refuse work if there is a conflict with a student or parents - this does not happen at school.

Many teachers use tutoring as an opportunity to earn extra money - during the day they work at their main job, and in the evenings they meet with students.

The main disadvantages of the profession

No matter how wonderful the work of a tutor may seem to a beginner, it, like any other activity, has significant disadvantages:

• lack of motivation in the student: if the student does not want to attend classes, there will be no proper result:
• parents have inflated expectations: they will have to regularly explain that in a month of classes it will not be possible to turn a C student into an excellent student;
• deception regarding payment for lessons: parents may refuse to pay for work, and it will not be easy to influence them;
• work in multitasking mode: quickly switching from one student to another, regularly adjusting lesson plans in accordance with the individual achievements of children;
• work for results: if a student does poorly on the Unified State Exam, they will most likely blame the tutor, not the school teacher;
• strict adherence to the schedule: strict adherence to class times so as not to disrupt the flow of students;
• conducting classes at home: many parents want the tutor to come to the child, rather than meet with him on neutral territory. This could be due to a variety of difficulties, ranging from an allergy to cat hair to a broken family favorite vase;
• lack of teaching experience and paid leave;
• spending on teaching materials: producing manuals, printing test forms and visual samples can be expensive.

The tutor like p rivate german tutors largely depends on the parents: if they don’t like something in his work, they will write a negative review, which will undermine the reputation.

Mistakes of a beginning tutor

It's hard to start your career path without making mistakes. Let’s look at what young tutors most often encounter and how to avoid it:

• quantity at the expense of quality: you need to avoid the temptation to recruit many students at the same time in order to make money. At the first stage, 2-4 people are enough to get into the rhythm of work and understand how the profession works from the inside;
• low price for services: firstly, it will not bring the desired income, and secondly, it may scare away potential clients - parents may doubt the level of competence of the tutor. It is better to focus on the average cost in the city and reduce it slightly;
• bad trial lesson: the first lesson- presentation is most often free, but it is for this that you should prepare “excellently” - it should create the right impression among potential clients;
• ignoring parents: the successes and failures of a minor student should be discussed with his parents. They pay for lessons, so they have the right to know everything that happens to their child;
• lack of confidence in themselves and their knowledge: children feel if the teacher is afraid of them, and begin to behave accordingly. It is important to get ready for work, prepare well for classes, constantly improve your teaching methods, then the uncertainty will go away.

Let’s summarize what working as a tutor involves, where to start, the pros and cons. A private teacher can both conduct lessons, analyzing difficult parts of the school curriculum, and prepare for final and entrance exams. You can work as a tutor either remotely, conducting classes via video communication services, or in person, meeting with students at home or in public spaces: anti-cafes, co-working spaces, libraries with open rooms for work. The advantage of the profession is that the tutor himself determines the payment, convenient location and schedule of his work. Disadvantages - depending on the opinion of the student’s parents and the child’s lack of focus on results. But over time, difficulties go away, and experience appears. The main thing is to update your knowledge and develop in your chosen business.