How To Become a Tutor and Earn Extra Money:

If you are wondering how to become a tutor, keep reading and I will do my best to give you the information you need.

Tutoring is one of the fastest growing home-based businesses that you can find. There are many options available to you, including working as a private tutor, tutoring online for an online tutoring agency, tutoring locally for a tutoring center, or tutoring students who are taking classes by distance learning or correspondence.

Setting up a tutoring business, in which you have a group of tutors working for you, is also an option you should consider. Many skilled and experienced people are looking for online tutoring jobs or local tutoring positions. If you are interested in running your own little-or big- business, this may be the choice for you.

First you will need to decide...do you want to tutor online? If you do, the whole world is your marketplace. Do you want to tutor in person only? This is very satisfying and rewarding, and there is great demand for local tutors who can meet in person with their students for tutoring instruction.

Next, you will need to decide...how will you do your marketing for your tutoring business? You can put up signs locally where accepted. You can advertise online, you can ask your friends to spread the word. For the 25 years I have been tutoring, I have used only word of mouth advertising and I have more students than I can possibly take on for tutoring.

How much will you charge? What hours will you work? How much tutoring will you do in a week? Where will you do the tutoring? Are you knowledgeable about tutoring regulations in your country?

Once you have answered all these questions, it is time to proceed with your plan. Get some students, and start sharing your skills. You will be helping someone else and making good money at the same time.

This blog contains much useful information for your tutoring business. Good luck! And please leave comments if you desire.




How to Become a Tutor: Teaching Students to Read

How to Become a Tutor: Teaching Students to Read
A tutor who teaches reading skills should have a repertoire of reference material. Whether you are tutoring children, teens or adults, it is very helpful to own some resources you can use to base your lessons on or to supplement what you already have.

A good starting point for your reference collection is the book by Siegfried Engelmann, titled, "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons."

This is a highly successful program for beginning readers, one that you cannot afford to be without.






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I have outlined building relationships and building confidence in other posts. These are also very important areas when teaching children to learn how to read. In a future post I will cover some basics on teaching adults how to read, and in teaching english as a second language.

How to Become a Tutor: What Qualities do You Need?

How to Become a Tutor: What Qualities do You Need?
A tutor is a very special person, someone who can teach and coach a student, can identify the problems in the learning process of the student, and then formulate and carry out a plan to help the student work through the difficulties and become successful in their subject.

Four of the basic traits a tutor should possess are:
  • Knowledge of the subject
It probably goes without saying that a good tutor would have some knowledge, experience and background in the subject they are tutoring. Your combination of knowledge and experience will be one of your greatest assets in your tutoring business.
  • Skills in communicating
As a tutor you should be both a good listener and a good communicator. Being able to effectively transfer your knowledge to your student is paramount. A tutor does more than just transfer knowledge; a tutor is also good at identifying why the student is having a learning barrier and helping the student to break through that barrier. The ultimate goal of a tutor is to prepare the student to no longer need the tutor.
  • Patience and understanding
You are working one on one, most of the time. Each student will be an individual with their own personality. You need to learn to exercise both patience and understanding, even when you have explained something very clearly and the student is just not getting it. You must show the student that he/she can trust you and that you will be understanding as he/she works through the difficulty.
  • Ability to make a plan and carry it out
As you are working with your student, you will be looking for the areas which are tripping up your student. You will be making a plan for the student to take him/her from the current level they are in to the level of success you both think they can attain. You need to be realistic in these goals while at the same time giving your pupil a challenge to reach up to.

Your students will be able to tell if you genuinely care about them. Sharpening your people-skills through practice and study gives you more confidence as a tutor and as someone your student will both look up to and be able to relate to.

How to Become a Tutor: Essential Tutoring Resources

How to Become a Tutor: Essential Tutoring Resources
A successful tutor has great resources at their fingertips. First let's touch on personal development as a tutor. As a tutor, no matter the subject(s) you are tutoring, you can grow and improve. You are interested in learning as much about your craft as you can, and that's why you are here.

Emily Meyer's book, The Practical Tutor, is an invaluable tool to tutors of all levels. This is my most highly recommended tutoring resource.



Review

"Useful on every level for both the administrators and the tutors of writing centers."--Rosalee Stilwell, Peninsula College, Forks Campus

"Not only offers excellent tutor training, but it is also a valuable synthesis of contemporary composition theory."--Charyl Brown, University of Texas at Arlington

"As a course of study for new, especially peer tutors, this text is unequaled....In its scope and thoroughness, The Practical Tutor does more than provide a course in tutoring instruction; it illustrates more vividly than any text I have seen the varied work of a writing center....This is a text well worth considering for training new tutors to teach writing."--College English

"There is much to be learned from The Practical Tutor, learned by tutors and by teachers who teach tutors. The thoughtful and thorough selections of composition theory and practice brought into play and the clarity with which they are summarized are useful to anyone interested in teaching writing. The intense and valuable experience that the authors have had with tutors and with tutoring resonates throughout the book."--The Writing Center Journal

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This book focuses on tutors of writing and composition. However, Emily's instruction lends well to tutors of other subjects as well.

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Tutoring Matters, by Jerome Rabow, has to be my second favorite. In fact it comes so close to first place that I might as well call it a tie with Emily's book, above.

Here is a taste of some of the reviews. How can you not be convinced?

Review

"This book offers a scholarly and practical perspective on tutoring both as an art and [as a] science. It is a must read for those who hope to be effective tutors, for those who intend to establish serious tutorial programs, for educators and policy-makers." --Walter R. Allen, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, UCLA

"...The authors do more than prepare tutors to teach; through poignant vignettes and judicious advice, they prepare tutors to form relationships and, in the process, to learn more about themselves." --Sonia M. Nieto, University of Massachusetts

"This book targets and solves the many relationship problems between tutors and clients with insight and sensitivity" --Selma R. Zimmerman, New York City Board of Education

"What the novice tutor needs is reassurance. That is exactly what Tutoring Matters offers through the accounts of others and the concrete details that are so clearly presented in this book. Well done!" --Wilbur Rippy, New York's Bank Street College of Education

"The most practical, concrete, appealing, and intellectually coherent preparation material I have seen. We will use it, not only in our school tutorial program, but also in our work with juvenile detention systems and the homeless." --Mark A. Chesler, Community Service Learning Programs, University of Michigan



In a tutoring business, you are your business. Invest in yourself and you will reap the rewards. You are worth the time, effort and cost to personal growth.

How to Become a Tutor To Make Extra Money

Become a Tutor to Increase Your Income
Many people these days are interested in making extra money to help pay their bills or to have some to put away for savings. Tutoring in some of your spare time is a good way to earn extra money. You can become a self-employed tutor, apply online for a tutoring position at one of the many tutoring sites, or apply to a local educational institution to be hired into their tutoring program (not all schools have this program, but many universities do.)

To be a tutor that is self-employed, you will generally work out of your home, or pay a visit to the pupil's home for the tutoring session. The best way to find students is through word of mouth. If you are just starting and don't know anyone looking for tutoring, put an ad up at the school, or phone the office and ask if they have a list of tutors. If so, ask about being added to the list. The school does not pay you to tutor, they only pass on the names to students who are asking about obtaining tutoring. You will still need to set your own rates, set up the meetings, and collect your fees from your students.

An online tutoring position can be sought at one of the many online tutoring agencies. Go to each website and look around. Most tutors can set their own rates, but there will be a fee added on top of that that the pupil will have to pay which covers the costs of the tutoring agency. This type of tutoring will be done online and you may have students from many countries around the world.

If you have a university or a student learning center which offers tutoring in your area, these are worth checking out for tutoring possibilities. You may want to make an appointment to go there in person and check out their facility. This type of position would probably lend itself well to those tutors who are already established and have a greater confidence in their tutoring abilities.

For information on how to become a tutor without previous experience, this article will give you the tips you need now: How to Become a Tutor and Earn Extra Money.

How to Become a Tutor for Distance Learning Centers

Become A Tutor for Distance Learning Centers
If you would like to be a tutor for a distance learning center, you can begin your search by looking for institutions which offer classes by correspondence, and then look over their application process to learn how to be a tutor with their agency.
Many schools offer distance learning options for their students. These distance learning centers hire tutors to assist in marking papers, giving tutoring help to students by email or phone, and even live in person through webcam.

A distance learning center may be a high school, college or university. There are also some virtual schools which are online education only. Search for schools in your area and then broaden your scope to schools in your country. (Some educational institutions only hire tutors who dwell in the same country of origin.)

It is worth the effort to contact as many distance learning centers as you can if you are interested in this type of tutoring. Not all distance learning centers require their tutors to hold an education degree. However, be prepared to show that you have the skills/experience to apply for a tutoring position. You may need to demonstrate these skills by completing a tutoring exam. This exam will test you on your ability to mark a student's work, and explain how to solve a problem.

You have nothing to lose by exploring this option. In fact, this can be a very satisfying mode of tutoring. You don't have to worry about no-shows, nor about collecting your pay. You are given all the necessary materials, and you set specific tutoring hours which can work within your schedule.

Your search will involve the following aspects: Identify possible institutions which offer distance learning, locate their website, and look for an employment or job opportunities tab. Click on that and see what positions they may be advertising. Even if tutors are not on that list, it is worthwhile to contact the institution and let them know you are interested in becoming a distance learning tutor. They may refer to it by a different name; check out their site before you phone or email them and see what name they are using for that position.

In your contact with the institution, let them know that if they are not hiring at the current time, you would be interested in finding out the next time they are hiring.

Keep a list of institutions you have contacted and what the results were. Refer to that list to determine whether someone needs a call back, when their next hiring blitz is on, etc. This is all useful information, and may help you land that job you want.

Often, competitions to hire distance learning tutors become available yearly; sometimes they are in need of a tutor to fill a position due to a maternity leave or other health problem. You may get hired on a contract basis to fill a temporary need, or get hired on a more permanent basis if you are interested in making this more of a full-time job for yourself.

Remember to come across with enthusiasm and confidence, but not with too much pride. First impressions really are important.

How to Become a Tutor: Teaching Methods

How to Become A Tutor: Teaching Methods
As a tutor, you will want to have a "portfolio" of different teaching methods. One teaching method that I will cover today is the Learning Through Teaching method. In this method, you ask your student to teach you the concept, as if he is the teacher and you are the student. You tell him that you are going to pretend you know nothing about this concept.

Give the student a few minutes to go over the concept that he is having difficulty with. Most students will make an attempt to play this role-reversal game.

This technique works very well, actually. You may have to help the student along a little the first time he tries it, but persevere. It's worth it.

As the student tries to explain the concept, it gets him talking out loud about it. It helps you clearly see what he does understand and what he doesn't. As he continues, look for areas he is missing, and ask him questions in those areas. Remember that since you're the student right now, it is normal for you to have questions about what he is teaching you. (You're tutoring him without him knowing it because your questions spur him to learn more.)

Part of the "game" is that he is free to use his books to look up answers to questions you are asking.

Treat your student with respect in this exercise and compliment him often. Remember to try to be the student even in your compliments, so you might say something like, "I really liked how you taught me that part. I was able to understand what you were saying."

How to Become a Tutor: Investing Time

How to Become a Tutor: How it All Started
You have probably noticed that several of my posts have been about building relationships. Yes, it is a very important thing to do. There is a really good reason for building relationships when you become a tutor. You see, your students and their parents are your best advertisers. So even if you are so successful at tutoring a child that the child reaches a point where he no longer needs you, the child could have other siblings who will. Also, parents have a way of bragging about how great their child's tutor is!

My career basically started with one family. The mom was talking about her child struggling in high school physics and I said that I did tutoring. She hired me right away, and I ended up tutoring all her children younger than that particular student, over the course of 10-12 years. He was oldest of 8 children. Not only that, but at least 2 dozen references to other families came from that same mom. Don't underestimate the power of 1 good relationship!

Become a Good Tutor: Investing some time

When you have established a client who will be coming on a regular basis, consider becoming involved with the student in an area of their interest which takes place outside of tutoring time. This involvement of time on your part is an investment in the relationship. It is a building up of trust.

For example, one of my students was an avid baseball player, but was struggling in math. He set up 2 weekly tutoring sessions with me on a regular basis. He was coming to see me Tuesdays 8-9 as well as Friday afternoons 1:30-3:00. He was quite an amiable young man, and had a great interest in playing baseball.

I invested in the tutoring relationship by attending a couple of his baseball games. The first game I attended was about 1 month after he had started coming to see me. By that time, I had gotten the chance to get to know him- by listening and by asking the right questions- and he had been telling me how his season was going. When I expressed an interest in coming to see a game, he was very pleasantly surprised and made sure I knew where and when the game was to be.

I not only enjoyed the game, I built a relationship. He could see that I genuinely had an interest in him and his success, not only in math but in things he was interested in. It makes people feel good when someone is interested in them. It also gives him the message that tutoring isn't just for me making money. And its true. Money is a nice side-effect of tutoring but the real rewards come from seeing growth in the student.

How to Become a Tutor: Work for Yourself or Someone Else?

How to Become a Tutor: Work for Yourself or Someone Else?

When preparing to be a tutor, you will be choosing whether to work for yourself or someone else.

I spent 25 years as a private tutor, self-employed. I loved it because I could choose my own hours, my own clients, and the flexibility worked very well for me. I did most of my tutoring at my own home. When my children were very young, I would put them to bed and then do a couple hours of tutoring.

This schedule also worked well for my students. I would see one student at 7-8pm and another at 8-9pm. I also had one student who came over Saturday morning, when my hubby could watch the kids, from 10-11am.

When the kids got older, I would sometimes tutor from 4:30-5:30pm. I would have a snack ready for the kids after school, and then send them downstairs to play games or watch tv for that hour. I would have put supper in the crockpot early in the day so it would be ready when my student left, or I would have something in the fridge ready to warm up.

I had all the students I could accommodate and more. I often had more students request tutoring than I could handle. I never once spent a penny on advertising. It was all done by word of mouth.

Maybe working for yourself is not a viable option for you. If you cannot seem to get your first clients or word of mouth is not getting you enough clients, then consider where in your local area you could get hired as a tutor. If you're good at crafts, check out craft stores and see if they run classes- or would consider running classes that you could teach. If you want to tutor high school subjects, go to the high schools in your area and see what they have for programs. You could advertise at universities and colleges as well.

Also, check out local tutoring services and see if they're hiring.

How to Become a Tutor and Build Good Relationships

Become a Tutor and Build Good Relationships
When you are a tutor, trying to build up a clientele, you are going to want to be the kind of person that relates well to other people, someone that your students feel they can relate to, and a tutor that can relate very well to the parents of their students.

Have you ever read the book,

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie?

If you haven't, you should. This book is amazing and will provide you with a great knowledge foundation for relationship building. This book points out several important things you can practice doing in your communications with others.

Here are two things you can start working on today:

1) Say the person's first name in your conversations. Yes, it sounds really simple, but the truth of the matter is that people love to hear their name. It makes them feel like you really care about them. It also helps them pay closer attention to what you are saying. (Remember when your mother would scold you by shouting all your names in full? Like Richard Scott Andrew Harmen! You come here right now! Or maybe Shauna Elizabeth Nancy Leeman! You're in trouble now! Well, it's no fun to remember getting scolded but the example shows how you really pay attention when you hear your name)

Just remember to use the student's first name only, and not in a scolding tone (wink).

2) Find out things about your student. What does he like to do? What are his hobbies? What sports does he like? Where has he gone on vacation? Then, you can bring little tidbits into conversations with him that he can really relate to. If he likes baseball, ask him what he thought about the most recent game. You will want to do a few minutes homework ahead of time about that game so you can comment on it too.

These two things, saying the person's name in conversation, and talking about something that interests them, are two simple yet very easy things to do. These two things will help you build relationships with your students as well as with other people in your life!

How to Become a Tutor: Building a Relationship

Become a Tutor: Building a Relationship

Learn What to Ask

When building a relationship with a new student, it can be difficult at first to know how many questions to ask and what to ask to get to know him better. After you become a tutor and have had some practice in this area, it will come easier to you.

With teenagers, generally, I would suggest treading carefully in this area at first. While I have never had a teenage student who didn't like to talk about themselves and their life, it usually came with time. (Let it ripen)

Elementary school children usually love to talk on and on about themselves and what they are doing, like to do, their friends, etc. Let this flow freely at first. However, you will need to take the reins and re-direct them to the tutoring task at hand, when necessary. Feel free to do so and they will learn to take cues from you.

I had one teenage student who was unusually quiet. In the tutoring session I could also tell that there were too many things on her mind to be able to concentrate on what I was teaching. A direct question like, "what's bothering you?" or "is there something you want to talk about?" will usually get the answer, "nothing." It will also leave a cold, dead silence in its wake and make both of you feel more uncomfortable.

It's better to ask a question such as, "so...what's your math teacher like?" or "I guess the basketball team is playing this friday. Do you usually go to the games?" After you get a response, ask another vague but related question. This exercise is just to get the student talking.

This is what I did with my quiet teenage student. After about 2 questions, she just spilled what was on her mind and then looked at me and said, "You know, you're really easy to talk to. I can't even talk to my parents like that." Well I must say that was one of the greatest compliments I had ever received as a tutor.

After she had spilled her problem out and told me what she thought she would do to solve it, I gave her one encouraging statement such as, "Well, I can tell you're a smart girl and I think you've done some good thinking about your situation. That's a great first step in solving any kind of a problem." She was not looking for a solution, only someone to unload on.

After that, she was able to soak in everything I was trying to teach her. The 10 minutes we took to have that conversation had several positive outcomes: 1) It built a relationship. I knew she trusted me. 2) It made the remaining 70 minutes of the lesson much more productive.

A student needs to feel comfortable enough to tell you when they don't understand the material. Building the trust relationship is the first step. Learn what questions to ask-- and when to ask.

How to Become a Tutor: Building Relationships

Become a Tutor: Building Relationships

When you want to be a tutor, there is much more to it than just having knowledge in your field of specialty.

A good tutor knows how to build a relationship with her student. This is an important step, as the student must learn to trust you and learn to feel comfortable around you. (For ease in writing, I will refer to the tutor as "her".)



Learn How to Listen
The first step in building a relationship with your student is learning how to listen. Often, your student will want to talk to you about things that at first don't seem related to the material. (For ease in writing, I will refer to the student as "him".) It is important that you allow the student to open up to you, and find a balance between conversation and tutoring. It is true that you are being paid--most of the time by the hour--to tutor the student in a particular subject. However, you will find that your tutoring will go much better and your student will be more receptive, if you allow for some discussion of other topics.

Most of my students have been high school age. I discovered that if I listened and tried to relate to their humorous anecdotes about what happened in school that day, or laughed at their jokes, they were much more at ease in asking me questions about the subject matter. A few minutes of conversation at the beginning of each tutoring session can be very beneficial in relaxing both the student and yourself. I would suggest this be limited to about 4 or 5 minutes. If they seem quite talkative, then make a suggestion like, "Well, we better get to work." This suggests that you are enjoying the conversation as much as they are, but you both have work to do.

Next in the Series on Building a Relationship...
Learn What to Ask

How to Become a Tutor: Sharpening the Saw

How to Become a Tutor: Sharpening the Saw

Whether you want to be a tutor, or be a better tutor than you already are, you must learn to sharpen the saw. Sharpening the saw is a figure of speech, and what it means literally is that you can cut more wood, faster and with less effort if you take the time to sharpen the saw once in a while.

How this relates to your tutoring business is that it is a good idea to refresh your memory and your skills periodically. Preferably before the tutoring sessions begin.

In preparation to be a tutor, do a little bit of research. For example, I started tutoring high school chemistry after having been out of University for couple of years. To prepare myself, I obtained a copy of the high school chemistry textbook and perused it to refresh my memory.

How to obtain textbooks: There are several things you can try in order to be able to borrow a textbook for the class you will be tutoring. First of all, find out about the curriculum requirements for that class. Search on your state or province's school district site. Find out the books they require for that class. You can also phone your local school and ask about which books that class requires. If it's a high school class, often you can pay a deposit and borrow the book over the summer, when the school is not using it. After summer, return the book to get back most or all of the deposit. This process works extremely well for me.

If you are teaching a college or university class, try to obtain the textbook through a used book sale.

Sometimes your local public library can be a source of good information.

Sharpening the saw does not need to take a lot of time and effort, and will give you a boost in confidence.

How to Become a Tutor, or Why be a tutor?

How to Become a Tutor, or Why Become a Tutor?

If you have been thinking that you want to be a tutor, have you really asked yourself why be a tutor? Seriously, as compared to a teacher or something else? Is it because you want to be in education, do you have a passion for it?

First of all, it is very satisfying to watch your student learn and grow while you teach, instruct and demonstrate. You and your student will end up learning and growing together. You will become amazed at the relationships you can build through tutoring. I tutored many high school students who would confide in me and then remark how surprised they were to be telling me that, when they wouldn't dream of telling their own parents!

Secondly, being your own boss and running your own tutoring business offers you flexibility and income tax breaks as well. Check into your area and find out what local or federal laws are for home based businesses. It may be to your advantage to obtain a business license; you may find out you can claim a whole slug of tutor-related expenses against your income, and that's always nice. You can decide when, where, and how much tutoring you want to do each week. Sometimes you may want to be flexible towards the students as well, if they are requesting more tutoring time close to exams.

Thirdly, being a tutor generally pays very well. If you can, scout around your area and see what other tutors are charging. You may be able to find out by looking in the phone directory, calling schools or tutoring services, etc. I have found that a good tutor in Canada or the U.S. can easily make $25+ per hour. If you are highly specialized and live in a big city with a University, you can possibly make $40+ per hour. You may want to give a price break to your first students in order to build up some references, but never sell yourself short.

How to Become a Tutor: Getting Started!

How to Become a Tutor: Getting Started!

Welcome to my blog. You must be thinking you want to be a tutor. Great! Here you can use my personal experiences in 25 years of tutoring to launch and maintain your very own personal tutoring business.

Tutoring is a business that you don't need certification for (make sure you check the requirements in your country), you decide the hours you want to work, work location, age range of your clients, how you will get paid, and how much you will get paid.

To become a tutor you do need a skills set. Some of these skills you may already have and some you can work on getting starting today.

Don't worry, you don't necessarily need to be a brain in math to be a good tutor. Tutoring covers many subjects and math is only one of them.

Word of mouth is going to become one of your best forms of advertising for your business. There are also other ways to advertise your business, such as ads in the local paper, ads on bulletin boards at schools or universities, and by putting your name on a tutor list available at many schools, especially high school. Just phone some local schools and inquire. Many parents will ask at the school office about where to look for a tutor, so they will often carry a list of tutor's names to pass on.