Kate's Tutoring Blog

I got involved with WyzAnt in January of 2012. I had just started my graduate degree in education and was teaching part time at a local college. I really enjoyed helping my students learn and gain confidence and I wanted to build up my experience.

I looked into a lot of different tutoring companies and found WyzAnt to be the easiest to use and highly regulated. So I signed up!

I've had great experience so far and love helping my students. That is really the best part of it for me. When I get to help someone work through a problem, learn new study skills, understand concepts and improve their...

Before you begin working with a tutor, Wyzant requires you to submit payment information. Phone numbers, email addresses or other personal information cannot be shared between tutor and student until your payment information has been submitted. If you do try to email your personal information to a tutor, it will be removed from the email and likewise if a tutor tries to send you contact information. This is to protect the tutor and the student. Even last names aren't shared between tutor and student until your payment info has been submitted.

By submitting your payment info, it shows that you...

Logical learners learn best by looking for order, using symbols, breaking down the whole into it's parts, identifying cause and effect and following structure. These students tend to reason in a logical manner, look for relationships, like puzzles, good at calculations, can manipulate functions, and analyze abstract ideas. Creating structure in your classroom or tutoring can engage these students. Providing activities that have clear instructions and criteria are beneficial as well as promoting experimentation, using puzzles, use problem based learning, encouraging content debate and having...

Edmodo is a web community much like Facebook but can be used in the educational setting. The site was designed to bridge technology, digital literacy and the classroom though I've found it to be useful with tutoring. The tutor can set up a group on Edmodo for the student they are tutoring. The student, tutor and the child's parents are the only ones who have access to the group. The tutor can post videos, assignments, polls and have a discussion with their student on the site. The set up looks a lot like Facebook but with the bonuses of being private, no ads and being able to create educational...

Intrapersonal learners are in-tune with their feelings, attitudes, principals and priorities. They are very good at assessing their own behavior and have strong awareness of their thought processes. They may be involved in volunteer or community activities. To support the intrapersonal learner, incorporating choice into activities, using analogues, have student set goals, include journal activities, topic discussions, bring current events into learning experiences, and using interest inventories are all great ways at engaging the intrapersonal learner.

Interpersonal learners learn best through interacting with a group - whether it's a group of 2 or 20. They are in-tune with the needs of others, are personable and have good social skills. Collaborative work, group assessment and leadership opportunities help these students out. Being able to interact with peers during learning experiences, having group work, doing role play, and other forms of class participation are all great ways of engaging interpersonal learners.

Existential learners are concerned about the big picture and how what they are learning fits into that picture. These students are driven by their core values and must have a good reason for doing something, a purpose. They seek meaningful learning, look to connect what they are learning with other things going on in the world or historically, desire a sense of belonging and look at information in the context it is presented. When tutoring, we can support these students by giving an overview of the lesson, looking for cross-curricular connections of the material they are working on, show an...

Visual learners are tuned into spatial orientation, thinking visually, acquiring knowledge through pictures, diagrams, video and slide shows. They are good at designing visually presented material. These students can see ideas, use mental images as a way of remembering, can manipulate models and ideas visually in their mind, and learn best by seeing something in action. When tutoring a visual learner, using diagrams, semantic mapping, visual technologies like Prezi and videos can really help them succeed.

Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing or being physically engaged in the lesson. These learners internalize content and express their ideas through body sensation and movement. Excelling when they learn through doing, they love doing hands-on activities, moving around the classroom and can master a concept when given the opportunity to physically manipulate materials, such as with a lab. In a tutoring session, some ways to help kinesthetic learners would be to incorporate physical models, provide interactive games, construct physical models, and use movement to help memory.

What are multiple intelligences? They are groupings of the unique learning styles that we all have. Each person is different and we all learn in different ways. Multiple intelligences are categories of each of those learning styles. The learning styles are: kinesthetic, existential, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical, rhythmic (musical), naturalistic, linguistic and visual. Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing or having interaction with the learning environment. Existential learners look for the bigger picture and how what they are learning connects to larger understandings. Interpersonal...