Understanding the role of a home tutor
A tutor plays the most important role in a child’s life. Why? Simply because children have many teachers – at school, tuition (group), day care etc. However, none of them provides the kind of intimacy a tutor provides. This is easily explained because none of the teachers know the kids personally and well enough with the exception of their families. A tutor is their friend, probably mentor and someone they can and choose to trust.
That being said, parents rely on the tutor to educate their kids. Parents are usually busy so they put a lot of trust and hope on the tutor for the sake and betterment of their children. With this said, a tutor must really put in effort to educate the kids. Efforts here are in all aspects – commitment, dedication, passion, attitude and professionalism.
Why is feedback important?
Parents will be aware of their children’s progress
Parents will be kept in the loop of any feedback or issues that need to be worked on outside tutoring hours.
Feedback exhibits your professionalism. It shows that you care and you are passionate about what you do. With this, you build trust and satisfaction with the parents.
Regular feedback will enable you to keep track of the student’s performance so you are in control of deriving the desired results.
How to record a student’s progress?
You can use the home tuition booklet to record attendance and write down the topics that are covered in each class. In providing monthly feedback, you can record the topics a student is good or weak in, the attitude of the student, what improvement is evident, what weaknesses have been identified and suggestions on how to improve in the future etc. It will be best to provide some suggestions to parents if possible on how to help the student off tutoring hours so parents can play a role in ensuring their kid’s progress.
Suggested feedback method – Sandwich feedback
Always start your feedback with a positive one (what is the student good in) followedby the constructive feedback (what is the student weak in or what he needs to work on) and end with another positive one (what is the student’s strength). Once you have ended the feedback, conclude the same by giving suggestions on how the student can work on his area of development. This technique is proven as the student / parent leaves with the last feedback given fresh in his mind – the postivie one which will be a key motivating factor to make them work on their area of development and move forward.