Back to School after Covid-19. Does your Child need a Private Tutor?
It’s Back to School for over 1 million students in New York City, after a year of upheaval due to the coronavirus pandemic. No doubt you’re concerned about the precautions schools are taking as your child returns to class this year.
You’re probably also worrying about your child’s progress after a year away from school. How has a year of online learning helped or hindered your child? How will they adapt to taking classes again? Will we see a continuation of in-person classes or will we have to adapt to a mix of online and in-person again this year?
Following an academic year like no other we’ve ever seen before, many students will benefit from a little extra help this year, be it a study group, homework support from parents, or private tuition.
Here, we take a look at the signs your child needs a private tutor, and how to find the perfect tutor for their individual needs, so they can fly through this year back at school.
Signs a student needs a private tutor
1. Your child is under-performing at school.
There are many ways to understand how your child is performing at school.
Keep an eye on their report cards and any changes you might see from one to the next.
Take an interest in your son or daughter’s homework - help them where they need it (if you can), or ask them to show you how they did in a test, an exam or a specific homework task, always taking a supportive stance.
Stay in touch with school teachers, who will be able to highlight if there are areas in which your son or daughter is struggling.
Have regular conversations with your child about how they feel about school, and about different subjects. Do they enjoy some classes more than others? Are they finding it challenging to adapt to in-person classes again after a year of online learning?
2. Your child is finding a class or the return to in-person classes challenging.
Children have different learning styles and although they’re often resilient and adaptable, there are specific teaching methods that will help your child progress through a subject more easily than others.
Ask your child about their favorite and least favorite classes, taking the time to see if they are struggling and why that might be. It could be that they would benefit from a little extra one-to-one tuition.
Be aware of how your child learns. Do they enjoy being a part of group activities, or do they thrive when they have dedicated time with a teacher? Do they get bored easily? Do they prefer to learn through doing, reading, listening or a mix? Does the format of classes at school support their individual learning style?
3. Your child is excelling in a subject.
Private tuition isn’t just for students who are struggling. Some students will find certain classes dull because they’re too easy. When a teacher has to teach a large class, they can’t always race ahead at the speed your child might desire.
If your child complains about a class, find out whether it’s because they’re not challenged enough. If they’re getting great grades, but losing enthusiasm, they might benefit from extra tuition to take them to the next level of a subject.
If your son or daughter is nearing college age, they’ll be thinking about specializing in their studies. Extra tuition in whatever subject they want to major in will help in college applications and as they start college.
4. Your son or daughter is applying to college.
During this time, your son or daughter is starting to seriously think about specializing and may be considering their professional life as an adult too. They might benefit from extra tuition to help them in the year before college.
The change in teaching styles between school and college need not be a surprise. With a private tutor, they can help to prepare a student for what’s to come, encouraging independent learning and suggesting effective study methods for college.
Colleges may ask for test results, and as we all know, these tests and exams are nothing like everyday homework. Understanding how to answer the question types found in these exams can hugely benefit a student.
Once you and your son or daughter have decided on private tuition, the next challenge is finding the perfect private tutor.
How do you find the perfect private tutor?
First, consider the time your child might need. It could be ongoing support throughout the year, or short-term intense support for a specific subject, test or event.
But how do you start your search for a tutor? Here, we consider the most common ways to find a private tutor, and evaluate the pro’s and con’s of each approach.
1. Word of Mouth - Recommendations
Asking friends, parents and teachers for a private tutor they could recommend is by far the most common way to find support for your child. You trust that the private tutor they know will be qualified and able to help. But just because a tutor works for one child, doesn’t mean they’ll work for every child.
We know that as well as being a subject expert, being relatable and tailoring lessons to lived experiences, is the difference between a tutor that ticks some boxes, and a tutor that your child wants to learn with every week.
2. College Students
Another popular way to find a private tutor is to reach out to college students. They are closer in age to your son or daughter. They’re likely to be able to relate to your child’s experiences at school. And they’re much more affordable.
But you get what you pay for. Although college students can help to mentor younger students, remember that they are not qualified teachers, so the quality of teaching can sometimes be hit and miss, even if lessons are perceived as fun.
3. Private tutoring platforms
There are plenty of private tutoring platforms, on which you can search and create a shortlist of tutors who may or may not be able to help your child. They’re very accessible and convenient, but the quality of tutors is not always guaranteed.
So you find yourself spending hours trawling through tutor profiles, contacting tutors, and arranging and completing interviews, in the hope that one of them will be perfect for your child’s needs. Although you could find a great tutor on these platforms, always vet the platform before you spend hours searching, because some platforms will take on tutors who have never really taught before.
4. Try StudyBuddy - it’s different from other tutoring platforms
Unlike other tutoring platforms and word-of-mouth recommendations, StudyBuddy has been built to find you a qualified US teacher, who is not only available when your child needs a class, but is able to tailor those classes to your child’s specific learning style, personality and cultural background.
Our goal is to give students great classes with the best tutors available every time. We do this by firstly ensuring that every tutor is a qualified US teacher. Secondly, we match students with those tutors, based on not just subject matter and level, but also on interests. That’s why we call our tutors “Buddies”, helping students to make progress and enjoy learning.
Our unique matching algorithm saves you time in the search for a best fit tutor. No more wasted hours or dollars finding tutors that don’t quite match expectations.
So give StudyBuddy a try. Here’s another reason why:
We’ll shortly be opening up the StudyBuddy app to students and parents in New York City. We’re testing some new features, and would love your feedback, in exchange for free classes during the test period.
So, if you feel your child needs extra tuition going back to school after Covid-19, give StudyBuddy a try. You can sign up today here. You’ll save time and money, as well as knowing your child is receiving high quality support from a US Registered teacher.