Tutoring on Steroids

There are so many choices for tutoring!

There are the established tutoring services that have whole web sites dedicated to signing up with them. Many are overseas, many are franchised, many are only paying their tutors $14/hour. They use their own lessons rather than support what is being sent home by the school.

Some are well meaning high school students with no real training but a knack for doing math!

Here’s how I see on-line tutoring from a parent’s perspective. If I were suddenly expected to become the teacher in my child’s life I would try to step up for his sake, but feel overwhelmed by the sheer task of teaching a full day while “learning on the job”. If I were having to work my own job from home, then my needs would be to have some relief (at least an hour of structured teaching) each day.

The questions I would want to be assured of is:

Whether the instructor that is to tutor my child has training, I would want them to have a teaching credential and that way I would be assured they would not be saying or doing anything untoward during their time with my child and that includes not blaming them if the teaching doesn’t go well.
I would want them to be familiar with the curriculum of my school district, how they are applying CORE Curriculum and what areas are needed to be covered for test preparation.

In the case of students we usually teach at Encinitas Learning Center, the instructors must have a depth of experience so that if my child was unable to “catch on” to a concept using the regular lesson plan, they could shift the approach immediately in order to accommodate and facilitate learning.

Obviously, all the punctuality issues, coming prepared so as not to lose precious time fussing over materials or getting technology issues resolved would be a given.

With the right 1:1 tutor coming to work directly in your home, it could make the best outcome as the benefit is:

To have a structured time that you and your child could rely on to make sense of the day. Honestly, a full hour or two of intensive instruction can cover a lot of ground. In a regular day at school there is a lot of down time waiting for others to finish, waiting for clean up, for the bell to ring, for recess, breaks, lunch, lining up for all of those things – all down time. So the number of minutes of REAL instruction could boil down to about an hour’s time and then the rest is hands on activities doing science experiments, learning centers, arts, music, and so forth.
At ELC we have teachers that are very adept at coming up with alternate approaches to achieve that light bulb affect. It does come at a cost but the benefits of fostering a love of learning in your child (coupled with quality education) so that next year they don’t feel completely lost – and making up for time wasted on inferior instruction over these several months – is (in my opinion) worth digging into the college fund to guarantee there is a definite chance at going to college later on.

Ask yourself how many families are letting go of the regular routine and how that affects our children’s work ethic over all. It gives our kids security to know what is expected, what time to do each task, and be able to look back on the day’s goals as accomplished and successful. There is no greater stress reliever than having purpose and that is true for any age. Everyone will come to their own decision as to how to handle this time and school assignments for their child, rest assured, we at ELC stand ready to provide quality teaching and allow parents to go back to being Mom and Dad!

Lynda Detweiler-Newcomb, M.A., C.C.C./SLP6849 is a Speech Pathologist and Director of The Encinitas Learning Center – a Non Public Agency certified by the California Dept. of Education since 1997. The staff at ELC are highly trained instructors with many years of experience working with all grade levels and specifically with students that struggle with academics.

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