Tutoring Without Traveling

Finding Ways to Tutor Without Traveling

One of the most difficult parts of tutoring is how much you might need to travel, especially if you have many different clients who all want to meet at different locations. Although a certain amount of traveling within the tutoring profession is usually inevitable, unless you have managed to successfully build up a large enough client base that you can always request that they come to you, there are certain tips and tricks you can use to minimize your traveling and be more efficient in where you tutor different clients.

Meet in Public, Centralized Locations

Oftentimes, clients can easily meet at a public, centralized location for tutoring, such as a public library or a coffee shop. These are great places to meet for a variety of reasons:

• They do not require you to rent space yourself, which can be extremely expensive. Rather, they are either free, or you can simply purchase a cup of coffee in exchange for using a coffee shop as your tutoring "office." 
• Libraries are a naturally quiet place, which is great for tutoring, since tutoring requires concentration and focus. Also, if you find the right coffee shop, the volume level can be very acceptable for good tutoring sessions.
• There are usually many coffee shops in a town or city, so you can choose the one that is most centralized and works best for the greatest number of clients.
• You can choose several different locations, depending on the day and the clients, to make your traveling for tutoring most efficient and effective.

Be Flexible at First, and then Suggest a More Convenient Location

When you are first developing a relationship with a client, it is usually a good idea to be flexible to the client's needs to gain the client's trust and good favor. Then, once you have proven your quality and experience to the client, you can try to suggest a meeting place that is more convenient for you.

Oftentimes, clients will understand how difficult it can be to travel from location to location for tutoring and will be willing to accommodate your request. This two step process is an extremely natural one that should not harm the tutoring relationship. Simply ask in a tactful and respectful manner, and then just trust that some client's will be understanding and want to help you out.

Schedule Wisely

If you are able to schedule your tutoring sessions wisely and well, you can also save a lot of time and gas money this way. Try to meet clients in locations that progress naturally from one another, rather than having to go back and forth across town. Try to schedule all of your clients who live in one location next to each other, and then your clients who live in a further location next to one another.

Stay Organized!

Traveling for tutoring can get pretty complicated, so it is a good idea to just take some time to organize your clients and locations, and then find ways to orchestrate them together to minimize your travel time and save you the most gas money.

A great tool to help you keep your calendar and appointments organized is Google Calendar. Below is a tutorial on how to use Google Calendar effectively.

I wish you the best in find how you can tutor with less traveling, or even tutor without traveling! If you have any ideas yourself, I would love to hear them!

Tutoring Interview Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers for Tutoring Interviews

This post is designed for both employers and potential tutoring employees. During an interview session for tutoring, there are some common questions that will be asked, as well as what employers are looking for in a potential tutor's answers to these questions. This post will help both employers and potential tutoring employees navigate through that interview. For a list of advice concerning fifty common interview questions, check out this page here: How to Ace the 50 Most Common Interview Questions.

Questions and Answers for Tutoring Interviews #1: Tell Us About Yourself

"Tell us about yourself" is the most common and first "question" that tutors will need to answer. You should be prepared with exactly what you will say when asked this question. You want to share with the potential employer things about yourself that also demonstrate your qualifications for the job. A good example of how you might answer this question is how Michael explains his qualifications on his Champaign tutoring page on his website. As you can see, he explains his professional experience, as well as the kinds of students he has worked with and the different subjects he has experience tutoring. It is a very good idea to write out what you would say in answer to this question because you will almost surely be asked it. Be as prepared as possible by writing it out and rehearsing your response.

Also, check out this Best Answers for Common Interview Questions page.

Questions and Answers for Tutoring Interviews #2: What Is Your Tutoring Method/Philosophy?

For potential tutors, this is also an extremely common question asked by employers. A proper answer to this question will have at least three parts:

1. First, talk about how you plan to assess/diagnose where the student currently is. Talk about what kinds of questions you will ask the student, as well as what kinds of practice questions you might use to diagnose areas that the student struggles with. This is extremely important because you can only help a student effectively if you know what he or she needs the most help with.
2. Second, explain the kinds of strategies you might use to help a student move to the next level in his or her learning. Talk about the kinds of questions you will regularly ask the student to check for understanding, as well as give a demonstration of how you might explain a question to a student. Also, talk about how you will help the student progress from needing your help to being able to solve the problems independently.
3. Finally, talk about how you will make sure that the student truly understands the material. Talk about giving the student problems to complete individually, without any help, and that you will check to make sure the student no longer requires your assistance to solve the problem. 

Questions and Answers for Tutoring Interviews #3: What Subjects Can You Tutor?

When employers ask this interview question to a tutor, they want to know how versatile you are as a tutor. Within one subject, there are countless divisions within that subject, so employers want to know if you have the skills to cover diversity within any particular subject, as well as whether you have the skills to branch out into other subjects if necessary.

The best way to prepare for this question is simply to study your material to make sure you know it inside and out, as well as to practice tutoring as many students as possible in as many subjects as possible, even if this is for free, to give yourself plenty of experiences you can talk about in your interview. The best proof for an employer is in your experience, so if you can talk about actual students and tutoring sessions you have experienced, employers will be far more impressed. 

Interview Questions and Answers Video

For more help with preparing for questions and answers in a tutoring interview, check out this video below. It always helps to see and hear what an actual interview might look like, so that you can visualize yourself in the actual interview. This will help you be both better prepared and more confident.

A Blog All About Tutoring!

Hi, my name is Grace and I am a tutor. I have been tutoring for some time now, and I thought I would start a blog to share some of my insights into tutoring.

My goal is for this blog to become a resource for aspiring tutors. I hope to publish quality articles about how to tutor for a career and to generate discussion about the best ideas for tutoring.

I look forward to becoming a part of the blog world, and to contribute my own unique experiences to it! I hope that whoever stumbles across this little blog of mine finds it useful!

I would love to hear any comments or thoughts anyone might have for anything I post. I will do my best to respond. I am looking forward to good discussions about tutoring here!