4th November 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
I’m just starting to realise how much I miss tutoring. I’ve had three lessons with my current student now, someone I tutored for her A Levels 3 years ago, and it’s amazing how easily I seem to forget how much I enjoy it when I don’t do it for a while. It probably helps that the maths we’re doing is good fun as well, reminding me a little of the differential equations course in my first year at Cambridge, except with easier questions.
The biggest reason for my enjoyment of tutoring, though, is how great it is to tutor this particular student, and I think that’s something often overlooked when we think about being happy in our roles as tutors. It does make a difference when you’re really able to look forward to tutoring someone; it’s the difference between just being content, and being a happy tutor. Obviously to some extent it’s the tutor’s role to encourage interest and make a student more responsive, but occasionally you’ll find a student who is already great at those things. I’m not saying that a great student is one who makes a tutor’s life easy – the lessons can still be a challenge – but it just doesn’t feel like an effort, and the time flies by.