School Teachers Working as Tutors
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But how to know if teacher is good? Calling agencies rarely turn up good teachers, and if I do not know any good tchers by word of mouth, very hard to find these good teachers.
I urgently need a good tutor (1-1) for chinese but all those that I tried by agencies cannot teach well. They do not sem to know what to focus on and push for when teaching. Worse still, my kid ends up wasting time talking non-essential things -
Thank you for your feedback. I do agree with atutor also it doesn’t matter whether is a school teacher or full time tutor. Quality of teaching is very important. My requirement for a Teacher is very direct and simple. So long teacher CAN TEACH and is responsible. And my kids don’t feel bored throughout the 2 hours lesson.
I do share the same sentiment with littlewoman too!. Words of recommendation is also important. At least, you know the teacher profile through someone you are familiar with. And getting positive review from parents about the Teacher can be a great help to us too! Not just a stranger that walks into your house. I believe there are still good tutors and school teachers around. Just that we have not bounce into them. So parents out there, your valuable feedback and recommendation will be greatly appreciated and seriously considered. -
Hi Sengkang mum,
If you are looking for the perfect teacher/tutor for your child, stop looking!
Nobody can teach your child better than you! If you can spare the time, your one hour of quality time with your child equals many hours that of a tutor. Even if you are a working mum, you can still help your child with his school work in the evenings. Importantly, fix a time when your child understands that that period is for learning. Go through his books/exercises and look for the areas where your child needs help.
If you do engage a tutor, monitor the first few lessons and subsequently drop into the room to ensure that the tutor is doing what he should. You have aright. You are the boss and it is you child at stake. -
Honestly, it’s the tutor/teacher that matters.
However, based on personal experience, being a school teacher is very demanding. If you want, I suggest ex-school teachers. Or, if a current school teacher, preferably one who is on part-time load with the school (like I was in 2009 - 2010).
This is also a point I look at when I recruit tutors. They must have the passion to teach and the experience to handle children. For the academic work, I normally train them myself to make sure they are up to standard. -
Daniel Sim:
I completely agree.Hi Sengkang mum,
If you are looking for the perfect teacher/tutor for your child, stop looking!
Nobody can teach your child better than you! If you can spare the time, your one hour of quality time with your child equals many hours that of a tutor. Even if you are a working mum, you can still help your child with his school work in the evenings. Importantly, fix a time when your child understands that that period is for learning. Go through his books/exercises and look for the areas where your child needs help.If you do engage a tutor, monitor the first few lessons and subsequently drop into the room to ensure that the tutor is doing what he should. You have aright. You are the boss and it is you child at stake.
Tutions are but supplementary. It is not a replacement of quality time spent by parents on a daily basis.
Having said that, if the parent simply cannot spend enough time to understand the current syllabus to be able to guide the child, then tutions become necessary. Even then parents supervision is a must.
All this is mostly for kids who are not so independant and not so focussed. There is a small minorty of kids who can manage thier studies and time with great maturity with minimal interference from parents. -
Tisha, good tutors will feedback to parents on which areas are weak and give suggestions on how parents can help to improve that weak area at home.
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Any idea what is the market rate for tutor who is current school teacher?
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My teacher friend told me she charges $50/hr for primary sch…As for secondary level, I guess it is even higher?? She also mentioned that the lowest she goes is $45/hr. However, the tutor I engaged currently charges $40/hr. He’s a teacher but I find his teaching so-so. I agree totally with what you gals/guys mentioned, the parent plays the most impt role. I personally feel my kid learns more under my daily coaching!!! I am a FTWM and I do feel drained everyday but I force myself to cover his sch work daily…stress and tired. End up screaming every night…
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My two cents worth:-
I think we need to distinguish between a parent as a source of emotional support and as a transmitter of knowledge.
In reality, some parents simply cannot teach. This could be for a variety of reasons: not up to date with the syllabus, lack of real understanding of subject matter, too tired after working all day, impatient with perceived lack of progress of the child etc.
At a deeper level, there is the issue of interpersonal dynamics: A child looks to his parent for unconditional comfort and approval. The parent hopefully provides a haven of safety away from the daily grind of school and school work. Imagine then if the parent takes on the role of ‘teacher’ and projects, or seemingly projects, approval only when the child does well in his studies. Even worse: What if the parent, through ignorance, tiredness or frustration, berates the child for not performing well? Some parents get too wrapped up in what they expect of their children in academic studies that they risk spoiling that special emotional bonding. Indeed, some parents live vicariously through their child’s achievements.
Sometimes, it is better to outsource and let a tutor take over. This is not to say that a parent should not oversee what is going on. In addition, a parent should always role-model reading and being intellectually curious and honest.
As to choosing a private tutor, it is of course preferable to go by personal recommendation. However, a tutor who works well with one child might not work so well with another - down to interpersonal dynamics again. Perhaps parents should enrol in their children in tuition centres and get to know a tutor. If the tutor is good, parents can always approach the tutor and enquire whether the tutor would consider private lessons. I see no ethical conflict here; the ethical conflict is only when the tuition centre tutor approaches the parents for private lessons.
Rgds
R -
Daniel Sim:
Nobody can teach your child better than you! If you can spare the time, your one hour of quality time with your child equals many hours that of a tutor.
For us, kids go to enrichment classes. We do have a school teacher coming in for science. These are in addition to us spending at least 2 hours daily with the kids in the evening on weekdays. We choose to outsource because due to resource constraint, we feel that others are able to do the job better than us.
i realised that there is only so much we can do in the evening. Sometimes the kids might need help with school work, or we need to give them spelling,etc.... there is only so much time we've and there is nothing additional we can do. It come to a point whereby during CA1, I realised that we can only afford to revise 1 week plus before the exams.
Even with kids having tuition/ enrichment classes, it does not stop there. Parents still need to follow up after that. So it's not totally outsource.
The situation is worsen with the no. of kids one has.
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