Recently, I have been working as a tutor for kids(around grades 1-6 in English) and I need your help forum, I want you guys to tell me the things you wanted in a teacher, how you wanted to do your tests, which type of tests do you prefer, and what should be done in order for education to be entertaining (should I add activities, give less homework, etc.) Examples would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance! P.S. I'm not really sure if this is in the right section so feel free to move this.
Well, IMO, the key is to keep things varied. They won't react well to the same thing over and over, but make sure to get their opinions on how you teach as well, you need to get this kind of stuff straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. It never hurts to be subtle, but there's nothing wrong with just directly asking "So, how do you think I did?" to one or two of them. Also, a word to the wise: Associate and relate with them, but don't try to be one of them. Eh, it's kinda hard to explain... Engage in a little conversation, but don't stray too far into it. Teachers like that often aren't the most popular nor well-respected by the students in my experience. Homework... Hmm, now it'd be easy to say just give less homework, but I think it'd be better in the long run to "train" shall we say for deadlines. Make a couple of tight, short homeworks now and then due in the next day or day after that, but don't overdo it. Of course, I don't know how the system works, so this may not be applicable, but hopefully you can see my reasoning here. That's about all I can come up with. I hope it helps and wish you the best with this tutoring thing. You're a braver soul than I am, I tell ya.
Thanks, your reply is really good, anyway I have a question about the passage I quoted here, since I am only tutoring I don't really have a strong, solid, grade system to add/deduct if my students don't do homework and sometimes it is nearly essential to let them get more practice, so do you have an idea or opinion for this? Reply if you feel like it, thanks again!
If I'm reading it right (It's late over here and I'm quite tired), then I think I may have a solution. It might not be especially workable, but this is just from a student perspective. If it's possible, then could you not find a way to incorporate the work into an aspect of classwork, it may encourage people to get the work done when you set it, instead of having more to do in the lesson. Let me explain, say you set some manner of Essay, but split it into two parts. Set something like the Essay Planning as a homework, so that you can check it over in the lesson it's due, and they can use it to write said essay. Any who don't turn it in have to do it there and then, and if they don't produce an essay at the end, there's a big fat 0 for them. This would be the type of task to set over a week or something, but you get the basic idea. Of course, I have no idea of the situations, but something's better than nothing, eh? Glad to be of some manner of help mate.
