Salle's Tutoring Blog

This is not going to happen today or tomorrow, but someday in the future, in order to save driving time, I might occasionally set up an experimental ESL lesson over the web. I used to Skype with friends, but I found out how dangerous that can be to my computer system, since Skype does not have its own network of servers to use. Because they do not, I found out, Skype uses computers of its members to carry the program, leaving me vulnerable for hacking AND, even more importantly, slowing my system down during Skype's busiest times.

Google, however, has the same VOIP, with their own servers,...

When I start to work with students, I want to learn who they are, find out what they (and their parents) want to achieve and create a trust between us. This process shouldn't take longer than one to three sessions. Then it's time to talk about their goals.

I suggest age-appropriate targets, such as, for children in 3rd to 5th grade something like: "response from school teacher is that progress has been made, reflected in grades and homework feedback." For the older students, they seem to be able to tell when they're doing better by feeling more confident about their work, speaking out in...

Most of my students are in elementary school. It seems that they all start out finding it difficult to focus on the task at hand. This is cross-cultural as I have some Asian American children and a British family and I worked with an Indian student for a while. I am concerned (what's new here?) with the lack of attention-span that seems to reflect and be a consequence of playing games and watching television.

When kids are "working" on something they love, like perfecting a slap shot or discussing their pets, focus can tune out everything else, but it's hard to get kids to love writing...