Tutoring is a good alternative for you if you love teaching but on your own time. Many MOE teachers in Singapore have switched to being full-time tutors, and they are having the best of both worlds. While your responsibilities as a tutor may be more relaxed than those of a teacher, you still have duties. Most important of these duties is that you have to be at the top of your game.
Tutoring is very competitive because all tutors are qualified educational professionals. You need to be up-to-date with trends in private tutoring. This way, you get to improve your skills. You also have more options to offer to clients, keeping you in demand and with constant work.
1. Stay Up-to-Date With The Curriculum
One of the challenges of private tutoring is figuring out what the curriculum is. Your job as a tutor is to help children in areas they are finding difficult in school. You are not teaching them anything outside of what they learn at school. As such, you need to have the right materials and resources to tutor them well. You need to know what their school curriculum is before you can prepare to tutor them. But that is not all you have to do. You also need to be current with the changes in the curriculum. So many changes have been made to the teaching curriculum as well as the PSLE tests. It is difficult to stay abreast of all these changes as a private tutor. However, all hope isn’t lost. You can check the MOE website, or visit the local library for the current reading list for schools.
You also need to be discerning when picking your tutoring materials. Gender bias used to be normal to find in textbooks, like a man being a carpenter and a woman shown as a teacher. Select texts that help your students to know that no profession is restricted to one sex. Show them female doctors and carpenters, and male tailors and cooks. Expose them to issues of cultural differences and bias.
2. Get Involved In Social Media
Social media is a great way to connect with people in the same field as you. Social media also makes it possible for you to get information and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in tutoring. Join tutoring groups on Facebook. Follow tweets on tuition on Twitter. Meet other tutors and potential clients on LinkedIn. Take advantage of social media to get feedback from your customers. Use it to advertise your business and encourage discussions. Make it possible for clients to ask you questions and receive answers. Social media is a game-changer when it comes to tutoring.
3. Follow Industry Blogs
Blogs are another way to stay current on everything about tutoring. Blogs are a vast source of information. Every topic in every niche imaginable has a blog about it. You can follow blogs on tutoring, blogs written by experts in the field. You will get a lot of important information form the blogosphere if you know where to look.
4. Try Out New Technologies
Constantly, new technologies are developed to make tutoring easier. The most recent ones to come out are interactive resources and online tutoring. With these, you can remotely tutor students via apps like Skype and Zune. Even Facebook has a video chat option now. There are many free interactive resources that make online tutoring easier, efficient and more fun. Resources such mock exams and fun class exercises are available for tutors on online tutoring websites. Some sites let you track students’ progress as you tutor them and give them homework.
5. Attend Events
There are seminars, conferences, conventions, and other events where you can go to listen to educational professionals and interact with them. If you are not one for travel, don’t worry. Webinars and podcasts are also available for you to hear and interact with experts on teaching and tuition. These events are essential in developing you as a tutor. You also get the opportunity to learn from others and connect with other tutors. Attending these events gives you a high level of exposure, and what you learn can be put into practice. This makes you more valuable to clients and makes you a better tutor.
6. Use Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a tool that simplifies your online search. This tool alerts you when articles or blog posts contain a keyword you are interested in. For instance, you might need information on a certain topic. This requires that you go through blogs, articles, and other forums.
Instead of that time-consuming process, use Google Alerts. Simply create an alert with a related word or phrase, and you will receive alerts anytime Google finds pages that say it. So, if you want information on the performance of students in the PLSE English paper, create an alert with ‘PSLE English performance’. You will receive information on the sites that mention it.
7. Read Forums And Discussion Boards
Another source of information for tutors is the parents. These are your clients. They are the ones that request your services for their children. To stay informed about your students, you can get the information from their parents.
There are several online forums created by and dedicated to parents. You can visit these sites and see their discussion threads. You can contribute to their discussions if you think you have something important to add.
Conclusion
Getting as much information as possible is important. Use social media to stay in touch with clients and other tutors alike. Follow blogs related to tutoring to stay abreast of new trends in tutoring. Take advantage of new technologies to reach out to more clients and to get more efficient at tutoring. Attend seminars and conferences, or join webinars and listen to podcasts on tutoring. Simplify your search with Google Alerts. Read parents discussions on online forums. These trends will help you stay on top of your game as a private tutor.
We have more articles to help you to stay on top of your game:
3 Qualities You Must Have To Be A Good Home Tutor In Singapore
7 Steps to Give Better Tuition Assignments
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