As someone working in education whether as a tutor, coach or teacher you're probably already someone who recognises the importance of a growth mindset when it comes to teaching, learning and even university studies.
For this reason if you're someone who is aspiring to be or already working as a private online tutor you may be interested in learning about how you can plan your lessons to make the online learning environment somewhere fun and engaging place to be.
Keep reading this article if you're keen to find out how to improve your lesson planning, and make sure to check out some of our other helpful articles for new online tutors here.
Whether you plan to work with high school students in year 11 & 12 for subjects such as English, Chemistry and Maths, or primary school students this article will provide you with some helpful tips on how to become a fantastic tutor.
One of our first tips is to do some of your own research, there are plenty of free resources out there for people who are interested and passionate about education studies. Here at Superprof we make an effort to help tutors find the support they need.
Don't forget that there are other amazing learning resources such as YouTube, as well as practical lesson aides on websites such as Twinkl. Read our article on the benefits of video sharing platforms here.
Professional Conduct
Before we get stuck into the particulars of lesson planning let's quickly go over how you can make your tuition service as professional as possible and have your students and their parents booking in for multiple lessons.
In order to make the most out of a lesson it is beneficial to have your lesson time last for at least 30 minutes to an hour. This is a good amount of time to break your lesson up into different sections; everyone can get bored if you do the same thing the whole time.
For example, a basic lesson plan structure could go as follows:
- Introduction: build rapport, establish learning goals and a warm-up activity
- Main activity: this will vary depending on the subject you're teaching
- Wrap up: brief summary of the lesson and what to work on before next class
Another tip we have for you is that if you're planning to see multiple students in a day, it's handy to allow about half an hour in between lessons to make sure you have extra time for each student and don't keep any other student waiting around.
Read this article to find out more about the latest research.
Good Communication & Marketing Yourself
In order to find students to work with and keep working with them over time, you will need to be an excellent communicator. This will involve being organised and staying on top of your time management especially in terms of your availability.
Parents will probably become disgruntled customers if you cancel classes last minute, so make sure to give plenty of notice if something comes up. Your student's parents will also definitely appreciate regular communication regarding time and place for the lessons you provide.
Establishing yourself as a trustworthy and reliable tutor will allow you to build up a good reputation when it comes to advertising your services online. If you choose to tutor with us here at Superprof you will be able to create a profile that allows students to leave reviews as well as allow you to apply and highlight your skills, experience and knowledge.
A tip to keep in mind when it comes to creating an online profile advertising your tutoring services is that you will clearly need to state what subjects you are offering classes for. Here at Superprof, you can choose to find a job as a private tutor in a broad range of subjects.
Some of the most popular subjects currently for online tutors include Maths and English, as the many lockdowns across Australia in particular for Melbourne and Sydney have taken a blow as children's education across these two cities and their states have been disrupted.
You may even be someone who is looking for a flexible job where you can choose your own hours, tutoring could be for you!
Other popular subjects include Language and Study Skills for those students entering year 12 and their final year of school. To find out more about how you can learn more about being an online tutor click here.
Everyone Learns a little Differently
Tutors and teachers who have a passion for sharing knowledge and learning with others know better than anyone that no one student is the same. Everyone learns in their own way to some degree, whether you're someone who learns best with mind maps or someone who learns best with pages of notes.
As a tutor or teacher, it is important to understand how to support children in their learning and make the experience one they associate with positivity and growth instead of stress and sometimes shame.
Tutoring can be a great space for children who don't always feel the most comfortable in a busy classroom, as they can take their learning at their own pace and figure out what they might've missed during class time at school.
This is where it can be helpful to communicate with your student's parent and teacher to gain a deeper understanding of what their learning style is, and how best you can work with them to support their education.
It is also incredibly important to establish a good rapport between yourself and your student, you can help make your student and their parents feel more comfortable by applying for a Working with Children Check which you can learn more about here.
Figuring out what works for your students will help inform how you can plan your lessons. For example, you might have one student who loves warm-up games to start off a lesson, whereas another student might prefer a wrap-up activity as a reward at the end of the lesson.
It's up to you as the tutor to discover what your student enjoys, where they need the most support and what you can do to guide them on their learning journey. You can encourage independence, but most often young learners often need constant support and encouragement.
How to Be Organised
We've gone over how you as a tutor can approach your lesson planning and professionalism, now let's quickly discuss how you can support your students to be the same to create a positive environment for everyone.
In order to not mix up which days you're seeing particular students, it can be helpful to get a professional diary, so you can clearly see when and where you need to be on certain days.
No one wants to work with a tutor who is difficult to get in contact with, has poor time management and is late to online sessions or lack the essential skills and knowledge needed to work with kids.
For this reason, you don't want start working in this field without having some passion for what you do as well as respect for the children you work with.
As a tutor, you can get prepared and show off your organisation skills by:
- Pre-planning lessons
- Establishing regular work hours
- Reply to emails and messages regularly
- Arrive to class on time
- Provide adequate learning resources
So how can you teach your students the same organisation skills? You can do this by using a virtual classroom that has features which allow students to 'raise their hands' during class, as well as a chat function which can be used to share useful resources.
If you make a clear agreement that they are also expected to come to class on time and be prepared just like you, this is a great way to establish respect between you. Encouraging self-management skills is also an important part of learning.
As a tutor you can encourage your students to be independent and exercise their critical thinking skills, it can be helpful to reward and praise the growth of any kind. You don't want to pressure your student into improving their current level in just one lesson.
Learning is something that can take time and practice, so for this reason even if your student doesn't get that score on a test they wanted you can still praise their efforts and remind them of where they first started.
We hope you've enjoyed today's article, feel free to check out this one about new research as well to learn more about tutoring jobs. The way that everyone learns differently, everyone also teaches a little bit differently, so have fun finding your teaching style and get started today.
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