16th September 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
This time next week I’ll be in Texas for a friend’s wedding, so I’m frantically running around trying to get as much as possible done before I leave. I’m only gone for a week, and Harriet’s more than capable of keeping things ticking over (to be honest, she could probably do that if I was gone for a year!), but it’s a good idea to make sure that I can check my emails while I’m out there, just in case Harriet needs my advice with a tutor or student problem. And that’s part of the issue; since I’ve recently bought a new laptop, I have to make sure that I’ve got everything I need while I’m away.
Things are coming along nicely with our efforts to categorise tutors’ and students’ qualifications. Harriet and I met recently to discuss how to ‘score’ vague qualification types, and we decided that the onus has to be on the tutor to make it clear exactly what his/her qualification is. When a tutor enters a vague qualification, we’ll flag up that it’s not something we understand, and will ask them to be more specific.
Also, I’ve decided to start tutoring an old student of mine for this year. I’ve noticed recently that people often ask how much tuition I do myself, and I seem to always say “not very much, I spend most of my time arranging tuition”, but I really enjoy tutoring, and I really should stay in practice; I can’t really justify assessing the tutoring ability of thousands of people if I haven’t tutored for years.