WyzAnt Tutor Articles

Write a 250 word piece about the best birthday you've ever had and include the words: worst, lousy, bad, irritating.

Sometimes, it is essential to provide students with additional perspectives, besides the tutor's. As I tutor more and more, I realize that even with the one-on-one benefits of tutoring, there is a need for interaction with other students. However, the problem is, there are no other students to provide this feedback when you are tutoring a student. I have found that creating relationships with other students is a remarkable enhancement to the tutoring experience.

I have used Pen Pals to meet this need. There are a variety of websites that offer pen pals for different purposes. If I am tutoring a student in Social Studies, Geography or History, a Pen Pal is an amazing resource for FREE and REAL information about the study topics. This is usually an exciting concept that is well-received by the student because they thrive with interactions with others and they think it's amazing to connect with people like them all around the world! Using the right resources for this is essential, so I suggest that tutors spend some time locating the right program for their needs. Usually, those that are dedicated to teachers offer the most security and less potential for spam and unwanted leaks of information to the Web. Additionally, these sites allow the tutor more access to hand-picking the pen pals for their needs. The greatest benefit for this type of tutoring lesson is the ability to focus on the writing skills of the student while not needing to create writing assignments for the sake of writing! This makes the students more likely to give their effort to their tasks AND it allows the tutor to challenge the student to become eloquent in their writing efforts because it is directed at a "friend". I encourage tutors to give this a try in Foreign Languages, Writing, History and Social Studies, ESOL... actually, the possibilities are endless! I'd love to know how YOU are using Pen Pals in your tutoring!

I am excited about working with people and helping with learning. Mathematics is my best subject and I am willing and able to help.

I have been out of school for some time, but I use the concepts of algebra on a daily basis to perform my job so I know I would be able to help with this subject.

Please keep me in mind if you need help!

Do you find yourself giving up or procrastinating on your reading and studying? Does it seem like there is an endless amount of work to finish between now and Christmas? I know you have heard a million times, "break it into smaller pieces". Maybe you need another way to do that.

Here is a way that has worked for some of my students. Let's say you have 9 chapters in your history textbook to read and understand by the end of the semester (and 3 exams---3 chapters per exam). Rather than be overwhelmed by that concept, what you can do is make up 3 separate index cards (one per exam--and write which chapters must be covered for that exam). For now, just refer to the card for the first exam. Take 3 post-its (and write 1 chapter on each). Stick the post-its on the exam card. Pick a deadline for each chapter. As soon as you finish a chapter--throw the post-it for that chapter away. There is something very satisfying and empowering to be able to pitch that post-it.

As soon as you feel like procrastinating, odds are you are focused on the 9 chapters. Re-focus! Grab your chapter cards. Tell yourself---I will finish 1 card; I will throw away post-its.

This may sound like an idea that cannot work. But it gets around the mental blocks that we tend to create and then use to procrastinate. This concept worked great for one of my students. He just couldn't get started on his reading assignments. As a matter of fact, we took a step backward from this strategy. I made a card for just 1 chapter. If the chapter was 21 pages long and he had a week to cover it, I would direct him to read only 3 pages a day. I added that if he knew he needed to take a day off during that week, he needed to have his page count for the week taken care of anyway. We would make a game of it, and try to estimate how many minutes it would take to thoroughly read those 3 pages. He began to see that no matter how huge the reading assignments, he could break it down into manageable sizes. If he had to read 140 pages during the week, but he could only bear to read 5 pages at a time, he needed to read 5 pages 4 times a day. Guess what? He quickly decided that he would rather read 20 pages at a time and be done for that day. But even if he needed to read only 5 pages at a time, he could get it done. Get the challenge or mountain down to the size where you almost laugh and say---of course I can do that much!

Success breeds success. Baby steps to the end of the course.....as one of my favorite students says, "slow and steady wins the race"!

You can succeed! Let me know if you try my techniques! I would love to tutor you and get you on your wonderful road to success!

A student told me recently that she was only the third person in her family who ever went to college. She has recently finished her B.A. and will soon start an M.A. program, at the age of 50. I told her how proud I was of her achievement and perseverance. But what most impressed me was her answer when I asked, so what do you feel has changed about you now that you have been to college. She answered, now I know I shouldn't waste my time on meaningless activities, like watching silly TV shows. I know that reading is much more interesting and stimulating, and I even enjoy doing the research required to prepare my school writing assignments. If there was ever a reason to be educated, this is it. Education means you know better than to waste your mind and your life on empty pursuits, and you might even decide that tutoring to improve your skills or knowledge, to have better career options, is something worthwhile. This kind of new awareness in a student is what makes me want to be a tutor.