Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tutoring Is an Art: Molding Minds with Modern Tools

They say those who can, do and those who can’t, teach. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truths of tutoring, as the profession is advancing in step with the times, to encompass not only more and more modern techniques, but also young, bright minds, the doers of the future, who turn to it as a valuable stepping stone toward realizing bigger dreams. Gone are the times when pensioned teachers with an eye to making some extra cash and no vocation to speak of rigidly went into private in-home lecturing, the classroom ethos never too far behind - tutors are now hipper, more passionate about their subjects, more adept at adapting to their students’ needs, in other words, latter-day senseis.

Past Masters of Teaching, Now a Click Away


Finding a tutor to help students with standardized tests, a particular headache of a class, or even college applications - anything school-related, really - is as easy as heading on to a local tutoring agency’s, or a local branch of a wider network. Most will have thoroughly vetted the tutors they work with and won’t have left any stone unturned, or any subject unassigned - the student in search of professional, personalized help can browse subjects and available tutors, while a qualified overseer will make sure the system provides the best possible match for the student’s needs.

As parents don’t even need to be involved in the selection process anymore, or, for that matter, at no point along the way could their presence be anything more than just distracting, so too the tutoring session itself doesn’t need to happen over at the student’s house anymore. Tutors and students can achieve the necessary focus level at other locations as well, that might fit better into both their schedules - an unconventional space will also do fine, after all, won’t a park bench-set show-and-tell lesson suit a topic like Fibonacci’s golden ratio to a tee?

Methodical Doesn’t Equal Boring!


While the meeting place may vary, the methods used in teaching have also evolved a great deal over the last decade, with more and more tutors tapping into the potential of Internet-aided studying, for one. Some of the most effective and newest ways of bringing knowledge across to students in easier-to-swallow pills are strategies that take into account the makeup of each individual student and work within these parameters.

•    The associative approach involves, as the name suggests, pointing out practical applications of the notions studied, as well as relating them to real-life situations. As a tutor is more likely (than one who teaches a whole classroom of kids) to know about their student’s life, this method is particularly useful in both creating a friendly rapport with the tutee and achieving understanding without drilling concepts like a broken record.
•    The high-tech approach is all about reframing the everyday gadgets students use for fun as learning tools - with the added bonus that, being also portable, these teaching instruments work in any environment of your choice. Computers can provide a more interactive support for flowcharts, tablets can be stand-ins for workbooks, and, in case you missed the memo, educational software has made its way into the mobile app stores too!

Teaching through methods like these, that embrace the current face of the world, and also in a way that engages the child’s unique character, skill set, even his or her hobbies - this is the future in tutoring and the right tutors, the forward-thinking ones, they are adapting as we speak.

Work and Blessings

Working at home is something that I have not dreamed of but I have been working at home for the last 6 years now and I'm totally satisfied with my current and chosen career. Eventhough I also have a small net cafe where I have several computers that my customers rent, I still regard my online work as my primary source of income.

I feel so blessed with what I have done online and I'm continuously praying that more works will come by. There are times that works are overflowing while there are days when they are scarce and that is the time when I feel low and impatient.

Though I think I have mastered the art of waiting and researching, I was able to bounce back into full-time blogging in not time. Works started pouring in again and I feel so blessed. Just few weeks ago I got disappointed with one particular contact and I totally lost it. However, that didn't put me down as I new offers come by and it was overflowing this time.

I'm so thankful to the Lord for all the things coming and it's really true that when you share and wait, something will good will come back.