Tutor Blogs

Are you the type that prefers to sit in the back of a class, never raise your hand, ask a question or--yikes!!!--stand up in front of the class? Do you think you are a bad writer? NOW is the time to get serious and take advantage of professional coaching and tutoring from an accomplished writer and speaker. You can do it and I can help. Relax--it's not so bad.

You will be pleased with the sense of accomplishment, leadership and pride derived from speaking before a crowd or writing a terrific paper or report. That's it!

Just a note about peer or partner reading. It is a very good technique when teaching English Language Learners to pair them together. I usually pair one who is a stronger reader and perhaps one who is a stronger writer. This technique can be used in tutoring any grade level. I have the students read the dialogue and I read the narration. They really like it and it takes the burden off of the student. It works really well. You can do the same thing teaching writing. You can do one sentence and the student can do another. Try it.

Well, well! I have increased my workload again and I love it. My new WyzAnt tutoring is going very well. I especially enjoy the freedom that WyzAnt presents both tutors and students. I seem to work best -- and have the best results with clients -- when we can both very specifically adapt the program to the individual situation. I look forward to posting pertinent items from the web as well as my musings on education. Of course, all client meetings are held in strictest confidence and will never be posted unless agreed upon by all parties. Hard work is fun!

I recently presented an after school lesson to a group of 6th grade science students on the rock cycle entitled "You've heard of rock musicians but have you heard of rock magicians?". During this study we discovered the three stages of the rock cycle and what happens to minerals during each stage to form igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.

After mastery of the rock cycle, I donned my "rock star attire" (hat, glowing beads and magic wand) to become the "Rock Magician". My "assistants" came up with a magic word we used to give each ordinary rock its special properties and with a wave of the magic wand, transformed ordinary rocks into amazing science. I was able to demonstrate igneous rock that floats like a boat (pumice), sedimentary rock that fizzes like soda pop (calcite), or turns into rubber (ozocderite), and metamorphic rock that glows in the dark (scapolite and sodalite).

Ultimately, they were able to deduce when a rock formed during the rock cycle by recalling the process involved during each phase of the cycle, and the properties exhibited by the rock. It was a great learning experience!

I recently completed my first tutoring session with WyzAnt. It went really well. We met for a couple of hours and focused on math and studying ideas for an upcoming test. The student did a great job and seemed to catch on really quickly.

It has been a while since he worked on the math that is covered in the test, but he did a great job keeping up and moving quickly through the review. I could tell he was slowly remembering the material.

During the session we discussed ideas to work through the reading and math concepts and how to break up the subjects to maximize the studying time and retain the information instead of forgetting it in a day or so. We also discussed ways he can test himself to record his improvement of retention and speed, since this is a timed test.

There is still work to do, but he is very focused on doing well on the test. I do not doubt he will succeed beyond his expectations.