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mom2mpr
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| Posted: Dec 16 2009 at 7:00am | IP Logged
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Do you farm out any of your schoolwork to a tutor? How often do the child and tutor meet? What subjects? How do you evaluate the tutor? I am just curious as I am considering letting our teacher reviewer have my ds to work on some writing skills. I'd also love one for math.
Thanks,
Anne
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SallyT
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| Posted: Dec 19 2009 at 1:24pm | IP Logged
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We used a math tutor for Algebra I two years ago. She was another homeschooling mother and former math teacher, and I'd say it worked out about as well as it could, given my oldest's aversion to math. They met weekly, and she had homework to do in between, with the tutor just a phone call or email away. All that was great. I don't think she pushed my daughter as hard to make progress as she might have, but then again, we didn't have a strong pre-algebra background, so they had a lot of ground to go back over, which slowed everything down. So that's at least as much our fault as it was any problem with her -- she was very wonderful in helping my daughter to tackle her work with more confidence, which was a great blessing. And the structure -- knowing that she had to have work done by the next meeting, was quite helpful.
We've also gone to a math prof at the college where my husband teaches for occasional help, though since she's been doing Teaching Textbooks, she hasn't needed the extra help. It is good to have the resource available,though, because that's one thing I can't help with at all at the higher levels.
That's the only subject we've ever done via a tutor per se, though she's now a dual-enrollment student at the college for Latin. Having someone else expecting things of her is a great motivator, I must say, and it eases my anxieties about getting all the high-school stuff done.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Dec 19 2009 at 1:26pm | IP Logged
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Oh, as for evaluating the tutor? Our math tutor was a good friend of mine, and I knew she'd done a lot of tutoring before, as well as classroom teaching. And she offered her time, which was beyond generous. I'm not sure how I'd otherwise evaluate a math tutor, beyond either knowing the person myself (and knowing that he/she was a person my child would be comfortable spending that kind of time with), or having someone I know make a recommendation.
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TxTrish
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| Posted: Jan 12 2010 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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I know a lady with 14 children and a team of tutors for her children. And, another young lady to manage them all.
Interesting, ey?
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Jan 12 2010 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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I have both had my children tutored and done tutoring for hs children.
Tutoring has a lot of advantages, among them are giving your child exposure to different styles of teaching, helping your child learn a subject you are weak in, helping your chiild learn to respect and work with outside authorities, teaching your child to manage their time and to understand the concept of "homework". These are all very helpful when the time for college arrives (if you choose that option). My children had a few tutors beginning in about 8th grade for subjects I was not qualified to teach or didn't have the time to teach, such as Latin and Greek. (as in...it's Greek to me  ,which Greek is!!) If you have a tutor, you will still need to monitor their work to be sure they are getting it done, and try to get them to spend some time on the subject regularly (every day or every other day, something like that). The tendency is to crowd all the work into the last few hours before meeting with the tutor, which is certainly not the most effective way to learn!
I have tutored math (geometry), poetry, humanities, and history. As a tutor, I really appreciated when my students had there work done on time, when they had studied outside of class time, when they had their books and notebooks with them. It's very hard to teach when these basics are not covered. I also would say that, in retrospect, I would not tutor math again on a one-day-a-week basis unless the student was gifted in math. I think twice a week is the minimum for both math and foreign languages, since they involve a certain training of the thought processes that is more effective when more frequent.
As far as evaluating the tutor, they should have some college level knowledge of the subject (for high school tutoring), preferably a major in the subject. They should be well known to you personally, or you might stay during the tutoring time. I think it is best if there is a small group (2-3) students rather than just one student for safety's sake.
Lastly, I would encourage you to take any placement tests in the subject as soon as you finish the course. You might be able to get college credit for your high school student. Some tutors teach directly for the achievement tests and that is a very real benefit.
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Lara Sauer
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| Posted: Jan 12 2010 at 12:16pm | IP Logged
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If I could afford them, I would have them! I see no difference between a tutor, and say a piano teacher.
I choose to invest my money in piano lessons that I can't teach...because I like to pretend that since I took calc in college and got an A- that I am qualified to teach it...then I laugh at myself...  
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: Using tutors
