30th March 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
When tutors decide to start tutoring, they often think that there’s a lot to know. The answers to new tutors’ questions are often quite obvious, and we’re told that our frequently asked questions section covers the majority of the queries that tutors have. However, the question that always stumps us is “what is the hardest thing about being a tutor?”
This is such a difficult question to answer because the answer is different for each tutor. What some tutors don’t think twice about, others labour over for hours, trying to decide how best to resolve the issue. We thought it might be interesting to discuss the some of the problems that our new tutors face.
The first, and most obvious difficulty for new tutors is managing to organise their life around their tuition. Many new tutors begin because they’re looking to support themselves, and the temptation then is to begin arranging lessons with lots of students. This can lead to tutors taking on too much, and we’ve had situations where a tutor has had to cut back, or even stop teaching altogether because they’re over-worked, and have become ill.
Confidence can play a huge part in how comfortable a tutor feels when they begin teaching. Like anything, a new tutor is likely to be apprehensive about something he/she hasn’t done before. The trouble is that a lack of confidence can badly affect lessons, because the tutor will be less decisive about what they are doing, and the student’s learning will be affected if the lack of confidence becomes apparent to them.
Other than the things mentioned above, new tutors really shouldn’t be concerned at all about starting life as a tutor. We hope that they should be give confidence after passing our assessment, and being told that we believe that they can be excellent at teaching, and after that it’s just about being sensible about the amount of work taken on.