Tutor for students. Who is a tutor and what does he do?

Is tutoring a waste of money or a panacea for everything in the world? The question is certainly interesting. And highly controversial. Those parents who were lucky enough to raise children who do not have the addiction to load their ancestors with educational problems are likely to choose the first component of the question. Indeed, why throw money down the drain if your precious child is quite successfully coping with school wisdom even without additional costs? As a rule, if the child does not stall, but copes with his duties on his own, there is really no need to invite him, at least for the time being. That's when the little girl finally grows up, and things will move towards the finals, towards entering the university, then ... maybe. It may not be. Everything will depend on how things go.

On the one hand, the point of view is very worthy. Indeed, why spend money if everything is going well anyway - of course, without additional efforts, nerves and financial investments? In addition, recalling our not yet completely forgotten school life, an iron argument comes to mind: we somehow studied without tutors! And nothing, no one grew up a fool. All entered universities, and even almost all of them graduated. Exactly. Graduated. But only twenty or thirty years ago, right?

In fact, twenty years ago, no one worked with tutors. For various reasons, not only financial. For example, when I was at school, neither I nor my parents could even think of inviting a teacher to me in any subject, although some of my peers did study with tutors. But no one advertised their additional classes with the teacher. Well, you do it and do it, just don't shout about it at every corner.

There were several reasons for this, and the reasons at that time were very significant. Paid classes after school led to certain thoughts. Which? Yes, very unwise ones. If you, or rather, your parents pay you a tutor, then one of two things: either you are stupid as a cork and cannot cope with school subjects on your own, or chickens don’t peck money in the family, so people with fat get mad, don’t knowing where to put them.

Stupid? By today's standards, yes. But then, in the seventies and eighties, everything was different. And this could not be ignored. Public opinion then was unusually weighty. Then the whole life was in the palm of your hand: the pioneers, the Komsomol organization, the party cell, trade union committees ... For the generation that still remembers these times, I think my idea is clear: in the maintenance of a tutor, and even more so, a specialist who comes to the child at home, it was something that drew, well, let's say, to a certain bourgeois effeminacy. And it seemed, if not shameful, then at least uncomfortable.

And in general, in the distant seventies and eighties, we, mere mortals, knew not so much about tutoring, or rather, knew almost nothing. In our then minds, it was quite easy and naturally to fit the idea that there could be an additional teacher. There may even be a paid teacher, but an official one - for example, a teacher at a state music school. This kind of paid additional education was even encouraged, admission to music schools looked like a very prestigious event, clearly demonstrating the abilities of gifted children. How wonderful it was to open the lid of a home piano, seat a child at the instrument and demonstrate the results of their financial investments in front of tenderly smiling neighbors, relatives, and guests!

Another thing is private lessons in school subjects. Here things looked a little different. I knew at school that my classmates had teachers, but mostly they were teachers - "foreigners", most of them "English". I won’t undertake to say that every third or, for example, the fifth or tenth had a foreign teacher then, because I simply don’t know. Perhaps it was so, but since it was not customary to talk about such things aloud, it seemed that almost everyone comprehended the school curriculum on their own. At least that's what it looked like on the outside. You could speak directly and openly about the fact that you went to the pool or to the music room, without being embarrassed by anyone. As well as classes in any sections (remember - at that time it was absolutely free for kids). But it was better to keep silent about the fact that you are being "dragged by the ears" in mathematics, Russian or, for example, in physics.

By the way, both now and twenty years ago, tutoring was mainly done by "foreigners", "Russians" and "mathematicians". As for "physicists", "chemists", "biologists" - those students always had many times less. And as for such "exotics" as geography or, let's say, social science, practically nothing fell to these subjects. No, of course, there were exceptions, when all of a sudden, in order to enter some kind of "med" or somewhere at the "geological faculty", it was urgently necessary to pull up a future student in these subjects, but this was more an exception than a rule. And about the fact that your child is dragged along some kind of geography, the parents generally preferred to be silent like fish, so as not to disgrace themselves.

Yes, twenty or thirty years ago it was different. Now these times have sunk into the distant past. But tutoring remained, and not just remained, but moved to a qualitatively different level, firmly winning its place under the sun. The fact that now almost every modern schoolchild has a tutor in any subject is no secret, and the number of teachers invited by parents for the convenience of the child or their own peace of mind is no longer surprising. On the contrary, turning upside down, life makes us look at many things in a mirror image, and therefore now it is much more surprising if a child does not have a single tutor. Agree, in our time, this does not speak of the genius of a son or daughter in any way, rather, the material insolvency of the family or the frivolity of parents who do not want to burden themselves with thoughts about the future of their child.

It is now almost impossible to enter a prestigious university for a budget place. Of course, there have always been competitions for a place at a university, but they are nothing compared to today's ones for state-funded places.

And the times when teachers, not sparing their belly, smashed their foreheads for nothing, are also gone. And they won't come back. That's for sure. Now the salvation of a drowning man is the work of the drowning man himself. And what, natural selection in action, isn't that how all living things exist? And shouldn't only the strongest survive? Only the trouble is that it is not easier for a drowning man to understand that he is a cog (shpunt) of natural selection, and from the fact that no one sticks his nose into his personal affairs - unfortunately, too.

At first, leading the child to the first grade, we somehow don’t really think about all these problems: why puzzle over if there are still eleven years ahead before entering the institute? It seems like mine is no worse than everyone else: a decent satchel on the shoulders, shod shoes - dressed as it should be. Indeed, why sound the alarm and worry ahead of time, if nothing is yet known? What if mine becomes the best, what the hell is not joking? Or maybe all the troubles will somehow pass by, by? And really, why don't they pass by?

A wonderful first class - a celebration of the soul ... Funny faces - fives, offended, with lowered corners of the lips - apparently, a less good score. The beauty! All excellent students. All are good. What questions? What concern? Well, just think, the troika popped up somewhere - it happens, it will fix it. In a year, it's all the same as it should be - four. And what would it be then for us, adults, not to think: why did this "completely random" "three-ruble note" come out? Or maybe this is the first call, and the child already needs help? Maybe, before it's too late, before the tails are intertwined into one unbearable lump, it's time to tighten up?

What for? The first three is not a system, it is better not to pay attention to the unsuccessful quarter, and not to look at it at all, but to contemplate the results of the annual results with a proud smile! In the end, why emphasize the shortcomings, upsetting your beloved child once again, or focus the attention of other parents on an inappropriate trio? It is much more literate to "report" annual reports, not forgetting to emphasize that the baby - what a clever girl, wow, mother's and father's joy - good? Isn't the outcome more important? Just think, the teacher drew a triple from evil - you never know what hit him in the head? I could have asked once again, because the child is still quite small, I could close my eyes to something. So no, be sure to mess up the diary is required! Of course, all this is not just for nothing: either harmfulness rushes from all cracks, or a gift is waiting for a more expensive one. Well, let's wait.

Didn't recognize anyone? Really, no one at all? No, well, of course, not yourself - at least someone from those around you? Not? Well, okay, then, by, then, not in your garden. It would be nice if so. But more often it is different. Just when the teacher tries to let us know for the first time that our children have problems that we are likely to break our heads over in high school, we take this information with hostility. How can it be: the only, inimitable, beloved and kissed by relatives - and suddenly a “triple”? Yes, how can this be? Of course not.

Somehow, imperceptibly, together with our children, we swim from the "first" to the fifth. Everything is new: teachers, subjects, requirements - and another reason to justify the next failures of our little men. What do you want? We are all different, it is easy for someone to adapt to everything new, there is simply nothing to do, but for someone it is more difficult. Just wait, they will get involved, and in the sixth it will be clear who and what they are.

Perhaps this point of view has a right to exist. Moreover, perhaps it is quite obvious to someone that before the sixth or seventh grade there is nothing to tie a child in a knot, overloading him in vain. But this point of view is not always correct. Imagine that until the sixth or seventh grade you tightly closed your eyes, not wanting to see the impending problem and shifting to the day after tomorrow what should have been done tomorrow, and to tomorrow what obviously needed to be done today. And if you pushed it even deeper, postponing "troubles" for the tenth or eleventh, then most likely you drowned your beloved child with your own hands. Don't believe? Well, well, it's up to you. And your right too. And how to build the future life of your beloved child is also up to you. And to disentangle your carelessness - to us, teachers. And also to your children. For a couple.

"Neighbourly", "friendly", "kindred" to every teacher at least once in his life, but he had to engage in tutoring, and if someone, honestly looking into his eyes, says that he personally never had nothing to do with it, don't believe it, because it's not true. All of us, teachers, now or in the past, but came into contact with tutoring, and therefore, I think, I have the right to express here some judgments on this matter.

The first and main mistake of parents, from my point of view, is that we take the child to a tutor only when a deadlock sets in, from which no one can find a way out: neither the teacher at school, nor the parent, nor the child himself. Frightened, scored with deuces in a hated subject, the poor child, in most cases, goes to the tutor as a punishment, one hundred percent sure that nothing good will come of the lessons anyway. And the only thing he dreams about, every time he sees a tutor, is to run away from him as soon as possible. Neither the desire to work out, nor even more so about some kind of love for the subject of speech in this case can no longer go. All that the school subject has brought to the poor sufferer lately is “bad luck” and quarrels with relatives. And now to all this nightmare must be added one more.

Suppose the parents nevertheless managed to take their beloved treasure by the hand and drag it to the door of the tutor. Already good. But then, in most cases, the theater of the absurd begins. Having shifted his headache to the tutor, the parent sighs lightly: still, now it’s not him who should break his head, but someone else who, by the way, is paid for this, and it’s his job as an employer, as an employer, to ask for the result for the money received . And it is advisable to ask more strictly so that neither the tutor nor the child relaxes.

And so, at best, after waiting two weeks or a month, not noticing any special shifts in grades, the parent raises his eyebrows in surprise and asks his first question: "Why, actually?"

Indeed, how is it that the child is delivered to the threshold of the teacher's apartment on a regular basis, the lessons are paid regularly, but there are still no changes? And where do they, the shifts, one asks, come from in a month - by and large, after eight or nine lessons, if the previous eight or nine years of school life the child comprehended the basics of knowledge in vain? Of course, we all want everything at once, especially if we repay someone's work, but dear parents, teachers, even the most talented of them, are not magicians, and they are not capable of pulling your children out at the expense of "three". And the later you decide to contact a tutor in case of difficulties, the longer he will have to unravel the protracted knot.

And further. Having set out to pull your child out of the swamp by the ears, think carefully about what exactly you want to get from the tutor. For example, the ability to write accurately and pass the exam in order to get points are completely different things. An absolutely illiterate person can also be "trained" to a decent score by teaching him to bypass the set traps relatively painlessly. Naturally, if a child “goes” in Russian to a solid “failed”, no sane teacher will guarantee a “five” for the USE, but even such an unfortunate student can be pulled out to the “four”, and quite quickly.

But with regard to competent, error-free writing, the matter is more complicated. First, it will take more time, that's for sure, and much more patience and effort from all parties.

Secondly, there is no need to expect quick shifts, as in the USE test system, because competent writing is not the development of individual sections for which points are awarded, but a certain set of skills that allow students to learn how to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. After all, it often happens that a child learns the rules and does homework, and writes dictations in “two”. There is such a problem. And it is quite common.

And thirdly, everyone can be taught to click test problems, but literate writing is not. There are various diseases, including those associated with phonetic problems, that is, with pronunciation, which are detected in children as early as preschool age. If the tutor is not a swindler, he will never undertake to drag such a child, promising that in a year or two he will write at least for a confident "troika". As long as such a child studies with a teacher and literally "chews" the words in a home exercise for a couple with a teacher, he will cling to the "troy" somehow, but as soon as he sets off on an independent voyage, and after a couple weeks, he will again firmly sit on the "deuce".

Of course, there are many pitfalls in tutoring, the costs (both material and time, and psychological, and all sorts) are huge, but time dictates its own conditions, and, obeying these strict time frames, we have to admit that without additional help to our children "struggle for survival" is now unsustainable. This is to the question of the need or uselessness of tutoring. As for the question of the competent choice of a subject and the difficulties that may arise during this extremely important process, then this is a separate discussion.

I myself have been a tutor since 2009. I work part-time, but I don't work. I believe that when tutoring becomes a business, finding students turns into chasing them, and the entrepreneurial educator simply gets more clients, whether they actually need extra classes or not.

I passed the exam in Russian language, literature, English, physics and mathematics. And I prepared for all these subjects myself (the school held additional - free - classes in physics and English). All these subjects passed on 80+. That is why I am critical of tutors and tutoring.

In my opinion, tutoring has one huge minus: tutoring atrophies the student's ability to self-organize. When every week a person comes to a child who thinks out a program for him, homework, exercises in the lesson, then the student simply will not need to think about managing his time. Other people do it for him.
But what happens next? A schoolboy takes the Unified State Examination, enters a university, and there no one will "graze" him. Such a student does not know how to methodically prepare for exams, read the necessary literature on time, and do assignments. And it turns out that he approaches the first session with a lump of debts. Thus, the tutor does a disservice to his student.

If the child does not have serious difficulties in the subject, he is able to independently prepare for the exams. A person must learn to set goals and paint a strategy to achieve these goals. Otherwise, in life after school, he simply will not survive. The child should feel that it is he who is responsible for his academic performance, for the quality of learning. Tutors simply interrupt this sense of responsibility in the student. That is why I am annoyed by families where it is believed that once they hired a tutor, then they are now in demand for the results of the student; that the very fact of having a tutor is the key to success.

When I see that a student is able to study well without me, I have a conversation with my parents and explain that tutoring is unnecessary for them. But in most cases, they treat my words with distrust. With a tutor, they are calmer.
I especially dislike cases when parents hire a tutor for the purpose of "helping with homework, with mastering the program." But why, in fact, does a controlling person constantly hang over a child? Well, he doesn’t want to study literature, well, he doesn’t pull on the top five in Russian - and God bless him! I categorically do not understand parents who invite tutors to schoolchildren in grades 1-8. Why is there any coaching at all in the intermediate link? Let the child learn as he learns: not everyone has to be excellent students!

On the other hand, there are times when additional classes are really necessary. I had a girl with dyslexia, second grade ... I suffered, suffered, but in the end I convinced my parents that they needed not a Russian tutor, but a qualified speech therapist. Listen, thank God! Then there was another boy with Attention Deficit Disorder. I also passed it to a specialist with a psychological education. Because, in fact, he had no problems in the Russian language and literature. There were guys at home schooling and external studies: yes, they need control.
A tutor will not interfere during the preparation for the Olympiads, for additional entrance tests. But no more. After all, even here - if the student wants to deepen his knowledge of the subject - he is able to independently get to additional information. I'm not boasting, of course, but by the end of the 9th grade, I had already managed to master the entire school curriculum of mathematics and got to analytical geometry and linear algebra. Herself, herself. It was just very interesting. But there was no tutor who would have prepared me for the Olympiads. Therefore, there were no outstanding results.
So - my conclusion - the tutor is good only for solving point problems, but for the rest, let the child learn to cope with difficulties, because in adulthood no one will babysit him.

Parents who think about the quality of knowledge and the level of development of their child understand that the best option in choosing a form of education is a combination of school lessons with individual ones. Let's analyze all the advantages of such a solution and try to figure out how to choose a tutor.

Indeed, our education system puts the child in conditions in which he is forced to study as intended by the authors of programs and textbooks, and not as his abilities allow. Tasks and methods on the topics of the program are given for a certain abstract student with a certain and sufficient level of development for the presentation of the material. Such a student has a basic set of knowledge, has the ability to understand a large flow of information, is able to highlight and remember the main thing, switch and hold attention at the right time, and perform a certain amount of work independently in the form of homework (often quite large). Most of the existing manuals allow just such a student, studying each item or paragraph, to rise exactly one step higher. One of the functions of a teacher in a school is to adapt textbook material for a particular class. Select tasks, form of work, methods of explaining the material according to the abilities of most of it. But even if students were selected in this class in one way or another, still someone is stronger, someone is weaker. Someone understands one language and methods, someone else. Someone is interested in one thing, and someone shows increased attention to a completely different one. And in the preparation of lessons, a certain constant (average) level is again laid with a low level of feedback from the student to the teacher. That is, the mistakes made at a certain moment by a particular student, as a rule, are not analyzed in any way and do not affect the overall strategy of the teacher in the classroom.

Why did he do thesemistakes? When did they skip? How and with what did the student work at that moment? Why didn't he understand the material? Schools usually cannot answer these questions. And the unsolved problem is almost always only a method of selecting children for various educational institutions and classes. The reasons for the mistakes made by the student are not studied - both because of the lack of time, the necessary conditions, and because of the lack of sufficient knowledge to identify these reasons.

The school does not take into account the individual characteristics of a single student, his psychology, physiology (and this is where the roots of most of the student's problems lie). The method of work is influenced only by the average performance of the entire class. This is at best. And at worst, we are reaping the fruits of certain state policies and market laws, because of which people who were not taught to work with children get into school.

Graduates of technical universities (especially those with low professional suitability) often cannot find a suitable job in their specialty. But since most of them have a mathematical apparatus somehow formed, there is a feeling that this is enough for teaching. A lot of methodological errors and incorrect strategies that appear in students' notebooks only increase the child's misunderstanding and, as a result, the number of unsolved problems and errors.

A teacher who does not have sufficient experience in communicating with schoolchildren, who does not understand the methodological issues of constructing textbooks, usually explains the material as he understands it, as he was taught, using general concepts and terms, planning lessons, not paying attention to the physiology of the student, to the features work of his memory and attention.

Meanwhile, it is necessary to identify strong and weak points of the body? student and only then, in accordance with them, build an individual development plan (and the sooner the better). Partially, some schools solve the problem of differentiation of education already from the 6th-7th grade, dividing them into specialized classes, classes of different levels, mathematical classes, etc. But different children also get into the math classes. Many gifted children, in the absence of proper attention from the teacher, often cannot fully reveal their abilities.

As a result, the student may simply not be aware of the existence of some simpler and more effective approaches to problem solving. He does not know how and cannot learn to look for these solutions, to get out of non-standard situations. At best, he uses learned, more general and complex algorithms. It is very difficult for him to realistically assess his strengths and capabilities under insufficient workload, and at the same exam in mathematics, he usually gets a result below his abilities. This is especially true for the tasks of group C. Have you ever heard this from a child: “Mom, it was always fine with mathematics, I seemed to know everything, I learned everything, but for some reason I could not cope with the last tasks of group C at the trial exam ... ??

The maximum development of a weak student, oddly enough, is constrained by essentially the same factors as a strong one. The difference in the lower performance of the body, the amount of memory, the speed of information exchange between brain cells, the time it is retained, the ability to concentrate and switch attention to a certain number of objects, working capacity, the possible presence of blocked channels for receiving information (for example, certain problems with auditory memory ). And even low motivation, which is often present in weak students, may be the result of a lack of some resources of this very organism, followed by its refusal to perform certain work. Tracking and diagnosing the problems of a weak or strong student as early as possible, adjusting the methodology depending on their influence, is simply impossible in the absence of an individual approach to each student.

It is this task that the tutor needs to solve. A competent tutor will be able to use and develop the student's abilities as efficiently as possible and, as a result, better prepare the child for the upcoming exams. But how to distinguish him from the general mass?

Here are some tips that I would like to give parents when choosing a tutor.

1) Look for a tutor with a pedagogical education and work experience.

A tutor with a pedagogical education is more highly trained in working with schoolchildren, knows a large number of ways to organize the educational process and knows how to choose the right form of work that corresponds to the level of development and growth opportunities of the student. Remember that the skills of individual work with different students and under different programs are acquired over the years.

2) Cheap classes are not always of high quality.

A good lesson requires not only knowledge of the subject, but also knowledge of various teaching methods. And plus to this, there is also a significant time spent on preparing the lesson itself, on analyzing all the mistakes made by the student. Textbooks usually do not give the number of exercises that a given student needs. You have to either compose tasks yourself, or choose them from different sources. All tasks proposed by the tutor must be pre-selected and solved by the tutor himself, checked for the absence of any typos and errors, and then arranged in the desired sequence (by increasing difficulty) depending on the student's abilities. It is necessary to think over what and how will be recorded in the lesson, what will be decided orally and what in writing, to what extent tasks will be given to memorize the material, and to think over the content of homework. The low cost of classes is often due to the fact that such work, most likely, will not be carried out.

3) Collect feedback on the work of the tutor.

How to do it? Unfortunately, reviews on the Internet are not always objective, they can be left by parents of capable students at the urgent request of the tutor himself. They can be entered randomly into the questionnaires. Not all parents leave these reviews, but even if they are satisfied with the work of the tutor, they often cannot assess how optimal the result is. Brief reviews rarely indicate what level of the student's abilities the tutor had to work with, during what period the parents were able to see positive results, with what intensity the classes were conducted with the student.

The best way is to ask a tutor who can recommend their services. Over the years of real work, a tutor has accumulated several dozen contact numbers of parents in his notebook. A professional tutor can provide a complete list of these contacts for positive referrals. If the tutor cannot provide a list of contacts of the students with whom he worked, then this indicates either a lack of experience of the tutor, or his disinterest in his portfolio. By talking with those who recently studied with this tutor, you can get more reliable and complete information about the course of the classes and the effectiveness of their results.

4) A school teacher as a tutor is not the best choice.

Do not rely on a school teacher. His qualifications and experience in the classroom may not be enough for individual lessons with a difficult student. Working in the classroom has slightly different features. Usually it is always possible to single out capable students who make it possible to realize what the teacher has in mind. It is easier to explain new material, it is easier to diversify the lesson with different activities. The school teacher is accustomed to supervise the work of students in a different way. When there is only one student in the class, the entire load falls on him alone. In addition, the school teacher is usually weighed down with the burden of responsibilities for checking notebooks, class management, extracurricular activities and community assignments. Student problems, results, mistakes should be constantly in the head of a good tutor.

5) Remember that the knowledge of one person in several subjects can be superficial.

Be careful when choosing a tutor for several subjects at once. A generalist is usually less competent in most matters than a specialist in a narrow field. Even the combination of physics and mathematics carries some danger. In the best pedagogical universities, these subjects are divided into different faculties. These are DIFFERENT SPECIALTIES, with different training and teaching methodology. There is only one exact science - mathematics. There is simply no axiomatic approach and theorems in physics. The mathematical apparatus of most physicists is, of course, in a good condition, but the ability to solve problems and the ability to teach without falling into the methodological traps of textbooks and one's own notes are two different things. There are competent teachers of physics and mathematics, but there are not many of them.

6) Get to know a professional tutor already at the first telephone conversation.

When talking on the phone, be suspicious of a tutor if he tells you in advance what mode of study is needed, what result and in what time frame will be obtained. In some cases, once a week is enough, and sometimes two times is not enough. Also, if the teacher declares that he will ask a lot or, on the contrary, little, or does not ask at all, then it is hardly worth expecting that your choice will be optimal. It is necessary to observe the student for some time, evaluate the methodology of a school teacher working in parallel (in order, if possible, not to be very dissonant with him), conduct the necessary tests, and only then decide with what intensity and what methods to go forward. Ask your tutor about ways you can achieve your learning goals. An experienced teacher will tell you in general terms about some methods of work, but he will be able to talk about forecasts and make specific plans only after a detailed acquaintance with the student.

7) Study the questionnaire of the tutor.

A good tutor usually indicates in his questionnaire not only information about education and work experience, but also about the type of assistance he provides, with what contingent of students he works with, what methods can be used in this case.

8) Be attentive to the results of the first lesson with a tutor.

After the first lesson, pay attention to whether the tutor asks you about the physiological and psychological characteristics of the child (this is especially important for younger students). Is he interested in his daily routine, workload in other subjects, sleep time, perseverance, physical activity, vision, performance, habits, interests, etc. Your answers will help a competent tutor to quickly form an idea about the student, about his likely growth opportunities, about inclinations to certain sciences and activities.

9) Tutors - university teachers often work incorrectly with schoolchildren.

There is an opinion that a university teacher will be better than others to prepare a child for the Unified State Examination, for an exam at his university. This opinion is erroneous. The head of a university teacher is usually crammed with a huge amount of knowledge that is unnecessary for a given stage of development of a student, general terms and concepts that are inaccessible to him for understanding. The systematic or accidental use of this knowledge can only confuse the applicant. The university teacher is more familiar with the various theories that are offered to the student than with the methodology of school textbooks. The reassessment of the level of a student's abilities, which is characteristic of tutors from universities, gives rise to a huge number of methodological errors in the formation of his mathematical apparatus.

10) Be guided by reason, not emotions when evaluating a tutor.

Give the tutor time to develop a lesson strategy. In no case do not jump to conclusions about whether a good tutor works with you or not, only on the basis of your emotions. Questions of an individual approach are very complex. The tutor must study the student and analyze the first results before finally deciding on the methods. This may take several sessions. Tests in the first lesson will only help to reveal obvious deviations in the development of the student, "distortions?" in the work of various types of memory (a child may, for example, not perceive information by ear), obvious gaps and gaps in knowledge. The tutor needs to get a complete picture of how the student does homework, why errors occur, what the nature of these errors is, how quickly the information received is erased from the head, what forms of presentation of the material hold attention longer, how quickly new material is absorbed.

Kolpakov Alexander Nikolaevich, mathematics tutor

If you like to teach other people, communicate and share knowledge, the profession of a tutor will be of interest to you. This is a very popular and demanded profession, besides, it is well paid.

Who is a tutor and what does he do?

The tutor deals with his students (schoolchildren, students, adults). The task of the tutor is to identify and eliminate gaps in the knowledge of students, taking into account their characteristics.

In the process of work, the tutor identifies the strengths and weaknesses in the knowledge of his students, develops an individual program for each of them, which allows you to quickly fill in the missing knowledge. Working as a tutor is suitable for sociable people who love their subject, improve in it, have patience and endurance.

Pros and cons of being a tutor

Pros:

• Interesting and creative work.
• Communication with people of all ages and different specialties.
• Good pay.
• Lack of leadership at work.
• Work on your own system that brings results.
• Free work schedule.

Minuses:

• Often irregular working hours.
• The presence of difficult students who do not want to learn.
• Seasonality at work.

Skills and knowledge to work as a tutor

• Competence in your profession.

  Why do we need a tutor?

• Knowledge of the basics of the psychology of a preschooler, schoolchild, teenager, adult.
• Ability to speak and write correctly.

How much do tutors earn?

The level of earnings of tutors depends on the demand in the labor market, professionalism and the city in which you will work. The tutor is paid hourly. Beginning tutors can count on an income of 150 - 300 rubles per hour. Experienced tutors can earn from 400 rubles per hour and more. Rates are higher in larger cities.

How to become a tutor?

It is necessary to get a higher education in a particular field (foreign language, chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc.), preferably a pedagogical one. Get to know the basics of psychology.

Where to look for a job as a tutor?

Today, tutors can earn money from the comfort of their homes. There are special sites on the Internet where students can study with teachers. For example, on the Foxford website, you can improve knowledge in various school subjects with different tutors.

You can also find a job as a tutor through job sites on the Internet, among friends, on the recommendation or independently recruit students in schools, universities, technical schools.

You can earn extra money on student exchanges, but there you will not need to train people, but help them do their homework, do coursework, etc.

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The debate about whether tutors are needed, or whether school teachers should provide the necessary amount of knowledge within the school has not subsided for a long time. If earlier a tutor was needed only for a student who did not have time to master the material, now a tutor is needed even for an excellent student who wants to successfully pass the exam.

After all, only with additional classes you can score the maximum score and enter a more prestigious educational institution on a budget. Particular attention should be paid to preparing for the Unified State Examination in mathematics, because this exam is necessary for admission to most universities in Russia.

There is also an opinion that algebra tutors are just a tribute to fashion, and that every student will be able to master the program on their own if they wish. If the teacher himself says that a tutor is needed to successfully pass the exam, then we can talk about the low qualification of this teacher.

The USE is a kind of exam, and, of course, a few tips from professionals will not hurt, but here, most likely, we are talking about several consultations than about full-fledged tutoring.

If you have firmly decided that your child needs a tutor, then it remains to solve the problem of finding him. It is better, of course, if a good tutor is advised to you by friends who have already familiarized themselves with the results of his work, and they liked it. If there is no such option, then contact your school teacher, she probably knows good teachers who can help you.

Do not hire as a tutor, your child's school teacher. His explanation methods will not change, just your child will be given all the attention of the teacher, of course you will get a certain result, but it will be very far from what you want.

Who is the tutor. Description and features of the profession. What does

A teacher who has not worked with your child before will begin to explain the material in a new way, and it may be easier for the child to master it.

Algebra has always been considered a very difficult subject, and, as you know, the exam consists of two parts. Previously, when there were three parts, it was safe to say that everyone would receive their well-deserved mark of 3, but now in order to get this mark, you need to work hard.

The teachers themselves advise dividing the preparation for the unified state exam in parts, to put it simply, you should hire two tutors, one will prepare the child for part B, and the second for part C.

Also, there is an option to find a tutor from among university teachers, as a rule, such specialists are more highly qualified and can explain a more complex program, unfortunately part C sometimes goes beyond the scope of the school curriculum.

The cost of such specialists is certainly higher, but when a tutor is needed, then more often you have to think about the quality of the knowledge given to them, and not about the cost of his services. It would be quite a good idea to hire a tutor from the university you are going to enter, because in this case, if you successfully enter, you will have a small bonus in training.

Many argue about when it is better to hire a tutor, but it’s worth saying right away that even the best specialist will not have time to prepare your child 3 months before the exam. It is best to start as soon as you have problems understanding the subject, if you can afford it, then from the seventh grade.

It was then that a huge number of objects “fell down” on the child, and he could no longer do without help. The tutor will prepare homework with your child and provide additional materials for a more solid mastery of the subject.

You should not impose your opinion on the child about the tutor, if he himself does not want to go to him, then your pressure is unlikely to be of any use. It is better to try to find a specialist who will arouse sympathy in the child.

After all, only by doing with pleasure, he will be able to master the material as successfully as possible. The closer the exam, the more classes should increase, but again, do not overdo it, because this can only cause harm.

By the way, if you need a math tutor in Ukraine, then look at the selection at http://repetitor.org.ua/repetitory/matematika.

Tutors and tutoring are words that have long been used by everyone who studies, studied or teaches their children. So let's still figure out who tutors are, what tutoring is, who needs tutors. As you know: repetition is the mother of learning, so the word tutor comes from the Latin repetitor, that is, one who repeats. In the most general sense, we can say that tutors are teachers who give private, individual lessons at home. In fact, most often tutors are called upon not to give new knowledge, but to repeat already acquired early ones. Repeating is most often necessary in order to successfully pass the final or entrance exams. The tutors provide this opportunity.

Based on a general definition, the history of tutoring is as old as the history of all education. After all, they began to transfer knowledge from person to person at home, so to speak, long before the advent of schools and higher educational institutions.

Of course, then no one called such a “home” teacher the word “tutor”. In pre-revolutionary Russia, tutors were supervised teachers whose students in the cadet and page corps did their homework. The word "tutors" is also used in relation to teachers of plasticity, choreography or acting in theater schools and institutes. In 90% of cases, tutors help to pass the entrance exams. For admission to a higher educational institution, tutors with solid experience in school are best prepared. After all, who better than our teachers to know the shortcomings of the school education system, all the nuances of the program and future tests. Here, too, not everything is so simple, school teachers and university professors are often criticized for earning extra money as tutors. Many parents complain that the teacher does not give the necessary knowledge in official lessons at school, but offers additional classes for a considerable, sometimes, reward. Don't lump everyone under the same brush. There are from 17 to 35 people in the lessons, twice as many in university classes, and even the most talented and dedicated teacher cannot devote much time to each student. But everyone has a different level, many need an individual approach, and it is not always possible to “manage” a “gathering” of teenagers. In addition, if you don’t want to study, no one will force you, but you can easily prevent others from learning. So do not rush to look for a catch if the teacher becomes a tutor.

Tutoring by school teachers is an opportunity for students to acquire knowledge without unnecessary stress from communicating with a new person, and for a teacher to earn extra money. If a tutor is needed, but there are no familiar tutor teachers, you have to resort to finding a tutor. A tutor, like a doctor, is a person who will be close to gaps in knowledge as diseases or shortcomings, so the choice of a tutor cannot be treated negligently. There is a stereotype that a good tutor does not give himself advertising, and information about him is transmitted by word of mouth, and the tutor himself, like a treasure, roams from student to student. This is nothing more than a myth. Evaluation of a good or bad tutor is always subjective and depends on how much the tutor is “your person” and what are the goals of your training with the tutor. Tutors are always both teachers and psychologists. Working with one (or several) students, they must find the key to the student, clearly see his learning difficulties and ways to solve them. Tutors, like a competent psychologist, draw up an individual training program, this will make the process of obtaining knowledge the easiest, most effective and not requiring a lot of time.

The education of the future tutor also plays an important role. A foreign language tutor, in addition to the “crust”, must have the correct pronunciation, which, unfortunately, is not typical for all graduates of linguistic faculties and institutes. It is great if an English tutor has experience of living in an English-speaking country, his foreign and, hopefully, yours will be more lively and suitable for communicating with foreigners. But for the successful delivery of the CT, good pronunciation is not an urgent need.

Tutoring

For centralized testing, a school teacher with already existing experience in preparing for the digital test, or a student of the institute who himself passed the test not so long ago, will be able to prepare you. In general, it was already said earlier that it is very important to correctly determine the goal of learning from a tutor.

Tutors try to diversify teaching methods, some offer to teach your children math or Russian effortlessly. The tutor should not turn into an overseer, only indirectly participating in the learning process. If tutors offer an unusual approach, interesting techniques, do not be afraid to trust him. Creativity can bring lightness and interest to boring repetition and cramming.

Tutors are able to throw a lifeline not only to applicants, but to any person. The same pronunciation rules, a tutor explaining to you personally, based on your knowledge and abilities, will help you learn easier and faster. You may need tutors for Chinese or 1:C accounting, which you need to work effectively and move up the career ladder. In any case, tutoring lessons, of course “your tutor”, is the best option for fast and effective learning. Along with tutors in foreign languages ​​and subjects required for passing the CT, tutors in playing musical instruments, tutors in vocals and tutors in drawing are popular. Such "artistic" skills are incomparably easier to acquire individually.

Tutoring is a great opportunity for one person to gain and consolidate knowledge and skills, and for another to share his knowledge to receive a stable additional or basic income. Therefore, ads like “I am looking for a tutor”, “I need a tutor”, “I am looking for a job as a tutor” are plenty. When choosing a tutor or getting a job as a tutor, do not hesitate and do not be too lazy to get acquainted with your future teacher / student. It’s not bad to visit a “trial lesson”, get to know each other personally, their successful cooperation depends on how the tutor and the student are set up towards each other. New knowledge of the student and positive recommendations to the tutor. Tutors who advertise themselves in newspapers and on Internet sites provide additional information about themselves. It should be treated carefully and even meticulously. By what information the tutor provides about himself, you can judge his attitude towards students and his work.

Tutoring is first and foremost a collaboration of people. Not even one talented and experienced Sami tutor will be able to give knowledge to a lazy person who does not want to learn. Therefore, rely on a tutor, but do not make a mistake yourself.

We have been accustomed to the slogan that school education in our country is free, and we rarely think about whether this is true. Of course, if your child attends not a private, but a public school, no one will dare to demand tuition fees from you. This is true, but...

The former glory of the Soviet education system has sunk into oblivion along with the collapse of the USSR. But the knowledge that has been firmly planted in our heads since school days has become our personal gold reserve and still continues to help out in a variety of, sometimes unexpected situations. "How do I know that?" - I often ask myself, automatically giving the answer to some tricky question of colleagues or TV quizzes. And, rummaging through my memory, I understand that I know from school.

This is despite the fact that I have never been an excellent student, and I was not friends with mathematics at all. But wake me up in the middle of the night, I'll tell you with my eyes closed what the square of the sum or difference is. Another thing is that these "squares" (whether they are wrong!) have never been useful to me in my life, but I remember anyway! As well as poems, once memorized, and excerpts from school works, and dialogues "in English."

I never had tutors at school. Unless, in the senior classes, my neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich occasionally helped me solve problems in algebra or physics. And even then, because my parents asked him about it, they understood that I was a pure humanist and there was nothing to “take from me” in terms of exact disciplines. And then, before the institute, I studied for two weeks in an adult way with a tutor in the “main subject” and entered the university without much hassle. Many years have passed since then, and now I can judge the pros and cons of the school education system from the standpoint of a teacher (after graduating from the institute I worked as a teacher) and a parent (two of my children have already graduated from school).

So, our school education, thank God, is really free and accessible. But the individual approach to each student, declared in pedagogy, in fact comes down to biting one for all, a common piece of the granite of science. Naturally, the one who has stronger teeth and a better reaction gets more.

It should not be denied that in every class there are children who find teaching surprisingly easy - both exact subjects and the humanities. But these are usually few. All the rest are divided into "physicists" and "lyricists" and are divided into two opposite camps, peacefully coexisting with each other. Everything would be fine if it were not for the "camp" of teachers (or education officials) who do not want to understand either the first or the second.

And although the whole system of school education is designed for the student to learn new material directly in the classroom during the teacher's explanation, in fact it turns out that someone "falls short" - the student, the teacher, or the system itself? The answer suggests itself - the system, because the same student, during additional classes with the same teacher, quite decently assimilates the material that he did not understand in the class.

In fact, the student today is completely powerless. In a situation where every teacher considers his subject to be the main one (and these are exclusively adult ambitions, not always supported by professionalism), the child has no choice but to “score” on an incomprehensible subject out of a sense of self-defense or simply memorize rules or formulas he hates.

Let's make a reservation right away: today we are not talking about dysfunctional children who grew up without parental attention and left to their own devices. This is a special topic that requires special consideration. We are talking about normal students who need to understand why they go to school and why they need knowledge. Rather, even about their parents, who managed (or not) to inspire them with these concepts and set them up for work.

Regrettably, today's secondary education system is a confrontation between family and school. And the quality of the knowledge acquired by the child and the moral climate of the relationship between these two poles depend on how successfully a compromise is found.

There are many reasons why a child does not want or cannot study well. It’s easier than ever in such a situation to shift the blame onto someone, pushing it away from you. This is usually what happens. The school "brings down" on the parents: "poorly brought up", and the parents - on the school: "you are teachers, so educate!". Both of them are wrong. In my deep conviction, the school should give knowledge, and the family should educate.

We are all busy at work, otherwise we cannot survive, but this does not stop the child from being ours! So why do we shift the care of him onto the shoulders of teachers - by and large, completely strangers to him? Teachers are obliged to give him knowledge, and to do it qualitatively, because the future fate of the child depends on them, but to develop and instill certain skills and character traits, such as perseverance and diligence, to teach to distinguish good from evil is our task. Because (and this is my credo) we ourselves are to blame for all the mistakes and failures of our children. So, somewhere overlooked, undereducated, disliked ...

Why do parents hire a tutor for their child?

But this is a lyrical digression, the reality is that parents are still forced to resort to the services of assistants in raising and educating their children, because situations are different.

1. business situation. The time is now when career growth and earning money are becoming for both parents not an end in itself, but the only way to maintain a decent standard of living. Some manage to carve out an hour or two for a child, for others this is an unaffordable luxury. In such a situation, the appearance of a “substitute parent” in the house is a forced necessity.
2. The situation is ambitious. Of course, mothers and fathers are trying to realize their unfulfilled dreams and ambitions in children. Their child should be the most wonderful, the smartest and, of course, an excellent student. And it does not matter that some items are given to him with difficulty. When the child's "C grades" begin to beat the pride of the parents, the moment of truth comes - the time to choose whether to study with him or invite a tutor. Most often, the second option wins.
3. The situation is sad. The new way of life has created a class of "new Russian wives" - women who can afford (and most importantly, want) not to work. Many of them completely take care of the house and children - this hard and thankless work, and some prefer to deal exclusively with themselves, completely shifting the care of children to the shoulders of nannies, governesses and teachers. And then tutors appear in the family almost from the first grade, from an early age accustoming the baby to infantilism, weaning him from independence.
4. The situation is forced. We have already said that all children are divided into humanitarians and "techies". There is nothing strange in the fact that the same adults grow out of them. And if, due to their mindset, parents really want, but cannot help their child to “pull up” in mathematics or, conversely, write an essay, they are forced to resort to the services of a tutor.
5. The situation is provoked. There are two peaceful professions that do not allow you to make mistakes - a doctor and a teacher. If a doctor's mistake leads to physical death, then a teacher's mistake threatens spiritual death. That is why the teacher must be crystal clear before himself and the people. In practice, the opposite is often the case. Yes, the prestige of the profession and the teacher's salary leave much to be desired, but when a teacher deliberately lowers the grade in his subject, forcing parents to pay for additional classes, it looks like cheap extortion that has nothing to do with honor and dignity. The same applies to unprofessionalism, when the teacher is so “weak” that parents, willy-nilly, turn to a tutor in order to prevent “white spots” in their child’s education.
6. The situation is correct. Parents who seriously think about the future of their offspring will not leave their child without a decent education, realizing that his future life and career depend on it. And if they see that the child is purposeful and persistent, wants to learn and is drawn to knowledge himself, but he needs help that he does not receive at school for one reason or another, then the green light is given to reasonable tutoring. Only in this case, the money spent on additional education will not be thrown to the wind, and the “empty space” in your child’s head will be filled with smart thoughts. Because teaching under pressure can hardly give positive results.

To be honest, I do not envy today's mothers and fathers of schoolchildren, because in recent years there is no worse beast than the Unified State Examination for them. The debates (professional and television) about the viability of this monster are striking in the polarity of opinions among educators and the populism of officials, who, perhaps, cannot give a single serious argument either “for” or “against”.

But that doesn't make it any easier for anyone. The exam has already become an inevitable reality, and neither teachers nor parents really know how to prepare for it. And this is where the question of tutoring comes into play. If earlier additional classes were limited to expanding the child's circle of knowledge, now they should, in theory, be narrowed down to the algorithms required by the USE. My former colleagues at school say that the time has come for the "automation" of knowledge, which will invariably lead to stereotyped thinking. Truly, “God forbid that we live in an era of change”!

But tutoring, already as a mass phenomenon that appeared just in an era of change, has firmly entered our lives. I'm not saying that this is bad, it's just that parents, as adults and reasonable people, need to approach the child's communication with a stranger (who still takes money for this) with all responsibility. And if our advice helps you, we will only be happy.

How to choose a good tutor for a child?

1. Do not resort to the services of a tutor without a good reason, decide for yourself what goal you set: just to give your child additional knowledge and skills that he has not yet received at school, or to pull him up in one or another subject. Otherwise, there is a danger of overdoing it and causing disgust for the teaching. So is the game worth the candle? Does your child need a tutor??
2. The teacher-tutor should be nice to your child, not to you. If contact is not established from the first meeting, it is hardly worth continuing communication: the teaching should be without torment. And do not forget to ask about the level of qualification of the teacher, as well as his place of work (previous or current). It would be nice to know reviews about him from previous clients or colleagues at work.
3. A tutor from an agency will cost you more - in addition to paying for the work of a teacher, you will have to pay a commission to the company. And it’s not a fact that a “recorded” specialist will be better than a “private trader”. Another thing is that you will have an agreement in your hands, on the basis of which you can make claims if something goes wrong. Therefore, carefully read the contract - it should provide for your rights and stipulate the points on which claims are accepted. Feel free to insist that the clause that you see fit be included in the contract.
4. A tutor who teaches at the university your child is going to enter justified himself in the pre-USE times. Now it hardly makes sense, unless, of course, the fact of admission is important to you, but the knowledge that will be useful to the future student during your studies.
5. The high salary of a tutor says nothing about his professional qualities - only about his conscience. By the way, senior students of specialized universities can become a good and inexpensive assistant to your child: they have not yet learned to hate children, and their knowledge is fresh.
6. Try to have the teacher come to your house. If this is not possible, secure the child in every possible way - let him always have a mobile phone with a video camera or at least a voice recorder with him. And at the slightest suspicion of something wrong, ask the child to turn it on for recording during the lesson.
7. Monitor the work of the tutor, ask about the progress of your child, compare previous school grades with marks obtained after classes with a tutor. If classes are held at home, listen to what and how the teacher says, and do not forget to ask the child himself if he likes everything in these lessons.

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