Nobody is immune from mistakes. Beginners, even more so. But in some professions: an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, and others, mistakes can be costly. This article is an attempt to give some tips that may help you avoid these mistakes.


1. Self-doubt

As the saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Coming to a lesson for the first time, any tutor should make a positive impression, and a beginner - three times. Excessive excitement of a novice tutor (trembling hands and voice, obsessive movements) can make a strange impression, which he has nothing to smooth out yet, unlike a teacher with experience, some features of which, in principle, can be ignored.

Self-doubt and fear of not being liked by the student can make the tutor incorrectly build a line of behavior with him - with "flirting" and erasing the necessary distance in the relationship, which, in turn, will weaken his authority and allow the student to work at half strength. You can not go to the other extreme, putting on the mask of an evil teacher, forbidding and threatening. The mask will sooner or later fly off, revealing your true face, and this will allow the student to behave with you without any respect. Before you go to class, do a little exercise, take a deep breath, raise your head and smile at your reflection in the mirror. You have the knowledge to pass it on to others, the charm to please people, and the confidence to be yourself when people try to confuse you.

Do not be late for the lesson, but if you feel that you still won’t make it on time, be sure to call: no one will kill you for the very fact of being late, and with your call you will leave the impression of at least a polite person. Do not take on all the offers in a row: while your rate is low, traveling from one end of the city to the other, you will spend half the money you earn on transport, the time during which you could spend one more lesson, and the forces that you, of course, still will be needed.


2. The unsystematic nature of classes, the lack of expressed requirements

Even before the start of classes, you must form a certain set of rules that are common to everyone, and later supplement it with points that are constant for a particular student. For example, I strongly recommend that many students start several notebooks at the very first lesson: for writing down various kinds of theory, for verification work and for homework. Moreover, if you start them, you and your student should lead them at every lesson, and not when you accidentally remember about it. The student also needs to be accustomed to order: he must always know where his notebooks and books are, prepare them in advance and not lose them. The loss of a task, from the point of view of a negligent student, is very good reason its failure. Therefore, if you are studying not from textbooks, but from various handouts, recommend that the student create a special folder for them. Get yourself a diary or some kind of journal: it will be convenient to write down the material covered in it, homework and the mistakes of each student that you think should be worked on next time, because keeping all this information in your head, especially when you have a lot of students, is not so easy.

You must clearly communicate to the parents of the students the cost of classes, the days and times that suit you, the requirements for the child, your position regarding the cancellation and rescheduling of classes, and subsequently promptly inform parents about the bad behavior of children or their failure to complete homework, do not allow them to ride on themselves and say goodbye to them without regret when it starts to happen.


3. No lesson plan

It is wrong to assume that good knowledge the subject allows you not to prepare for the lesson. Especially if you are still at the very beginning of the journey. It is necessary to draw up a plan in which you indicate exactly what you will do in the lesson and how long it will take you to complete each item. But the plan cannot be treated formally. No matter how simple the material may seem to you, you need to study it very carefully, noting for yourself the ways of explaining it (the more the better: one is never enough), the possible difficulties of the students and ways to overcome them, the possible answers of the students to oral and written assignments. In addition, you should always be prepared for the fact that the student’s homework may not be done or not done completely, so instead of quickly checking it and starting new theme you'll have to do something else. Thus, the plan should provide for several options for the development of the lesson. The time to complete the points of the plan must be calculated in advance and distributed evenly, without delving into any one task to the detriment of the others. It is absolutely unacceptable to interrupt a student in the middle of an assignment simply because you yourself did not calculate how much time it would take him.


4. A single approach to different students

If you are a novice teacher, then you most likely have not yet formed an extensive methodical library, and for you now it is important not to be afraid to learn new things. For different students different problems and different purposes, so you should use different textbooks, and not one or two of the best known to you. Spend time searching for and pre-evaluating materials so that you don’t waste it on something that the student does not need at all. Subsequently, to facilitate the search for the desired material on a particular topic, it will be possible to compile a catalog of available resources.


5. Unwillingness to answer questions

Active, interested students are a real gift for any tutor, but headache for a beginner. Surprises lie in wait at every step: for example, if you teach a foreign language and, while studying the topic “Professions”, ask a student who his parents work for, then please do not expect that everyone will turn out to be teachers, engineers or doctors. Teacher foreign language may encounter the problem of the student's specific interests that lie outside his linguistic competence, and therefore experience difficulties in translating a particular term (aircraft details, dance figures). In this case, it will not hurt you to get acquainted with one or another category of vocabulary, but inform the student that you cannot know everything and push him to independent discoveries. In turn, in a physics lesson, a student may have his own alternative view of the cause of some natural phenomena, and you must put yourself in his place in order to understand his point of view and clarify any questions.


6. Lack of patience with slow learners

On the other hand, students who are not so quick-thinking require great self-control from the tutor, because you can never yell at them, even if you really, really want to. Screaming and swearing frighten children, block their thought processes and give rise to complexes. Even if you have to explain the material in twenty-five different ways, before the student understands what is wanted from him, try to treat it with a positive attitude. You are a super teacher if you know twenty-five ways to explain one topic, and Indian yogis would envy your patience! In addition, in the end, you will still achieve your goal, and the gratitude of such a student will be much higher.


A novice teacher, student or yesterday's student may be in some euphoria from receiving new professional knowledge or a new status and sincerely wish to teach the student everything at once. With such generosity, he can do harm, not good, disrupt the student’s picture of the world and make him doubt the system of education used in this subject at this stage, especially when it comes to primary school. A second-grader, like his name, learns that it is impossible to divide by zero, but if the tutor casually informs him that this is not entirely true, then a misunderstanding with a school teacher and a decrease in grades are guaranteed to him. The other extreme is to avoid any complexities and terminology in general, even the one that the student must obviously know (“complement”, “adverb”, “diffusion”, “catalyst”), and use descriptive phrases instead of them so as not to overload his brain. It is necessary to firmly know the program of each class and adhere to it, making allowances for the depth of knowledge and abilities of each individual student.

The Russian language is one of the most demanded subjects in our country, along with a foreign one. Many schoolchildren, students and even adults want to improve their knowledge in this area, therefore it is a profitable and very correct decision.

We think over everything well and repeat the material

But in order to give knowledge to others, you need to have it yourself. Before you place an ad about the services provided and start looking for students, you should soberly assess your knowledge of this discipline.

- not necessarily a person with a special pedagogical education, but you must understand for yourself that you will need to not only present the material, but also explain it, reinforce it with rules and examples. Therefore, if you do not have an education, but you are sure that you know Russian perfectly well, then you still need to devote a little time and study the basic rules of grammar and phonetics, get acquainted with the names of philological phenomena, and study Russian school programs in detail language (since most of the clients are schoolchildren). If you are even ready to start preparing teenagers for the Unified State Examination, then you need to approach this issue thoroughly, purposefully reviewing the assignments of recent years and acquiring special teaching aids.

And a few more important points

1. Initially, let your parents understand that you are not a magician, and it is impossible to expect a miracle immediately from the first lesson.

2. Not all students will like you, but you just have to like them.
3. Keep in touch with your parents.

4. If a child yawns during the lesson and looks at the clock, do not waste your time - say goodbye to him, because there will be no sense from him.

5. Always prepare thoroughly for each class. Don't rely on improvisation.

6. If the child forgot to pay - do not hesitate to remind him about it.

A tutor is not an easy profession that requires patience and strength, so if you still decide to become a teacher, then do not forget that you will also need to constantly learn and improve your knowledge.

HLEB continues to acquaint readers with the inner workings of various professions. In today's episode, a private tutor talks about the children of wealthy parents, the disadvantages of age difference and concentration

I chose tutoring as an extra income because I thought it was easy. You came to your child’s home for one and a half to two hours (yes, I go to students, and I don’t take them at home), explained everything to him, gave him a bunch of tasks, and at that time you sit and scroll through the feed on VKontakte or stick to “Peekaboo” ". But this work is no easier than others. In some ways even harder.

I teach Russian language and literature with schoolchildren. Considering that at the university I studied both of these disciplines in depth for two years, at the beginning of the third year I considered myself ready to explain my knowledge to other people. The main advantage of a young tutor, a student or so, is that he has recently gone through all this hell with the Unified State Examination, he has all the memories of preparation, passing, chips and tricks alive in his memory. And he is close to the age of five-minutes-graduates and therefore can speak the same language with them. In general, I considered myself an ideal candidate for this role and thought that I could handle it in no time. How wrong I was.

...

My first student is 9th grade, preparing for the OGE in the Russian language. She is lazy, but understands that the exam must be passed well, and therefore she studies. Here I discovered the first inconvenience of working as a tutor: you have to constantly keep the attention of the child. IN last years it's even more difficult, because the phone with the Internet access always on is pestering with VKontakte and Twitter messages. You have to put the phone away, and both of you: you can’t force a child not to do what you do yourself.

I learned to hold my attention somewhere in a month. This is not difficult to achieve: you need to do different things all the time. We wrote the theory, and performed oral exercises, and chatted on abstract topics. And I also set aside time for independent completion of tasks. As a result, we never do one type of work for more than twenty minutes. I remember some interesting cases from my life, from my studies, amusing facts about the Russian language. Did you know that in our language there are many roots consisting of one letter? And the child is captivated, he has not seen this before.

The second problem is laziness. I encountered this when working with the second student, who needed a tutor in both Russian and literature - for passing the exam. It seems that he understands that it is necessary to pass the exam, it is simply necessary, but he does practically nothing. Constantly cancels classes, referring to poor health, illness, some business. Doesn't fulfill homework or does it on "get rid". And how to deal with it? I'm not her mother to scold. I took this position: if you want results, do it; if you don’t want it, don’t waste your and my time in vain. Helped.

But this is nothing compared to the third problem - the lack of education.

I was approached by the mother of a seventh-grader who had problems with the school curriculum of the Russian language. I thought it would be easier than the OGE or the USE. And what, I read the textbook - and retold it in my own words. And, probably, it would have worked with another child. But not with this.

Antosha (let's call him that) is a teacher's real nightmare. Even if I howled, how do the teachers who interact with him at school every day cope? All the previous problems were here: it is impossible to keep attention, and even more so to overcome laziness. In the first lesson, of everything that I had planned for an hour and a half, we managed to get through only a third. He was constantly distracted, talking endlessly about his school, about hockey, which he does every day, about his cat, which immediately ran around. And when you try to bring him back to the topic of the lesson, he is like this:

- Yes, let's ... Oh, you know, I'm weaving baubles from rubber bands, do you want to show me?

The topic of my second lesson with Antosha is communion. Everything seems to be simple: you take an adjective, you take a verb, you combine it - you get the sacrament. But Antosha didn't even know what a verb was. And then came the startling question:

- And what is a fall?

This got me completely. I don't keep the definition of case in mind. To me, it's as simple as "what is a chair". It's a fucking chair. And that's it. In the seventh grade, the student should already know the cases, like the multiplication table. In a normal school, of course.

There was no third lesson with Antosha.

I guess it's not about me. Yes, a professional teacher would certainly have dealt with it much more calmly. But with other students, I did not have such problems! I think it's a lack of upbringing. From communication with the student's mother, I concluded that he only child in family. And also - that their chickens do not peck money. And he talks to mom and dad in such a way that you can immediately see: he is the king here, the master of the situation. So everything is clear.

I concluded for myself: the smaller the age difference between the tutor and the student, the easier it is for both. At least for me it is.

Therefore, the next student was just a gift in comparison with the restless seventh grader. And yes, I finally got a child who is really interested in the subject. An eleventh-grader asked me to study literature with her for the exam. And I understood why some teachers have "favorites". It doesn't always happen on purpose. It's just much more pleasant to communicate with those students who are interested in obtaining new knowledge and ask you questions themselves.

But the approach, of course, must be found for everyone. And this is the hardest part. Everyone has their own favorite topics for conversation, their own limit of working capacity, their own view of the subject being studied. It is enough for someone to cross the “threshold”, while someone strives for high goals. And when such individual lessons you have five in a week, sometimes you just can’t connect to the next student. And connecting with him, being on the same wavelength with him is very important. Otherwise, nothing will work at all.

...

If you want to tutor, it is important to understand that it is not " easy way make money, as I thought at the beginning. This is work. You should always be ready for the topic of the lesson. You must swim in the subject taught like a fish in water - at least at the level at which the student studies it. You should always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. You have no right to be tired, sleepy, irritated, angry. You must always have a smile on your face, otherwise you will not make the student smile. Do not tune in to his wave. You must become his friend. A friend who just knows a little more and is willing to help you learn the material.

The greatest joy from such work is when the student understands. Then the work turns into a pleasant, even a favorite thing. Then don't you think it's Additional income. This is the same work as everyone else, in some ways not easy. And when a student succeeds, this is the best reward for a tutor.

Tell your friends:

Found an error? Select the fragment and send it by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

An unpleasant situation familiar to many parents: the child begins to lag behind school curriculum and get bad grades. What to do? If the joint solution of homework does not change the picture in the diary, then there are already too many gaps in knowledge, and it's time to turn to a tutor for help. But private teachers should be contacted not only to improve school subjects, to prepare a child for the Olympics or to enter a prestigious university. The individual format of classes is also very effective for developing the creative qualities of children. Ivan Ivanov, founder of Upstudy.ru, an online service for finding tutors, coaches and psychologists, spoke about the benefits of individual lessons and recalled some of the pitfalls of such an educational format.

Why is it needed

The problem with lack of knowledge is best "caught" at the very beginning. A professional teacher will quickly determine where the child has gaps and get to work, and in a couple of weeks you will notice the first results: corrected grades, success on tests.

A good teacher will be able to establish contact and adapt to the characteristics of the child, his temperament, mindset and speed of perception of new information. This approach will ultimately have a positive effect on the quality of knowledge, the student will become more confident in the classroom.

What should be negotiated "on the shore"

When hiring a tutor, make sure of his professionalism: ask for a portfolio and recommendations, collect reviews, ask what materials he works with. This is an absolutely normal practice, it is better to be meticulous in this matter than to scold yourself for short-sightedness later.

You know your child very well, and this will help you understand whether he will improve communication with the tutor. If in doubt, it is better to offer the teacher several trial paid lessons. If everything goes well, the child will continue to attend classes, if not, it will be possible to disperse without mutual claims.

The child needs to win music competition or write an annual test for the top five? Immediately set a specific task for the tutor. Knowing what results are expected from him, he will be able to correctly build a training program. It makes sense to discuss the level of requirements in advance. Too loyal approach can spoil the child, and excessively high expectations can completely discourage him from learning.

Keep in mind that the tutor also evaluates the child to find the best format for classes, and may also agree or refuse to cooperate. One of our tutors in mathematics, Pronkin Ruslan Sergeevich, notes: “It is imperative to observe the student a little - to note his inclinations, how he learns information, what is easier for him and what is more difficult. And after the main points are clarified, you can decide on what method to work with a particular student so that the classes are useful, interesting and effective.

An important point is the scheme of payment for classes. It is clear that individual lessons are a priori more expensive than group lessons, but their cost should not be cosmic. Seeing wealthy parents willing to do anything for their child, unscrupulous tutors can set prices several times higher than average. In order not to fall for this bait, make inquiries in advance. Professional exchanges of tutors can help out in this matter, on which hundreds of profiles are posted indicating the cost of an hour of classes, it will not be difficult to calculate the average price. To avoid unpleasant situations later, immediately agree with the teacher how you will transfer money for lessons: through a child, personally or transfer to a card.

A few "buts"

Individual lessons have a lot of advantages, but there are also some nuances. The main one is that by hiring a tutor, you actually create greenhouse conditions for the child. Week after week, the teacher will methodically analyze each topic and help in solving all issues. As a result, the child may get used to the fact that the information comes to him already in a “chewed” form, and lose interest in independent study. To prevent this from happening, arrange with the tutor to constantly involve the child in a dialogue and ask him to reason out loud. Conclusions that people come to on their own are always digested better.

Classes with a private tutor are a bit of an artificial situation, also because the child communicates only with the teacher. By virtue of his age and education, the tutor will try to smooth out sharp corners and in something to go towards the student. Lessons in small groups in this regard are closer to reality: there is healthy competition, each student is motivated to attract the attention of the teacher and get his approval.

Group lessons or private?

In the vast majority of cases, individual lessons are more effective. This format is ideal for hyperactive children who in the group would be constantly distracted by any trifle. The tutor quickly understands when the child's attention concentration changes, and corrects the tasks right in the course of the lesson.

In a group, it is more difficult to keep track of the change in the mood of each student, but you should not write off such classes from the accounts. Moreover, in some areas they are simply necessary, provided that the group does not exceed 2-4 people. It's about about subjects in which discussions are welcome, for example, literature, social studies, history, philosophy. So, it is quite possible to team up with 2-3 classmates or friends of interest, and visit one tutor together. In this case, the lesson will cost less, but the effect will still be worthy. The main thing is to find a teacher with whom it is comfortable to work in this mode.

How to evaluate the results of classes?

There should be a positive trend: after about a month, the grades in the child's diary should get better, and requests for help with homework should gradually fade away. If this does not happen, then the tutor failed to complete his task. Do not wait until the situation improves by itself, talk to the teacher and find out the reason. In general, try to call your tutor at least once every two weeks and find out how things are going. A teacher who is truly interested in good results will gladly tell you everything.

Individual lessons with a teacher are a quick, effective, but expensive way to master some skills or improve knowledge in a particular subject. Look for professional educators, set clear goals for them, do not forget to receive from them feedback and be sure to ask for the opinion of the child, then excellent results will not keep you waiting.

Not every person who knows English can teach it to other people. But if you have set yourself the goal of becoming a tutor, then this is quite possible to achieve if you follow some rules and make some efforts.

A tutor is significantly different from a university teacher or a school teacher. His teaching methodology is based on the skills and knowledge of the student he took in currently. Since all students are different, a lot of nuances in the work come from here. Therefore, today we will try to understand them and answer the question of how to become an English tutor.

At the beginning of your journey, you should not offer a bunch of programs for everyone. Beginning tutors can usually prove themselves well in working with school students. But if you like working with adults, then start working only with them.

Cost of education: From 35$/lesson

Discounts: Not provided

Free lesson: Not provided

Teaching methodology: Determined by the teacher

Online testing: Provided

Literature: Determined by the teacher

The address: Mountain View, California

  • Lux: 2018-12-25 09:19:54

    a service that helps to look at many countries in a different way. I love to travel the world, I've been to the Czech Republic, Thailand, Canada... but as a tourist, I would like a hotel and a bunch of restaurants and shops nearby. over time, priorities have changed, I wanted to learn something new and interesting, and what, if not English, and even so wonderful way that offers linguatrip? in a dozen lessons with Joe, I got a more or less normal pronunciation and arranged a 4-week trip to Canadian Oxford ...

  • Lara: 2018-12-21 17:07:47

    I plan to get a second degree abroad, presumably in Canada. On the this moment my spoken English is too weak to take such a step, so I’ll start small with the linguatrip school: first remote lessons via Skype, then I’ll visit a couple of Canadian schools for courses - since I already went this fall, but I was very shy and so plainly and did not speak, apparently due to the fact that being in an English-speaking environment was new for me. They also helped a lot with the linguatrip visa, in just a little...

  • Olga: 2018-12-21 16:47:54

    Thanks to this platform, we spent the whole summer in Cyprus with a friend!) summer camp, which we chose, "English in Cyprus" - it's just a bomb!) We were worried that learning would take everything free time and besides him, there’s not enough strength for anything else, but everything turned out to be much better: there were evening and daytime entertainment, again, associated with training, comfortable housing, amusement parks there - fly away! In short, in next year let's go there)...

linguatrip

Cost of education: From 35$/lesson

Discounts: Not provided

Teaching Mode: Online/Skype

Free lesson: Not provided

Teaching methodology: Determined by the teacher

Online testing: Provided

Customer Feedback: (4.4/5)

Literature: Determined by the teacher

The address: Mountain View, California

Each of the age categories requires an individual approach. Children, for example, cannot concentrate on learning for very long. And adults really don’t like it when they are corrected, criticized or point out mistakes. And almost everyone hopes for a quick result. This is one of the main problems.

business man in start—racing position

All methods must be used. By the way, the word of mouth method works with a bang. Post the news on your social media page. networks that you recruit students. Offer the first free lesson, arrange promotions, etc.

People are inherently inert, so they are unlikely to write to you asking you to teach them English. But literally every one of your friends or their friends dreamed of learning English at least once. If you want to learn how to become a tutor English language, you first need to learn how to advertise your own services.

You can send messages to your friends like: “Hi. I started giving English lessons. I would love to be your tutor! The first lesson is free =) Also, do you know any of your friends who would like to learn English?”

Ask your acquaintances, relatives, friends, let's advertise in the newspaper and on your page in the social. networks. And if you plan to work on Skype, then you have a lot of opportunities to advertise yourself on the Internet.

As practice shows, almost no one is interested in your diplomas and titles. Even many years of experience does not inspire such confidence as simple recommendation friend. If you know how to present the material, then a diploma is often unnecessary.

But it should be borne in mind that a diploma is a confirmation of your knowledge. If you are going to prepare people for an international exam, but have never taken it yourself, then most likely the students will be disappointed in you. Therefore, to teach complex English courses, certain papers will still be needed. Well, a diploma will always be a definite plus for your authority in the eyes of students.

foxford

Cost of education: From 80 rub/hour

Discounts: Bonuses, seasonal discounts

Learning Mode: Online

Free lesson: Provided

Online testing: Not provided

Customer Feedback: (4/5)

Literature: -

The address: -

Cost of education: From 750 rub/hour

Discounts: Available with promo codes

Learning Mode: Online

Free lesson: Provided

Teaching methodology: Cambridge Communication Method and Full Physical Response Method

Online testing: Provided

Literature: Online library

  • There was a nickname: 2019-02-19 22:01:22

    I have been choosing an online school for English for my children for a long time. and lingleo is cool, and inglex is quite to itself. but here the trump card played a role - their so-called. Cambridge Communication Method. Check out their website and blog. understood the essence and peculiarities of this idea. in short, they work together. not like in a regular school: today they read, the day after tomorrow they peed, a week later they learned words, and all at once, as it should be learned in a normal way. studied software packages, estimated the level of his student. took Charlie's package...

  • Sanya: 2019-02-19 19:07:03

    Not so long ago I school years, drove away from the computer when I did my homework) And now the son is sitting at the laptop and what would you think - he is studying! My English is very bad, almost non-existent, so I can only guess what they are talking about with the teacher Xenia, but it all looks very cheerful) Such training is definitely worth its money. ...

  • Zhenya: 2019-02-19 18:26:45

    Almost 3 thousand per hour of communication with the carrier - are you serious? Yes, an adult tutor does not cost that much. Of course, I understand that they have a serious school there, experience, a cool program that really works, but damn it. The price tag is horse, for small packages! And for one lesson, you still don’t understand anything, you need at least 3. In general, they would make the tariff for 5 lessons the cheapest, but one-time, it would be much more pleasant. ...

Tutorials

The good old "Bonk" of 2001 is simply a wonderful textbook for all time. But often (especially adult students) are indignant: “Why do I go to you and pay money, and they teach me how to old program, just like in a regular school? It is worth noting that such claims do exist.

The tutor differs from the teacher in that he must bring variety and original ideas in educational process so that the student really sees that he is buying quality services. For some, Bonk is enough, but for others, Murphy, Upstream and others will be much more interesting.