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How a Non-Techy Person Became an Online Tutor: Claudia Harrington Case Study

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Do you remember a time back before the internet made its debut?  Those not-so-long-ago days of giant floppy disks and green and black screens?  Old tech is still pretty new.

Technology has advanced so quickly and the truth is, so can you with the right support.

Claudia Harrington is a self-proclaimed non-techy person.  She knows how to do the basics as she’s adapted to technology over the years while teaching in the classroom.  This year, she decided to retire and make tutoring a second career for herself.

Let’s hear more about her story of transformation from a non-techy person to becoming an online tutor.

“Before I joined the Online Tutor System, I was floundering around trying to figure out how to get my tutor business up and going.  I did not want to tutor out of my house but was not sure about tutoring in a client’s home either.  Online tutoring came to mind, but I thought you had to be a technology whiz in order to be an online tutor.  The Online Tutor System provided me the skills and practice I needed to navigate online tutoring.”

Claudia Harrington

When I first met Claudia, we had a good laugh about the technology she used in her college years.  She was worried that she didn’t have the tech skills needed to be successful with online tutoring.  During the program, I had the opportunity to work with Claudia one day when her partner could not practice, and I was so impressed with her perseverance as she worked through navigating Google Hangouts along with it’s various apps.  She taught me some cool tricks and engaged me with a You Tube video she had found on the internet.

I believe that the key to my transformation was the practice.  All the written and video materials inside of the Online Tutor System are fantastic; but it takes practicing the different platforms to learn, get comfortable, and determine which one is right for your tutoring needs.  If you practice, by the end of the class you will know what platform(s) you want to use with your business.”  

There were times that Claudia wasn’t sure that students could really learn in this online environment.  As a classroom teacher, she knew how important it was to use your hands and be active in the work.  As she worked through the Online Tutor System, we saw her find equivalents for her teaching methods in an online environment.

After tutoring a student online, I learned that the student was able to learn the concepts and were just as engaged as if they were sitting next to me.  I had no idea there were so many platforms that are available to use for online tutoring.”

Claudia took her practice seriously and found that she can rest easy knowing that her plans to tutor during her retirement will prove fruitful.  She shared with us that one part of the Online Tutor System she enjoyed most was the ability to work at her own pace.  In her home state, she had more hoops to jump through to establish her business.  Now that she’s got everything taken care of on the legal side, she can more forward with completing all of the modules to help her continue building her online presence.

“After completing the Online Tutor System, I am slowly working on getting my business running.  My next steps will be to create my website and start marketing my business.  With the Online Tutor System at my disposal, I can move forward with confidence.  

Taking the Online Tutoring System was the best thing I could have done for my business.”

How can you make the transformation from non-techy to tech savvy?

1. Practice

Just like you know your students won’t make much progress if they don’t practice the skills you are teaching them, you know that you’ve got to practice.  Find a friend or family member to try online tutoring with.  Many online tutoring platforms have free trials so that you can try the software without any charge.  Start with Twiddla or GoBoard.  Both are simple to use and require little to no prep.  In the Online Tutor System, partners are assigned to you so you can get the practice you need.  Many of our members have become fast friends.

2. Join a Community

The internet can feel like such a big place, but being part of a community helps close the gap when you are learning technology.  Find other online tutor communities or online business communities and join one.  Ask for help in starting your journey.  Members in the Online Tutor System are part of a community for life.  When you join, you’ll always have access to tutors just like you and many that are further down the road than you which can be tremendously helpful.  We share new tools and student leads with each other.

3.  Google Your Brains Out

Okay.  I realize that seems like a simple solution, but its true!  Many of the skills I’ve learned as an online tutor business owner have been discovered through a website search.  I’ve been there in those moments when I just want someone to spell it out, but digging around the internet to discover tech skills is actually good for you.  Search for tutorials on various aspects of online business such as to start a website, how to pick a domain name, what is a domain name (lol), and other questions you don’t know the answer to.

Now if the thought of all the searching drives you bananas, you can also just join the Online Tutor System and have a lot of that done for you.  We share the best tools and platforms for teaching online.  We keep up to date and alter our program to reflect the latest changes in technology.

We are so thrilled with the results Claudia is having with the Online Tutor System.  She was committed to partner practice and she stuck with it when the tech issues got frustrating.  If you’d like help like Claudia received in getting your tutoring online, we hope you’ll join us for the spring Online Tutor System.  Enrollment is open now.  The last day to reserve your spot is on February 21, 2016.

Enroll in the Online Tutor System Here.

 

The post How a Non-Techy Person Became an Online Tutor: Claudia Harrington Case Study appeared first on The Tutor Coach.


5 Perks of Online Tutoring

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Several years back, I sat and listened to Angela discuss online tutoring during a conference we were collaborating on about various ways to expand your tutoring business.  Angela Culley has a warm way about her and I can remember the sentence clearly, “One of the things I like most about online tutoring is that I can be business on the top and party on the bottom.”  It was difficult not to laugh too hard (thankfully my mic was muted during the conference) as I imagined her in a nice top.  I chuckled at the thought that she had a swimsuit on the bottom because she had plans to be poolside that day. That’s when I knew Angela and I would become fast friends. That is one of my favorite perks of online tutoring:

Casual Dress is Welcome During Sessions

Now don’t get me wrong, I do love to dress nice when I go out but being able to work in my yoga pants is a real pull for me on my level of happiness.  Can you relate?  Dressing like this fits well into my life as a busy mom of three boys.  Many of my days begin in yoga pants as I rush them out the door and settle into work, which leads me to my next favorite perk…

Setting Your Own Work Schedule

Online tutoring allows me to maximize my working hours for when I am at my best.  There have been many afternoons and evenings where my brain is more fried than my students and math is just pitiful for both of us.  Tutoring during the day time hours when I am most alert turns out to be exactly what I need to be most effective. Turns out that I make less mistakes when I work at my optimal times.  Online tutoring also allows me to take on less risk, which is always a good thing!

Limited Risk

No more worrying about a client getting hurt while in your care or fretting about a child slipping on your sidewalk as they come to the door.  Online tutoring eliminates those issues and allows you to still effectively teach your student.  You can be more effective because your location is more likely to be less distracting!

No More Worrying About Location and Distractions

How many hours do you spend in the car driving to your students homes or the library?  What about the noise level that can and does increase at public locations?  Online tutoring can help decrease environmental distractions and increase your effectiveness.

Is online tutoring the right move for you?

It’s an emotional decision for most of us.  Which Tech Emoji fits you best?

Online tutor quiz

Imagine that you are working on your new website. You spent three days getting your pages "just so" and then you click on button and it all vanishes. How do you react?
You are working with a client for the first time online. As you are working, the speakers start to echo everything your client is saying. You...
Working online has inevitable ongoing costs. Any time you encounter a monthly fee for a software that makes your life easier, your reaction is:
How much money are you willing to invest each month in your online tutoring business?
Are you willing to work consistently on your online business? Typically, tutors spend 5-10 hours a week handling these tasks: -Website maintenance -Blog post writing -Handling of funds from clients -Enforcing cancellations -Creating videos to promote yourself -Actively participating in social media

If you are having more reservations about online tutoring, check out our series of short videos below about online tutoring.  You’ll hear from both Angela and I as we talk about tech issues, making clients feel safe, organizing yourself for the online session, and more.

The Online Tutor System is open for enrollment for the spring 2016 class.  We have just a few spots left.  Will you be joining us?  Enroll in the Online Tutor System Here.

 

 

The post 5 Perks of Online Tutoring appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Tutor Lesson Planning Series: ACT, SAT , and PSAT

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Andrew Vickery is a civil engineer by day and math/test prep tutor by night (a modern day Clark Kent perhaps–saving students one at a time).  He is having great success with his students and wanted to share with the readers here at the Tutor Coach how he creates lesson plans for the ACT and SAT.  Andrew walks us through it all, how he schedules, the strategies, and assessments that guide him through the entire tutoring process.  Enjoy!  Adrianne

So, you are a tutor. You are good at what you do. You are helping students succeed in ways they never thought they could. But there’s still one nagging issue. You’re starting to realize that convincing parents to pay for your services is not always easy. You see the benefits. But it seems like no one else does. It’s like you’ve woken up from the Matrix, and everyone else is still plugged in. Maybe you’ve also noticed (or maybe you haven’t) that parents inherently see the value in test prep tutoring. SAT, ACT, PSAT . . . These standardized tests, whether you like them or not, have measurable, quantifiable results that parents intuitively just “get.” I’m not here to convince you to start tutoring test prep. If test prep is right for you, you will eventually convince yourself that you need to do it. I’m here for those who want to start but don’t know how.

  • Are you worried that you don’t know enough about the test to teach it?
  • Does it concern you that you haven’t taken the test in 10, 20, or 30 years (or ever)?
  • Does it concern you that the test is not even the same as it was when you took it?

Truthfully, none of that matters! Yes, it would help if you had taken the SAT yesterday. But all that would mean is that it would be easier for you to prepare for lessons. It wouldn’t matter to your student one way or the other.

Today, I’m going to give you a rundown of the New SAT, and how to teach it to your students. Many of them are frustrated that the crash courses they took didn’t help. (And the parents are frustrated that they wasted all that money.) I’m going to walk you through how I help my students increase their SAT scores by more than 100 points on average (math & reading).

Test Prep Schedule

The number 1 reason students don’t see significant increases in their SAT scores between tests: they wait too late to start studying. I have had too many conversations that go like this:

Parent: My [son or daughter] is taking the SAT in 3 weeks. I wanted to set up some tutoring.

Me: Ok. But you realize that isn’t much time.

Parent: I know. We kind of waited too late.

Me: Just making sure you understand that’s only 3 weeks. You can’t learn it all in that amount of time.

The best way to combat this: a minimum tutoring session requirement. For example, if you require a minimum of 10 sessions for test prep tutoring, you can eliminate those last minute preppers, AND you can actually help the students you do take on.

Now, when you do get your first student, here’s how to structure your time together:

Session 1 – Scheduling, assessment (if necessary), discussion of personal study plan, strategies, some practice (if time allows). Towards the end, I recommend having the student work a few easy problems in the area of their strength using their newly learned strategies. This first meeting will overwhelm them. The confidence they gain right there at the end is going to do more than all the other strategies, etc. that you teach them today.

Session 2 – This is where the real practice begins. Start with their weakest areas (a rising tide lifts all boats). I secretly hate that this is the key. I like for students to work in their strengths.

However, the SAT does not test intelligence (brilliant students get below average scores ALL THE TIME). The SAT tests your ability to take the SAT. That’s it.

Session 3 – Continue to focus on weakest areas.

Session 4 – Continue focusing on weak areas while adding in a very small portion of some of their strengths (to maintain some confidence).

Session 5 – During this session, try to spend proportionate amounts of time on each section of the test. The New SAT is divided into 4 sections (Reading Comprehension – 65 minutes, Sentence Correction – 35 minutes, Math without a calculator – 25 minutes, Math with calculator – 55 minutes). If you are doing one-hour sessions, divide your time up accordingly. Spend approximately 22 minutes on reading comprehension, 11 minutes on sentence correction, 8 minutes on math without a calculator, and 19 minutes on math with a calculator.

Session 6 – If at all possible, schedule this session for a Saturday morning at 8:00 AM, and proctor a full practice test for your student. If you can’t do that, encourage them to do so on their own, and use this session to score/review their practice test.

Session 7 – Refocus efforts based on results of practice test. Focus on weakest areas first (these may or may not have changed).

Session 8 – Continue to focus on weakest areas.

Session 9 – Continue focusing on weak areas while adding in a very small portion of some of their strengths (to maintain some confidence).

Session 10 – If this is the last session, it should be much like session 5. If you are continuing lessons, try to get in at least get the student to commit to another practice test, either with you or on their own.

Test Prep Strategy

Cool. So you mentioned “strategy, personal study plan, assessment.” Never mind the student . . . I’m the one getting overwhelmed. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Let’s take it one step at a time. Next, let’s talk strategy. When I say strategy, I don’t mean how you should teach. Everyone has their own style. That’s what makes you you, and that’s what makes parents choose you. What I mean by strategy is what your students should be doing to answer the questions.

Learning the material is definitely a big part of preparing for any test, and the SAT is no exception. However, not every student has the same set of capabilities. It reminds me of this cartoon where there is a man behind a desk (presumably a member of some board of education) in the middle of a field by a giant, old oak tree, and in front of him are animals standing in line side-by-side. A crow, a monkey, a penguin, an elephant, a fish in a bowl, a seal, and a dog. The man’s instructions to the “class” are as follows: “For a fair evaluation, everybody has to take the same exam: Please climb that tree.”

Strategies for the SAT can come in all shapes and sizes, but they ultimately hinge on one major principle: answer the questions you know how to answer first. For the rest of the questions, use this method. What I am suggesting is not all that different, because frankly, that works. I do also recommend using these strategies even when you think you know the answer. Historically, the SAT has been designed to trick you. The College Board suggests that they are moving away from that, but many of the questions still have what I would consider to be trick answers.

The Strategy Basics

  • Start with this in mind: All the correct answers are right in front of you. You just have to find them.
  • Don’t leave anything blank. There is no longer a penalty for incorrect answers on the multiple choice questions.

Strategy by section

Section 1 – Reading comprehension

  • Read the entire passage, and then begin to answer questions.
  • When answering questions, get your answers directly from the evidence in the passage. Some answer choices may seem right but are not backed up by the passage.
  • When you read each question, DO NOT look at the answer choices. First, attempt to answer, in your own words, before looking at the choices. A great example of this can be found on Practice Test 1 on the College Board’s website. Question #3 states: “As used in line 1 and line 65, ‘directly’ most nearly means.” Look back at lines 1 and 65 and decide what “directly” means in that context. Then look at the answer choices. The choices are “frankly, confidently, without mediation, or with precision.” All of those could be definitions of the word directly. Answering in your own words first while taking evidence from the passage makes the correct answer to this question much more obvious.
  •  Instead of trying to pick the right answer, eliminate wrong answers. Usually this will knock off 2 choices easily, making the task of picking the right one much less daunting.

Section 2 – Sentence Correction

  • This section is officially named “Writing and Language Test,” but I call it “sentence correction” because that’s what it is!
  • The advice is much the same as the reading comprehension section: use evidence in the passage, answer in your own words first (if applicable in this section), and eliminate wrong answers.

Section 3 – Math – NO Calculator

  • Make sure you are not using a calculator when practicing these problems.
  • The advice I give for the math sections is the exact opposite of the reading/writing sections. LOOK AT THE ANSWERS FIRST. The answer choices will give you clues about the problem. If 2 or 3 choices have √3 in them, you might want to keep an eye out for a 30-60-90 triangle. If one of the answer choices is 8 and another is -8, BE CAREFUL!!!
  • If at all possible, plug the answers in. Not all students are vigilant about catching their own errors when performing algebraic operations. Why take that risk? Just plug it in. Take Question #1 from Section 3 on Practice Test 1 from the College Board’s website for example: “If and , what is the value of ?” Sure, that’s easy enough for me to solve. And yes, I teach my students how to do it algebraically so that they can solve any problem like this, but why risk making a careless error? Put 3 in for , and plug each answer choice in for to see which one satisfies the equation.
  • If you can, make up a number! Same section, same test, Question #3: “On Saturday afternoon, Armand sent text messages each hour for 5 hours, and Tyrone sent text messages each hour for 4 hours. Which of the following represents the total number of messages sent by Armand and Tyrone on Saturday afternoon?” Replace & with 2 different numbers (you pick!!!) in both the problem and the answer choices. Now you just see which one gives you the same value.

Let’s say you choose 3 & 5 for & , respectively. That means Armand sent a total of 15 messages and Tyrone sent a total of 20 for a grand total of 35. The answers choices are: . A gives you 135. Nope. B gives you 300. Nope. C gives you 35. YES!

Section 4 – Math – With Calculator

  • Exact same advice as section 3.
  • These questions will only be harder in that they will use decimals/fractions/larger numbers that make it necessary to have a calculator. However, many of these questions are solvable without a calculator.
  • Do NOT purchase a TI-89 or whatever other advanced calculator that you don’t know how to use. The graphing functions would be super useful on this section, but only if you know how to use them. As a sophomore in high school, I achieved a 710 on the math section, and I used a TI-25X Solar Calculator. It wasn’t even powerful enough to need batteries. It had no graphing capabilities. You don’t need a fancy calculator. You need one you can use.

Personal Study Plan & Assessment

To create a personal study plan for your students, you need to know their strengths and weaknesses. You can get this via an assessment. This assessment is not as difficult as it sounds. If the student has taken the SAT before, ask for a copy of their full score report. This report will show you which specific types of questions the student did well on and which ones they struggled with. This is somewhat difficult to translate from the old version to the new version of the SAT, but not unreasonable. To make the example easy to understand, I’ll pretend your student has taken the New SAT.

On the score report, you will get a math score and a reading score. These will be between 200-800 each. You will also see 3 sub-scores for math and 4 sub-scores for reading. The sub-scores for math are titled “Heart of Algebra, Problem Solving and Data Analysis, & Passport to Advanced Math.” For the reading sections, the sub-scores are titled “Expression of Ideas, Standard English Conventions, Words in Context, and Command of Evidence.” Each of these sub-scores will be based on a particular selection of questions from within their respective questions. For example, let’s stick with the same practice test I’ve been referring to: Practice Test 1 from the College Board’s website. The “Heart of Algebra” sub-score from that test is based on the student’s performance on questions 1; 3-4; 6; 9; 11-12; 18 from Section 3 and questions 4; 8; 10-11; 15-16; 18-19; 28; 31-32 from section 4. Instructions for calculating these scores can also be found at that link.

You can use these sub-scores to determine exactly where to focus within each section. Rather than your student just saying, “I’m bad at math,” you can determine exactly what about the math is difficult for them, and focus your efforts there. Each of the practice tests on the College Board’s website has a “Scoring Your Test” guide that tells you which questions belong to which of the sub-score sections. You can use one of the other tests to study those particular questions for the student’s weaker sections.

Ultimately, practice is the key. Students must put in the effort to study own their own as well. I do not recommend studying for an hour a day for a month or so before the test. I recommend studying 15-20 minutes per day for 6+ months ahead of time. This method is easier to stick to and actually works better. 10 minutes before school, 10 minutes after. That’s not hard to do. Taking a full length practice test is also essential. Like I tell my students: you’d never run a marathon having only ever run sprints. I recommend recreating the test day experience one Saturday morning per month and doing a full length, timed practice test. Even go to the actual test site if possible.

The Verdict

Here’s what we discussed:

  1. The tutoring schedule (and the importance of a minimum number of sessions).
  2. The strategy for attacking the test (while understanding that there’s no replacement for understanding and truly learning the underlying concepts).
  3. Strategy by sections of the test.
  4. The student’s personal study plan.
  5. How to assess students.

A word of fair warning from a friend of mine: Sometimes parents can put tremendous amounts of pressure on their students to perform on these standardized tests. Or the students can put this pressure on themselves. It is my belief (and this is completely anecdotal) that this pressure is usually unintended, but part of your job will be to mitigate that stress and anxiety.

So, are you going to give test prep a shot? It’s not as hard as you might think. Plus, here’s a little secret: I helped one student raise his ACT math score by 5 points. The catch, I have never once taken the ACT.  If you follow the above method, you too can help students raise their scores.

Thanks Andrew for sharing!  I’ve only tutored for SAT test prep once and we only focused on math.  I couldn’t agree more with the advice that Andrew shared.  My student and I were cramming, but here are some resources that helped us and may help you as well.

Quick List of Resources for Test Prep Tutors

The New Math SAT Game Plan by Phillip Keller

This book is packed full of tips for working smarter, not harder during the SAT.  The strategies are easy to learn and will help your student raise their score.  This book was created for the previous SAT tests, but is still valid in teaching math attack skills.  This is an affiliate link.

Andrew Vickery, Math Coach You Tube Channel

The author of this article makes videos on a consistent basis to help students practice for the New SAT.  Be sure to check out his question of the day.

Stellar Scores Recommended Resources

Stacey Howe-Lott of Stellar Scores taught the SAT for years and has a great list of posts about test prep and an entire page featuring her top recommended books to purchase.

Bright Storm

This site has a few free resources, but is mostly paid access to all videos…but I can tell you it is worth paying every cent to help you brush up on skills yourself.  They also have awesome free eBooks, webinars, and more for free.  You’ll love it!

The post Tutor Lesson Planning Series: ACT, SAT , and PSAT appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Tutor Lesson Planning Series: Reading

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Many tutors feel overwhelmed at figuring out how to serve their students best when for many their background stems from working within a school where scope, program, sequence, and pacing is all provided for you.  After tutors had filled out my last survey, I discovered that many tutors were feeling unsure about how to plan for their students and when to advance them forward.  Every tutor teaches slightly different, but I’ll share what worked for my students and I. (this post contains affiliate links)

Reading Tutor…Be Aware

When you are working with children one on one, you’ll start noticing things that you may have not noticed in a classroom setting before or come up against stuff that you can’t seem to help your student overcome.  As a reading tutor, I plead with you to please read Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr. Shaywitz.  For me, I read this book many years into my tutoring and wished I would’ve had the information sooner to help some of my previous students.

I recommend this book because 1 in 5 children have dyslexia.  You will come across dyslexia as a tutor.  You need to know what to do.  When I spot some of the signs, I recommend to parents that they see a dyslexia tutor.  Parents are rarely offended at this, but relieved they didn’t waste a bunch of money on tutoring with me.  It’s not that we couldn’t have made progress together, it just wouldn’t be intense enough or in the right sequence for that child.  I think having other tutors that you feel comfortable referring to is an important part of serving your clients.  Check out some of these lists for dyslexia tutors.

Assessment to Guide Tutor Planning

I really like using Let’s Go Learn assessments because it gives me clear diagnostics about what the child doesn’t know.  The reports are very detailed and help me make an informed plan for each child. DORA Phonemic Awareness and DORA K-12 are the reading assessments I use.  If the child is 1st grade and younger, I will use both assessments.  If they are 2nd and older, I will do just DORA K-12 and then look at results.  If they scored low on Phonemic Awareness, I will decide if I should do the DORA Phonemic Awareness assessment in addition to that.

If I do see that phonemic awareness is an issue, this causes a red flag to pop up for me.  Proceed with caution and start looking for signs of dyslexia listed in Overcoming Dyslexia.

Next I gather a writing sample.  I ask them to write letters in random order and watch for the following:

  • Any hesitation while forming letters.
  • Letter reversals.
  • Difficulty forming letters.

Then I ask them to write simple sentences like:

Ann likes milk.  
Most kids will write An.  It doesn’t register that Ann is a name.  The word “like” may have a “c” and no “e”.

Then I’ll include a sentence that has two more words that are fairly common sight words.
The dog was happy.

Then I’ll do a short list of sight words and have them write their name.  Such as:

was
my
in
the
it
and 
am 
saw

After that, I also do a short list of sight words mixed with noun type words.   Such as:

car<
in
bus
cat
am
baseball
beach
drink
float

A dyslexic child will may fumble through simple sight words, but may be able to read bigger words like “butter” or “little”.  This is because there is some sort of picture associated with it in their mind, whereas the word “the” doesn’t bring up any picture.  Some professionals believe that dyslexic children are very good a visualization which is why a child can read “tyrannosaurus”, but not “was”.  You can watch a free webinar about visual thinkers here on the site.

Lets Go Learn Report

Side note about the report above:  Looking at this report now, I can honestly say I didn’t know the signs of dyslexia.  In reflection, I would have made a referral had this student come to me now.  After working with her for several months, I can see now how she would have benefited greatly from dyslexia tutoring.  She made enough progress however, that we moved onto working on math.

The very last item I like to collect during a reading assessment is an audio recording of the student reading a book at grade level.  Reading progress can be so slow that it can be difficult for family members and students to remember where they began.  Throughout tutoring, we will take recordings to get snap shots of how they are progressing.  My students love to hear themselves progress over time and use this audio recording as a form of self-assessment to improve each time they read.

Post Assessment:  Plan Summary

After the assessment, I go over the results and then make a plan of action based on the detailed report that DORA gives me.  I pull out a planning sheet that I’ve made that has six different blocks on it.  I like to make a general plan for several months and then plan each week according to my overall plan.  This is kind of like creating a scope and sequence.  The below picture is for a plan summary I made for a student during the summer coming twice a week.  The items I put into the summary are things I got from the assessment itself and from listening to her read.  I also like to list the books we’ll be reading during tutoring for the parents to reference.

You’ll also notice that I made a suggestion that the parent purchase Let’s Go Learn’s Reading Edge program.  If the child is only going to come to tutoring once a week, I suggest that they use the Reading Edge program for additional practice at home.  The program takes the results of the assessment and plugs it into the program.  The reading program only works on the weak areas in a fun way.  Students can earn badges and as a tutor, I can see in the back end how often they are getting work done and where they are at in the program.  Reading Edge was developed by reading specialists and is developmentally appropriate for lower and upper elementary.  The theme of the software has kind of a retro vibe, which is neutral enough that all of my students like it.  I pass the fee to purchase onto the parents.

Lesson Planning Grid

In addition to this summary, I will go back into Let’s Go Learn and find the students Lexile reading level from the report.  Remember though that any leveling system has inherent variance built into it.  Students’ interest will affect how easy or hard any given text is to read.  Furthermore, student motivation will affect their performance during assessments.  If they don’t try their best, reading levels may be reported lower than their actual levels.  I always work on fluency as well and don’t have that written up above in this plan.

Once I feel  confident about the summary plan, I send the Let’s Go Learn report and summary over to the parents via email and schedule a call to talk about my plan to help their child.  During this call, we talk about the plan and what they can do at home to support their child.  I introduce them to the idea of Hot Spots from Laura Candler.  I want reading to be enjoyable for parents so we use Hot Spots as a way for them to communicate moments of frustration with me as the tutor.  Each time the child comes back for tutoring, I record the Hot Spot words from the week.  Over time, I start to see patterns of words we need to work on.  It’s a great form of ongoing assessment.

The Fun Part!  Individual Session Planning

Each week, I make plan and use my plan summary to guide me as well as any data I’ve collected like the hot spots or running records.

Below is an actual lesson plan from the summer with the student featured above.  The format of this lesson planning sheet is available inside of the Profitable Tutor Framework.  I break my lesson into 5, 10, and 15 minute chunks of time.

Daily Lesson Plan

1.  Read a Book Together

We do something enjoyable at the beginning which is just reading together!  I love putting it at the beginning because most students come to me hungry and need a little snack.  This is a great time to much and enjoy a book together.  We follow the pattern of me reading a page and then the student reads a page.  My students love to hear me read and I enjoy it too.  At the end of our book time, we talk a little about the story and make predictions of what we think will happen next.  I usually let the child select the book because this is all about bringing the joy back to reading.

2.  Mini Lesson/Hands-on Work
This is taken from the plan summary above.  I find different activities around the sounds and do word building activities that involve tactile things like writing and such.

3.  Word Study

Morphology can be a powerful tool and one that I like teaching reading with.  When we understand the building blocks of our language, it makes it much easier to learn how to read and improve comprehension.

Resources for Word Study:

The Science of Spelling by Pete Bowers (podcast hosted by Anne-Marie Morey)
Ready Made Word Study Dictionaries by Ladybug Teacher Files
Voyager Sopris (love many of their programs for reading)

4.  Fluency Practice

To learn more about fluency, make sure to check out these resources:

Second Story Window Fluency Page (packed full of info and programs to purchase)
Fluency What’s a Tutor to Do? (inside look at how a dyslexia tutor teaches fluency)
60 Fluency Passages by Jen Jones
Printable Spelling Activities by This Reading Mama, Becky Spence

I involve my students in data collection because they love to see the progress and crave the feedback.  For example, I give a fluency rating to each of my students.  When I tell them what their score was, I explicitly tell them what they could have done better to get a four.

5.  Extra Reading Practice

I love using these mini-books from Scholastic.  I keep the originals in a folder with sheet protectors.  Inside of each sheet protector is a copy of the mini book.  I don’t send copies of the books home to help me save on the cost of printing.

Fluency Practice Mini-Books:  Grade 1
Fluency Practice Mini-Books:  Grade 2
Fluency Practice Mini-Books:  Grade 3
Fluency Practice Passages:  Grade 5-6

Scholastic Mini Books

6.  Comprehension Practice

After each reading, I do ask students questions about the books and passages we are reading.  For a more formal assessment, grab free comprehension passages from K12 Reader.  Each passage has a reading level with comprehension questions.  I like that the passages cover topics like history, science, and math!

Organizing All the Lesson Plans

At the beginning of each week, I sit down to lesson plan for all of my students.  I go through the notes and the plan summary to help me select items for the week.  Each student has their own pocket folder where I’ll place our data collecting sheets, fluency passages, word study sheets and dictionary, and one mini-book.  I paper clip the plan to the outside of the pocket folder and keep all of the folders in a basket.

When to move on to new topics

Knowing when is a good time to go up a level or to move onto a new skill is a tricky one.  I use data to help me make that decision.  How is their word per minute on passages at this level?  How did their fluency sound?  What was the average rating for fluency at each of those levels?  Are they improving and are the passages becoming too easy at this level?  For a more in-depth tutorial on how to gather this data and move a student up, head over to Reading A-Z and read their guide.

I hope this insider view to how I prepare for tutoring reading is helpful.  There are lots of ways to plan and prepare.  I’d love to hear yours.  Click on one of the share buttons below and tell me more about it.  I can’t stress enough to learn all you can about dyslexia.  It is a learning difference, not disability.  I believe the demand for dyslexia tutors is going to increase as awareness increases.  If you are interested in getting training, check out these training programs:

Dyslexia Training Institute
Orton-Gillingham
Barton

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Tutor Lesson Planning Series: Dyslexia

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As you’ve heard me mention many times before, dyslexia affects 1 in 5 children. As a reading tutor, you are going to come across this more than once. I am excited to share with you how Jennifer Lynn Hoffman of WYN Dyslexia Specialists prepares for her students.  She also shares her story and tells us a little about the training she received.  The training has been key for Jennifer to be able to fill her tutoring business to capacity, have a wait list, and be able to leave her day job behind.  Enjoy-Adrianne

The Backstory

Exactly a year ago, I began my tutoring business. I was a substitute teacher, and I needed summer income. I had to do something, and teaching was what I did best. Little did I know that I would be a dyslexia specialist today.

Jennifer HoffmanI started with 4 children who were being threatened with retention by their respective school districts due to deficiencies in reading and math, but reading was the bigger issue. One boy puzzled me. He was 5 and in kindergarten. He was inquisitive, mechanically inclined, loved Lego and drawing, yet he couldn’t remember the names of his letters or letter sounds. What was the missing piece?

I started my quest to solve this mystery. I researched. I read countless articles, and lost many hours of sleep trying to figure out how to help this smart boy. I kept coming across websites for dyslexia. He had so many of the warning signs. So, after a discussion with his mom, we decided to proceed as if that was what he was struggling with.

Training to be a Dyslexia Specialist

That was the pebble that started the ball rolling for me to become a dyslexia specialist. I was a trained teacher, but I had NO training in dyslexia. I decided in July to commit to tutoring my students with the Barton Reading & Spelling System. Training was made very easy as it is all done via DVD’s or online videos for each level.

The Barton Reading & Spelling System is a Orton-Gillingham influenced, researched, and independently tested program created my Susan Barton. Mrs. Barton was trained in several different Orton-Gillingham programs. When she created her system, she combined the best practices of each system into one.

Every student who begins with the Barton System must be screened, so I know that a student is ready to begin the program. To date, I’ve taken two students through levels 1-3, and they are currently working in level 4. Two more of my students are in Level 3 currently. One student is in level 2, and another is in level 1. A creative tutor can take a “boxed” program, and make it individualized for each student.

Sometimes a child doesn’t pass the Barton Student Screening. If that happens, I start them in the Lindamood-Bell LiPS program. I took a 3-day training for that program last fall. It has proven to be very beneficial for the students who come to me that need more work on phonemic awareness.

LiPS Vowel Circle

Training doesn’t end there. This summer I will be taking Susan Barton’s 6-day Dyslexia Screeners Summer Seminar. Since teacher training programs don’t teach their students about dyslexia, all training that a dyslexia specialist receives is often self-paid and self-sought.

Other training options exist through the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, Wilson Language Training, and other places. I looked at the time I had to devote to training and the programs that offered training. I also looked at the ease of use of each program. After weighing my options, I decide to use the Barton Reading & Spelling System.

Assessing and Lesson Planning

When a new student comes to me, I assess them all with the Let’s Go Learn DORA. This is a reading assessment for grades K-12. It does not diagnose or screen for dyslexia, but it does give me a beginning benchmark for my students. I’m also very interested in their score on the spelling subtest as poor spelling is a classic warning sign of dyslexia.

Lesson planning with Barton is very easy as I have a progress chart that is included with each level. Some levels have a few lessons with a few procedures, but the higher levels have many lessons with several procedures. I keep moving through the procedures as my students master the material. Usually this happens in one lesson. However, sometimes they need a repeat lesson on the same material.

Dyslexia Lesson Plans

As the tutor/teacher, I’m responsible for mastery. That means I keep the student where they are until they master with 95-100% accuracy the material in the procedure/lesson. One of my dear students struggles terribly with auditory processing and phonemic awareness. He’s been working on LiPS and Barton Level 1 since October. We are staying where we are until we achieve mastery. Some days it’s a two steps forward and one step back experience.

Spelling tests, fluency exercises, and games can be added to the Barton System to create a more individualized experience. All my students love games. I make sure I set aside about 10 minutes at the end of every session for games. I find that my elementary students definitely need this to end the session on a positive note. What I ask them to do during the tutoring session is often difficult. I don’t want them to feel like all tutoring is a big struggle.

Patience and passion are the key prerequisites for working with dyslexic children. Many of my students also have dysgraphia which is an issue with the actual act of writing. I am a huge fan of

Handwriting Without Tears. I include work on handwriting in each tutoring session. Some also have ADHD, dyspraxia, CAPD, and other co-existing conditions.

I keep a plastic, three-pronged folder for each student. I use lesson planning sheets to help me keep track of what will be reviewed, introduced, and notes on the session. This is very useful for my students who are in the Lindamood-Bell LiPS program as there is no progress chart to follow.

Each child also has a composition notebook. This is where they keep all their written work. If a student is in the LiPS program, they will have pages for the brother pairs, cousins, etc. Many of my students also keep a sounds page. The sounds page is where I write down the sound they need to work on, and they draw a picture to remind them of what the sound is. For example, for the sound /sh/ they might draw a ship or a shoe. We review these sound pages first each session.

Dyslexia Lesson Plans 2My Barton students continue to use their composition notebooks to write their words, phrases, and sentences. The notebook keeps everything contained.

Final Thoughts

Using the Barton system and being experienced in the LiPS program means that I actually spend very little time creating lesson plans. The plans are all there. My job becomes using the material to meet the needs of the child. This is where understanding if the child needs to slow down, back up, or change directions becomes important.

Working with dyslexic children is not a short-term experience. Many of the children will be with their tutor for 2-3 years. In that time, the tutor learns the needs of the child and how to meet them. Teaching this special group of students is a joy and not a job. I’ve become so busy in the last year that I no longer substitute teach. Tutoring is my career.

Bio:  Jennifer Lynn Hoffman is a certified teacher who lives in Buffalo, NY with her three teenaged daughters who haven’t flown the nest yet, her husband, and their two cats. Jennifer if the founder and director of WNY Dyslexia Specialists, LLC where students reach for the star! WNY Dyslexia Specialists, LLC offers success for struggling readers. http://www.wnydyslexiaspecialists.com/

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Tutor Lesson Planning Series: Math

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Have you been feeling overwhelmed about how to plan for your math tutoring students?  In this post, I’ll share how I plan in addition to what resources I use over and over with my students.  We’ll begin with the student inquiry and move on from there to assessment and planning. (this post contains affiliate links)

 

Student Inquiry for Math

 

When I get an inquiry for a new math student I first find out if they are in high school or younger.  If they are a high school student, I will not begin with an assessment but rather we discuss how they are struggling and schedule a time to meet the student.  I teach skills as they come up in our tutoring session as we work on homework together.

 

If the student is in middle school or younger I like to begin with an assessment from Let’s Go Learning.  I use ADAM  K-7 to guide my planning.   I prefer to do all assessments while I am present with the student.   I prepare them by getting a little bit of background about how they feel about math.

 

Assessment to Guide Tutor Planning

 

Before I start the assessment, I love to explain to students that there is a progress bar at the top of the screen. I point out that this progress bar is not accurate in the least bit.  I explained to them that the program adjusts to their knowledge as they work through the problems.  This helps my students that struggle with attention to be able to complete the test. Many students complain that they wish the bar would just disappear and I couldn’t agree more!

 

If I sense the child is struggling with attention, I actually will pause the assessment and stop to do a different activity like coloring. I am interested in what the child knows not their ability to pay attention. For one of my students this worked particularly well.  She would work for about ten minutes take a break, color for 5 minutes,  and then go back to work.  

 

When we were done I felt like we got a really clear picture of her capabilities and she was happy at the end of the assessment.  Mom had noted that when she takes assessments at school, she struggles because she feels trapped and can’t pay attention.  Knowing this helps me to plan for our assessment time together.

 

After the assessment is complete, if we have time I also like to play a math game with the student. This helps me to watch in real time how comfortable they are with numbers.   I typically like to play pyramid solitaire because the rules are simple.  The object of the game is to add 2 numbers up to 13.   I like that its 13 and not 10 because a lot of students are able to quickly add numbers to 10 but not so much to 13.  Even watching middle school students play this game can be very eye opening. I watch for things like counting on fingers, tapping on the desk, and long pauses of staring into space. I pay attention to their stress as well.  Are they breathing heavy?  Do their shoulders go up by their ears?  Do they spend a lot of time thinking about what numbers add up to 13?

 

Once the child leaves, I then go into Let’s Go Learn assessments and view the report. When I open the ADAM K- 7 report, I really enjoy the process of digging into the scores.  They are divided into strands:

 

  • Numbers and Operations
  • Measurement
  • Algebra
  • Geometry
  • Data Analysis

 

They make it really simple to see where the student is on or above grade level with a green line or below grade level with the red line.  I can  look at this quickly and know where the student is struggling.  It also tells me overall how far below grade level the student is in each strand.

 

In the example below you can see that this student is in 5th grade and is only slightly below in numbers and operations, almost a full grade behind in measurement, a full grade behind in data analysis, a full grade behind in geometry, and almost to grade level in algebra.  

 

summary math report

 

After looking at the summary I then move on to the detailed report this is where it gets juicy.  Inside this report you’ll see lots of numbers, pluses, and minuses. You can see the topics within the strands and observe that the student is struggling with multiplication properties of commutative,  associative, and distributive.  This is something I know that I can work on with my student.  

detailed report

Another feature I really like about Let’s Go Learn is the inside of their program (the back end).  I can also view the same information, but it will automatically mark for me what is highest priority, medium priority, and low priority. This makes planting quick and easy.

 

math priority

 

The other thing that I really like about Let’s Go Learn is they have aligned with Khan Academy. Inside of their back and you can find links to tutorials for each section that the student needs help with. You can spend the time to create challenges for the student inside of Khan Academy and assign them when the child is not with you for tutoring

 

If I see that the student is very far behind in their math knowledge I will recommend to the parents that we purchase Let’s Go Learn Math Edge program. I like this program because it takes all of the information from the assessment and plugs it into the program so the student is only working on skills they need help with. The program is fun, engaging, and has a retro vibe to it. This helps the program to be more neutral and appealing to more students. if the student can only come to me once a week I suggest we go this route. Depending on how far behind they are, I also suggest it in addition to twice a week tutoring.

 

Post Assessment Plan Summary

 

After looking at all of the information from the reports, it’s time to make a summary plan. What I like to do is go to my local school district website and look for scope and sequence. All of this information is public knowledge. I open the scope and sequence and begin looking for topics my student is struggling with that were marked as high priority. Then I try to align these high priority items with the scope and sequence the student may be experiencing at school so we are working on items that they are discussing at school.  I also pay attention to skills that need to be taught before another one and then start planning out in month-long chunks each topic we will study.

 

In the sample below you can see what topics I have laid out for us to practice. This was a plan for summer tutoring, so I was not bound by scope and sequence within the schools.  I did use scope and sequence to help me get him ready for the first month of school by starting to work with rates as they showed up early in the school year.   I then use this plan to help me organize the lessons for each week that we meet. I also identify which programs I will be using to help my students accomplish these goals.

 

lesson plan summary

 

The Fun Part!  Individual Session Planning

 

Math is where my heart just sings. Last year I made the big decision the only tutor middle school math students. However, I’ve taught math to elementary students all the way up to Trigonometry. While I enjoyed tutoring a large spectrum of students, my heart is happiest in the middle school.  The lesson plan template is available inside of the Profitable Tutor Framework.

 

lesson plan math

 

I sit down and make plans for my tutoring lessons once a week. each student has their very own folder where I place all game pieces, worksheets, and my lesson plan inside. As I mentioned for high school students I let our session together be driven by their homework. I encourage high school students to take ownership of their learning and bring what they need to work on. I also encourage them to text me for additional help when they are coming up on a quiz or test.

 

For students in middle school and below, I format my lessons slightly different.  Following the summary plan, I know that we have some high priority items that we need to work on in addition to class work. My lessons follow this typical order:

 

  1. Warm Up Math Activity
  2. Mini Lesson (focused on high priority skill)
  3. Practice Skill Taught
  4. Program Practice (Daily Math Puzzlers, Times Tales, Math Fact Mastery)
  5. Homework help

 

Here is a list of resources I’ve used with students of all ages. you’ll notice that the programs are mentioned throughout my lesson plans.  Click on the title to look at the item.

 

Math Resources

 

Daily Math Puzzlers

 

This program was created by Laura Candler. Daily Math Puzzlers spans from 2nd grade to 7th grade. Math puzzlers comes with an assessment to help you place a student into the program. However after doing a Let’s Go Learn assessment you will know where to place the student based upon the general overall score found in the total column you will see.

 

Looking at the grade level score in the above example, this student averages out to be about 5th grade. Inside of daily math puzzles, I would start him in the fourth grade level work to help us get some practice at a lower level.

 

Each session, I work with my students on Daily Math Puzzlers for about 10 minutes.  Math topics are mixed on each page and also come with a scoring area at the bottom of each problem. Laura describes how to use this grading system within the program.

 

I’ve watched my students become very proficient at solving word problems through using this program. It walks you through how to instruct the students to find keywords to solve. This program is best used on a consistent basis.

 

Mastering Math Facts

 

This program was also created by Laura Candler. Mastering Math Facts is all about fluency of facts through timed tests and having opportunities to practice math facts through games. All of my students have enjoyed playing the games inside of Mastering Math Facts. Many tutors and teachers are against timed tests, but for a student struggling a timed math test can help them be aware of how quickly they are mastering their facts. My students feel safe at tutoring and know that no one else in their class can see their progress.  Timed tests haven’t been an issue, but rather a motivator!  Be sure to also check out Math Stations for Middle Grades.

 

Multiplication Stations

 

This program was created by Shelley Gray. Shelly has a very specific order in which to teach math facts.  She also believes in having students repeat back the math facts to her instead of timed tests.   This program is self-paced which may be good for sending packets for students to work on at home.   I have only used the program during tutoring and have never tried sending it home with my students.

 

Times Tales

 

Times Tales is a unique program! I bought this this last year for a student that was struggling with all traditional methods of mastering math facts. He was a very social student and thrived in communication. Times Tales uses language to teach math facts through story. Even though the stories are a little strange and the graphics are mediocre, my student was able to master his math facts in just a few days because it was tied to a story.   To make sure that he was retaining the stories in his mind, I would send him text messages with the story and see if he could reply with the math fact. He loved being challenged several times during the week.

 

Math Bumps

 

Many times we have just a little bit of extra time during tutoring at the end of our lesson. For my younger students I like to use Math Bumps. This is a game to practice addition or multiplication facts 1 through 6. You can find free ones from Sunny Days in 2nd grade. She also has packs of them available to purchase which would be completely worth the money.

 

Fraction BFFs

 

I absolutely adore teaching fractions!  If students could just understand 3 rules about fractions they will never be a problem again. I created a program called Fraction BFFs to teach these rules and give opportunity to practice them.

 

The way I teach the rules make them more memorable.  For example, a fraction that is written with the same number on the top and on the bottom is equal to 1. I refer to these as copy cat 1. My students know when they’re working with equivalent fractions they need to find a copycat 1 to multiply to make a fraction bigger or smaller.

 

Inside the program I also cover two other fraction rules and teach students how they work together. You’ll also see how the fractions expand into algebra concepts. Anytime I use these rules with my high school students, they always think I’m performing some sort of magic trick because I can get rid of a fraction quickly. At that moment, I will start and teach them about fraction rules.

 

Textbooks

 

Every year I add new text books to my library. I decide on which books to purchase by looking at my local school district approved textbook list. Now I have textbooks from 6th grade all the way up to Algebra 2. I buy used textbooks to provide extra practice and mock tests. It’’s also important to teach skills of research using these books with something that’s more tactile than the Internet. Remind parents that they too can purchase textbooks used online and keep them at home for a quick reference to help their child with their homework.

 

A Plus Notes for Beginning Algebra

 

This book has been with me since the beginning of tutoring in 2006. I like the practice exercises inside of this book because they show how changing just one operation in a problem with the same numbers brings a different outcome. Throughout the entire book the problems build upon themselves and get more increasingly difficult. I can successfully use this book with practice problems for middle school and high school students.

 

DIY Jenga

 

Jenga has also been with me since the beginning of tutoring. I created Jenga blocks with dry erase stickers on them so that I could write problems to solve on the tower. My students love to play this game and it provides the much needed practice they need in a non threatening, non worksheet way. However, I did have a few students with sensory issues that the sound of the blocks falling gives them anxiety.  For those students we did not play this game. To learn how to make your own DIY Jenga blocks click to read my tutorial.

 

Order of Operations Riddles

 

I absolutely love this free download to teach students about the order of operations. These have varying degrees of difficulty but are very effective at teaching students how to work with order of operations and use parentheses as a tool within their equation. Download your own free copy here.

 

Skating Through Algebra

 

I have a set of graphic organizers for helping students with complex algebraic concepts like factoring polynomials. These organizers have helped my students to take such a complex and tedious process and break it down quickly. I like to slide the sheets into sheet protectors and use dry erase markers to write the equation that we are working on in homework on the sheet.

 

Geometry Proofs Attack Sheets

 

Another problem that was common with my students is working on geometry proofs. It is overwhelming to work with over 100 theorems, postulates, and definitions. To look at a shape and have to recall how to prove something about that shape can be difficult. With my geometry proofs attack sheets, students can quickly look at a list down below the shape of common postulates, definitions, and theorems to help them make a plan of attack. I also walk them through how they need to think plan and carry out the plan.

 

All Things Algebra

 

My good friend Gina Wilson is a talented algebra teacher. She has an entire program for teaching algebra to students. This program was created for the classroom, but can be adapted for tutoring. I encourage you to go to her store and look around for her free items that are extremely helpful. Consider buying some of her program to use with your students. Her ideas and worksheets are very insightful, fun, and help the students remember the concepts.

 

There are many other items that I use in my tutoring but if I share them all this would get to be one very long and boring post so I’ll spare you.

 

When to Move on to New Topics

 

You may be wondering how I know when to move a student on from one subject to another. I try to keep data on the things that were doing such as how are they doing with daily math puzzlers,  math facts, and student scores on classroom test/quizzes.  

 

if I find that a student is struggling with memorizing math facts I may also add another program to help with their working memory issues such as Angela Watson’s Working Memory Partner Games.

 

Keeping Math Skills Sharp

 

If you’re new to tutoring math, you will want to diligently work at refreshing and keeping your math skills sharp.  One of my favorite books to read is Math Doesn’t Suck by Danica McKellar. She has an entire series of books written up to geometry. The series focuses on helping girls with math and has fun examples that girls totally get.

 

I also like to brush up my skills using sites like Brightstorm. This site has some free content but mostly paid content and it is worth every penny. When I was tutoring trigonometry at the end of the year last year, I relied heavily on Brightstorm to refresh my brain since I had not touched it since I was in high school myself. Brightstorm is full of helpful subjects like English writing and test prep.

 

I hope this insider view to planning for math students was helpful.  There are lots of ways to plan and prepare.  I’d love to hear yours.  Click on one of the share buttons below and tell me more about it.

 

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Tutor Lesson Planning Series: Writing

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Tutoring writing is one of those things that totally mystifies me.  As you can tell here on the blog, I am not a natural writer and I often find myself wishing I would’ve taken my writing classes more seriously as that seems to be the skill I am using day in and day out!  Writing today is more important that ever.  Jane Hirschhorn is going to share with us how she prepares for her writing tutor lessons.  It’s a real treat and I think you’ll be impressed with her wealth of information. Enjoy-Adrianne

Preparing for the Session as a Writing Tutor: the Text, the Internet and Newspapers

Jane HirschhornAs a writing tutor, the way I prepare for a session varies with the type of writing program I offer. My practice offers three types of programs: weekly writing support for students in their academic classes, college essay coaching and extra-curricular writing support.

Academic Support

The students who I support weekly on their academic work (the majority of my business) are frequently assigned papers on literature or asked to write research/opinion papers on specific historical events. For the literature assignments, I read the work in advance of the session and annotate the text to remind myself of important themes, literary devices, key characters and plot developments. I also consult online sources like Wikipedia, Sparknotes and Shmoop, which provide any details I may have missed as well as additional critical insights. In an effort to be as prepared as possible, I ask students frequently for a “heads up,” regarding what they will be reading in the weeks ahead, so I can begin reading a work I have not yet encountered. Occasionally, a student arrives in session announcing that they have begun a work I have not read. When this happens, the student and I research the author together on Wikipedia and consult Sparknotes for an overview of the work. These pre-reading activities have enormous value for students because they provide students (and me) with a context for the work. After the session ends, I read as much of the work as possible before the next session and try to complete the work in advance of the student’s reading assignments (I am thankful that I have read Jane Eyre twice). At this point in my career, I have encountered most of the works of a standard middle and high school English curriculum and usually only need to briefly revisit a work known to me in advance of a session.

When I work with students on history papers, I inform them that even though I may be unfamiliar with the time period or person they are studying, I can still help them as they move through the writing process. Because I don’t market myself as a history tutor, I don’t feel compelled to research middle and high school history course content in advance. However, part of my preparation may involve in-session research. Ironically, I believe that my ignorance of the achievements of Song Dynasty or the causes of the Haitian revolution offers students an opportunity to clarify their ideas orally and in their writing.

College essay

My preparation with college essay support is seasonal and less extensive than the students who meet with me weekly for academic support. Each summer, I visit the Common Application website to see if the essay prompts have changed since the prior year. At the beginning of the first session, I prepare a small packet of handouts that includes a tip sheet I created on how to approach the college essay throughout the writing process.

Extra-curricular writing support

The smallest portion of my tutoring practice involves working with students on extra-curricular writing projects. These programs are intended for students to work on general writing skills to develop their “voice” in writing. For these sessions, I routinely scout newspapers or chose a short novel involving a subject or issues I think might be of interest to that particular student. In the past, I have used Elie Wiesel’s Night, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, articles on human egg donation, transgender rights and other civil rights issues. Once I choose a novel or an article, I prepare a writing prompt that asks the student to describe the factual details and theme (if we are studying a novel) or explain the moral or legal implications of an article we are reading. Finally, I ask the student to explain and defend his or her opinion of the issues raised in the work. It is my hope that students will find these books and articles interesting and get them to think about and articulate their ideas both in session and later when they respond in writing.

Wrapping Up

One of the reasons I enjoy my work as a writing tutor is my love of the content. For the academic support sessions, I enjoy reading and rereading most of the classic novels students are asked to read in middle and high school. I find that in revisiting these works, I discover something the text I had not seen before. I hope to convey this enthusiasm to my students. College essay coaching is rewarding because it offers me a break from the struggles of Hester, Hamlet and Okonkwo and allows me to help shape a high school senior’s written response to an important experience in his or her life. My extra-curricular writing tutoring sessions force me to read the newspaper with an educator’s eye, reminding me that the stories we read in the newspaper can teach students to think for themselves and write about the world beyond the pages of literature, history and their own experiences.

My Favorite Resources:

Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, Ryan and Zimerelli, Bedford/St. Martin’s

This is the best book I have found to date on writing tutoring.

Writer’s Choice Grammar Workbook 9, 10, 11 and 12. Published by McGraw Hill.

These may be out of print, but you can find used copies on Amazon. Good practice questions and succinct explanations of grammar rules.

Sparknotes and Shmoop. Superb internet resources for literature when you need a quick chapter summary, review questions, or a quick video of the plot. For Shakespeare, Sparknotes offers a line-by-line “translation” of Shakespeare’s text into modern English. Warning: both sites have ads and distractor content aplenty.

Wikipedia. My go-to for a quick summary of an author’s life, details about a particular work of literature or a historical event.

A Print Dictionary. If a student is having trouble finding the right word, I often send him or her to the dictionary, since the definition always offers synonyms. Bonus if the dictionary has word roots and word origins.

YouTube. Just recently I found a video of Langston Hughes reading one of his own poems that one of my students was studying. Score!

Bio:  Jane Hirschhorn has been a Boston-area writing tutor for more than 20 years and a lover of books and writing for far longer. She is the owner of JBH Tutoring, which celebrates its third year in business this month.

 

 

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Tutor Lesson Planning Series: ESL

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Working with ESL (English as a Second Language) is something I’ve never done before. This set of skills is in high demand as parents seek help for their children or themselves to master the English language. Joy Fonerderson shares with us.  Enjoy!  Adrianne

Joy FondersonLesson planning is an integral part of ESL teaching. It provides you and your students with the structure, the continuity and the confidence in the service you provide as a professional. Though there are as many variations as there are teachers and students, what you will find here are best practices you can use and adapt to help you achieve your goals as a tutor.

Choose a System

Whether it’s PPP (Present, Practice, Production ) or ESA (Engage, Practice, Activate) or something else… pick a system that speaks to your teaching style & philosophy. This will allow you to go with the grain of what works for you and by doing so, will cut time-wasting to a minimum. Whichever system you adopt you’ll want to include these phases:

  • Topic Introduction
  • Controlled practice
  • Freeform practice

Side-note: These can be moved around but they should ideally all be included within each session.

Use Tech to Your Advantage

Some sections of the plan are recurring ( titles / Student info etc.) make the most of the power of tech for these by using a template that works for you. I plan my lessons on EverNote – I can access it online, on my tablet and on my phone in case technology let’s me down. Sections I include are:

  • Ss name + age
  • Name of book or materials + Level
  • Topic of the session in question (book chapter or Ss requested review)
  • Each stage (approximate time) detail of what I aim to cover
  • Notes

Make Notes to Yourself

Leave a feedback section in your plans – try to fill it in as soon as you can after your session – have it include what worked / didn’t and why. If your student makes a comment or you notice something in behaviour or misunderstanding jot it down. Do not trust your insights to memory, these will be lost before you know it and they are a valuable marker of your progress as an educator and to assess what actually works with your students individually.

Recycle Some, Adapt More

If your focus is on a grade, book or exam, think of naming your plans and collating them in a file or notebook in Evernote so you can recycle them in future. This does not mean using the same 10 plans for the rest of your career but it gives you a leg up to re-purpose and improve some of them thanks to your notes.

Use Evernote for Lesson Planning

Don’t Plan at the Last Minute

Even if you’re following a book, don’t chain your sessions to it – use the planing process to adapt the material to suit your students’ needs by switching the order of activities. At first, lesson planning take ages – it’s normal and there’s no getting around it. getting in the swing of this can seem overwhelming but I cannot encourage you enough to stick with it. Over time, the process gets shorter and the improvements brought on by this powerful habit keep on compounding. Do yourself and your students a favour, give yourself time to put together lessons that match your student’s learning style and interests as much as possible to keep them interested and engaged. It will make the experience better for all involved.

Always Have a Back Up

Sometimes, even with a plan, lessons just won’t work – it happens to the best of us… while making a note of this will help you in the long run, in case this happens mid-session, having a couple of extra activities prepared will prove to be a life-saver and will keep you calm and confident instead of stuck or scrambling to find something to fill in the time.

Recommended ESL Resources

Click on the orange links below to view these resources.

TEFL.net

Internet ESL Journal

News in Levels

News English Lessons

TEFL Online (training)

Bio: Joy has been teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) since 2013. Her job is to help students improve their communication skills and she absolutely loves it. In her spare time Joy likes pretending to study, eating and watching Netflix.

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Settling Into Retirement: A Case Study

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One of the things I enjoy most about writing here on the Tutor Coach is that I get to interact with people from all sorts of backgrounds and beginnings.  Kim Schwartz is one of those multi-talented tutors that I’ve enjoyed getting to know over the past few years.  Recently, Kim had shared with me that she had created a website and video using some of the tutorials here on the Tutor Coach.  I was blown away at her site and love how it just oozed her sweetness.  I asked Kim to share her story about how she is settling into retirement from teaching to tutoring.  -Adrianne

Miss Kim

After 27 years, I retired from the teaching profession in June 2015. In August, I was starting to explore what I wanted to do to supplement my retirement pension. I had two ideas in mind: offering tutoring services and selling my photographic work. I chose tutoring because I want to stay connected with children and teaching. I chose photography because it’s been one of my creative hobbies for many years, but had been “pushed aside” while I was teaching.

A friend of mine, who was also exploring tutoring, found your ebook (The Novice Tutor) online, and shared it with me. I purchased and read your e-book, and explored the many links and resources you offered in the book. I visited your website, The Tutor Coach, and downloaded some of the business forms I needed to help guide me through the process of setting up a business. I watched the video you produced with your father-in-law, which I found very helpful in understanding the steps (and jargon) in setting up a business.

Specifically, your book and website helped me to know where to begin, and the steps to take to decide on the kind of business I wanted to start up with (sole proprietor), and how to set up a website to promote/organize my tutoring services. I used my State of Ohio website to guide me more specifically (and legally). I registered my website name with the state, purchased a web domain, and subscribed to a web host. How you designed your website, especially your services and how you produced your videos, inspired me when designing my website and my one little video; that video was the biggest challenge for me.
As for what I’ve learned through this process so far, I have to admit that the most learning occurred at the beginning of this endeavor using your e-book and website.
Learning Tree Tutoring
After setting up my website, and printed business cards and a flyer, I haven’t done much else to promote my new tutoring business. I have only one client. I’ve been doing some volunteering in two schools, joined a camera club, and helping a friend with her children. I’ve also decided to move my home office from a small room to a larger room. In addition to moving these rooms, I’m also painting them. I’ve found that I need more office space for my tutoring and for my photography, which I may be setting up as a business as well. Indeed, my learning experiences with my tutoring business are on-going, and in progress. I’ve always considered myself a life-long learner.

As soon as I get my photography in order and set up, then I will look at my tutoring business more closely and see what I need to do to promote it more actively. I hope to use my tutoring and photography income to supplement my monthly pension​​.  

You can connect with Kim and Learning Tree Tutoring here.

I love Kim’s story so much because she created a plan to help her get closer to her goals of supplementing her monthly pension.  You can see Kim’s passion in her website and I thought I’d share she made the awesome tree you see on her site.  Love her creativity!  I like that she mentioned that she only has one student right now, but wanted to focus on photography and then focus more on tutoring.  That is a key element to success…FOCUS.  Kim spent time focusing on building her foundation of her tutoring business:  website, video, policies, and legal entity.  Now she has a home online that allows her to point potential clients to when she is ready to actively market herself.

When it is time to actively market, start with these two simple ideas:

Talk to People

Tell at least 2 people every day that you tutor.  It doesn’t matter if you are in the grocery line, at the dentist, the park, or standing in line at the movies.  Get comfortable talking to people about your tutoring services.

Interact Online

Start posting yourself on different tutor profile sites to increase awareness about your services.  I’ve been hearing tutors are having a lot of success with the site, Nextdoor to find new students.  Next Door is like a forum for your local community.  You are allowed to post your services.  Many tutors are reporting they’ve found a few students in just two days of posting!  For more ideas to find students, grab my free guide below.

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Schedule Tetris

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It’s a busy tutoring afternoon and you check your email right before your first student only to be smacked in the face with an expert game of Schedule Tetris with a parent.  The following question was posted inside of the Just for Tutors Facebook group (accessible only to The Novice Tutor eBook purchasers) and is a great example of the scheduling nightmares that many tutors face each and every week.

 

(shared with permission)

Hey Adrianne, Abby (names have been changed) wants to take a pottery class.  This means she will have to miss tutoring for the next month, but then we’ll come back.

Mom really wants her daughter to keep coming. We tried to find another time for the second lesson but couldn’t manage it. She offered to continue to pay for the second lesson to hold the spot. Her intention is to go back to 2 times a week as soon as X-country finishes.


I don’t have any current written policy regarding holding a slot. I have some feelers out, but no one chomping at the bit for the slot. However, I am limited to 3 days a week for my private tutoring, so space is limited.


Do I:

 


  • Take her up on the offer and accept payment and continue to hold her slot.

  • Hold her slot by not mentioning it as an option with new students, and hope that they are true to their word about going back to twice a week.

  • Hold her slot only until I have another inquiry and then offer her the opportunity to either pay to hold it or take her chances when they are ready to continue.

 


This is one of those times when what feels right as an educator and what feels right as a business person protecting my interests are two different things. Help!”

 

This is quite the pickle to get stuck in.  One one hand you want to be empathetic, you have a family too and totally understand.  On the other, you are a business owner and if that slot sits empty you lose out on money if the student doesn’t return.

 

What’s a tutor to do?  Look at some of the great advice this tutor received.


JH:  I would pick option C or A. There is part of me that feels strange about accepting money for that sort of an arrangement, but you have to make money from that spot.


AV: I couldn’t have said it better. Totally agree!

AH:  If you do hold her spot, I would write an addendum to your contract and have her sign it. That way she can’t try to get the money back if she doesn’t continue, and she can’t try to use it towards future lessons when her daughter starts coming.

JR: Yes, I like option C. And yes, I understand your dilemma – I think so many of us have the same problem. Usually, parents will just cut the lessons during the sports time, so I’m happy that you have a mom willing to pay to hold a slot!!

RW:  I would allow her to pay to hold it, but write a contract outlining what you are both agreeing to. That way you are confident that you will earn money for that spot, and she is assured you won’t fill it on her.

SR (Tutor in the pickle of this story):  I wish things like this didn’t feel so hard for me. When I crunch the numbers, I can still see it both ways…..a lot of lost income for me and a lot for them to layout to hold the space. I got burned by someone in the past and held a 5:00 time slot for them for an entire sports season, only to have them feeling “too busy”.

KB:  Is there any way you could tutor her online during CC?

SR (Tutor in the pickle of this story): I’m not currently set up for online….but that raises some interesting ideas.

KB:   I’m not either but have a client who is playing football. I’ve been emailing him 2-3 times per week with problems to solve and checklists for his other assignments (I help him with staying organized and caught up as well as Math). He is required to send me responses and updates each time within 24 hrs. His parents are still paying me with the expectation of returning after season is done. It is working ok – not as effective give as in person but it’s a good compromise and I’ve left his spot open.

JR:  Scheduling woes…school here has been in session for ~3 weeks now, and my schedule is more or less set. But over the weekend, 2 families emailed asking to change my schedule…for their kids’ new dance, basketball, etc. classes.

I enjoy these two families, but I don’t feel like playing Schedule Tetris and inconveniencing other families who have already arranged their times if these two families are choosing sports ahead of reading and writing lessons. We live in a big city and there are lots of sports activities available…or they could have communicated earlier. I guess it will be adios kiddos.

 

This is such a great conversation and the tutor walked away with several solutions to playing Schedule Tetris.  Let’s talk about a game plan for this kind of scheduling.

 

Preventing Schedule Shifts:

 

In the above conversation, you may have noticed that several said to add an addendum to your contract stating that you will hold a student slot for X amount of money and time.  That is a great solution if you already have a set of policies, but if you are just getting started this is something you’ll want to consider adding right from the get-go.

 

Accept Payment to Hold Slots

 

Another great idea would be to accept payment for holding a slot for the student.  What does that look like?  Will you provide any kind of support in exchange for holding that spot?

 

Offer Online Tutoring

 

Online tutoring came up as an option for helping this student out during their extracurricular activity.  Online tutoring would allow you to avoid driving to the library or the student’s home.  If you haven’t looked into tutoring online, be sure to read all of our posts about this topic here.

 

As-Needed Basis

 

Another idea would be to move the child into an “as-needed” tutoring basis while the student is in this activity.  The parent would have to call and be at your mercy for availability for tutoring each week.  This would allow you to fill that student’s slot and still be available for the other student as they need help.

 

One thing is for sure with tutoring, you’ll always be playing a little bit of Schedule Tetris.  Ultimately, it is up to you how you handle scheduling.  If you don’t like playing the game, you have the right to shut it down right from the beginning.  For me, I don’t rely solely on my tutor income so I can give some flexibility to parents and do so because I am so appreciative when others are flexible with us.

 

What about you, how do you handle Schedule Tetris?  Click one of the share buttons below and let me know in your post.

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Build a Tutoring Website with WordPress

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Today I am welcoming Jared Rand of Knowledge Roundtable to share more with us about building a website on WordPress.  Jared has a really unique looking website that is streamlined and clear as to what he wants users to do.  Read this and be sure to check him out.  -Adrianne

If you’re ready to build a tutoring website and grow your tutoring business, you’ve come to the right place. This tutorial will guide you from start to finish as you build a site on WordPress. No technical expertise is needed.
Check out Adrianne’s DIY tutor website tool for more help with building your tutoring website.

Why Build a Tutoring Website

You need a website for your tutoring business if you’re ready to move up from working for agencies and directories to working for yourself. Most agencies and directories charge fees and commissions in exchange for bringing you new clients (though my tutoring marketplace is an exception to this rule). With your own tutoring website, you can attract new students without paying a middleman.

Why WordPress

Adrianne has lamented that she didn’t use WordPress to build her first website. I was fortunate to have WordPress recommended to me by my brother, who is a professional web designer, when I built The Knowledge Roundtable. Here’s why WordPress is the absolute best platform for building websites.

  • Easy to use even for the least technically savvy.
  • There are themes and plugins to suit every aesthetic and every functional need.
  • It’s open source (free) with a vibrant support and development community.
  • Easy to customize and build web apps on top of for advanced programmers.
  • Follow the steps below to get your WordPress site up and running.

Step 1: Shared Hosting

If you’re really serious about growing your tutoring business, you will want to purchase a domain name and a shared hosting plan. This will allow you to be master of your own domain, literally, rather than being limited by Blogger, Wix, or one of those other platforms.
Purchasing a domain name usually costs about $10, and most shared hosting plans will cost under $10 per month. I personally recommend DreamHost for the following reasons.

  • They have a 1-click WordPress install.
  • You can purchase your domain name through them.
  • You can start with a small and cheap shared hosting plan, then scale up later if needed.
  • I’ve been a happy customer for 4 years.
  • There are many other hosting providers, too. Adrianne recommends A Small Orange

Step 2: Install WordPress

Note that you don’t want a WordPress.com website, which is similar to those other platforms in that you don’t actually own your domain. You would get a subdomain like joestutoring.wordpress.com. WordPress.org is where you get the open source platform that you need.
If your hosting service doesn’t have a 1-click install option, installing WordPress is a bit technical. This is why I strongly recommend DreamHost. There is a 5-minute install guide available, but you need to create a MySQL database and use FTP to upload and modify files. You can do these things from your hosting account, but you will need some patience.

Step 3: Install a Theme

A Theme in WordPress is what styles the pages on your site. There are thousands of free themes that will allow you to customize the look and feel of your site and help you present a professional appearance to prospective clients.
To change your site’s theme, go to your Dashboard and click the left menu item that says Appearance. You will see several pre-installed themes that you can switch between. You can also search for other themes published by the WordPress community. If you don’t find one that suits your tastes or functional needs, you might consider purchasing one from ThemeForest. I purchased the theme for The Knowledge Roundtable there for $50. You’ll get more professional looking themes with more functionality on ThemeForest than you’ll get from the free WordPress themes.
Note that most themes will heavily control your homepage. The next section discusses creating other pages, but your choice of theme will largely determine how your homepage looks. Make sure you pick a theme that allows you to create a homepage that quickly conveys your primary message to students that you are a highly-qualified tutor available to help.

Step 4: Create Pages

The last step is to populate your site with content. Go back to your Dashboard and hover over the top menu item that says +New, and then click Page. I recommend creating a page for each of the following.

About – A page to discuss your background and availability for tutoring. Include your education and teaching experience.

Services – A page to discuss what particular tutoring services you offer. Include subjects, grade level, and location.

Contact – A page to invite prospective clients to contact you about arranging a session. Your theme should have a contact form tool. If not, you can install a contact form plugin.

To make full use of your WordPress site, I also highly recommend writing blog articles to demonstrate your knowledge and interests. To write your first post, go to your Dashboard and hover over the top menu item that says +New, and then click Post.

Step 5: Market Your New Website

Congratulations, you now have your own tutoring website! A website is a powerful marketing tool when used properly. I’ve written about how to market your tutoring website before. Here are some key takeaways.
Create profiles that allow backlinks to your site

  • Reach out to other website owners and build partnerships
  • Write good content on your site and hope that others link to it
  • Advertise intelligently
  • Measure website visitor behavior and be ready to adapt

Jared Rand is founder of The Knowledge Roundtable, a free tutoring marketplacefind a tutor and helps tutors find more clients. The site is 100% commission and subscription free for students and tutors.
Jared has a B.S. in Astronomy and Physics from UMass Amherst and an MBA in Advanced Financial Analytics, also from UMass. He has experience writing interactive math problems and solutions and has worked as a full-time tutor. He now has a day job in Boston, MA as a Big Data Analyst while continuing to manage The Knowledge Roundtable.

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I Destroyed My Tutor Business

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In the fall of 2015, I had a big decision to make.  Something had to give.  I was struggling to keep tutoring and take care of the Tutor Coach website, let alone my family!  My husband begged me to let something go.  He really wanted me to let go of tutoring in the afternoons since my boys needed me more than ever to be present.  

While it hurt to admit I couldn’t do it all, I knew he was right.  He wanted me to stop all together, but knew giving up tutoring cold turkey would be hard for me.  We made a plan for me to offer group tutoring that fall.

I sent the email out and without realizing it, I lit a ticking bomb inside of my business instead.  Parents were not receptive to group tutoring.  Indeed, I had destroyed my business.  They all left and no more tutoring money was coming in.

I sulked for a few weeks.  I was honestly super sad about it.  But I also knew that I couldn’t manage both well and that family really does come first.  Late one night, my husband and I had a chat again because he knew I was upset.  In that moment, it became apparent that he was fine with me doing whatever I wanted while the boys were away at school, so long as I was available to do mom stuff in the afternoon and evenings.

I made the decision that I would take my in-person tutoring all online and build Math for Middles.  I also knew that the Tutor Coach was not a very efficient website and that a lot of systems could be put into place to better serve tutors.  So for 9 months, I spent time rebuilding to make sure I was serving tutors better.  I made it easier for ya’ll to find where to start and dig into the blog posts available to read (there are over 200) and apply.

My Situation:

I started Tutor Coach because I wanted to be able to share about what it takes to build a tutor business.  I wanted a community to hang out with, you know–people who get it when a student habitually cancels on you AND have those people support you when you decide to cut them loose.  

For 5 years, I’ve been gathering our small tribe of tutors.  After working diligently to help tutors here, I’ve learned this last year that I have some BIG problems:

  1. I was relying on my in-person tutoring income to support YOU.  Yikes.  I’ve taught you  how to price accordingly so you can reach your financial goals and yet, I failed to apply my own advice here on the Tutor Coach so I could pay the bills and keep the Tutor Coach going.
  2. I need sustaining income to continue to fund this work.   Nothing in life is free.  We all know that, but yet–why do we continually expect everything for free?  Free really is bad for business.  I don’t get access to online stuff for free.  It takes money to run this website.  My costs are about $1,000 a month just to keep this site going.  That doesn’t take into account any of the hours I put in answering emails, writing content, and helping tutors inside of the programs I’ve written.

I have never wanted to use advertisement to keep this site going.  I just don’t.  Ads are annoying and often get in the way of getting the information you are seeking.  I don’t enjoy sites that have them plastered everywhere.  There has to be a way to keep Tutor Coach going.

Now I know what you may be thinking, “Adrianne…I have signed up for your courses. They are spendy, how can that not be enough money?”

Think about your experience inside, if you were part of the Online Tutor System you may have noticed we only had 15-20 students inside.  Not all of your fees go right into my pocket.  I pay for a plethora of services to keep the class going plus I share funds with my partner that teaches that class.  The money left over has to last for months.  

The Solution

Thinking about a plan moving forward, I have a couple of options available to keep the Tutor Coach around.

  1. Purchase one of my products.  There’s a book, a course, a class about online tutoring, and other goodies.  
  2. Donations.  Many tutors have emailed me asking for a way to just donate because they don’t have money for any of my products, but want to show their appreciation in some way.  This could be a great solution for you if  you’ve gotten a lot out of what I’ve shared and want to give back in some way.

What I’ll Use the Money For:

The money will be used to continue paying for hosting fees, software, and occasional assistant help (because I am NOT super woman).  

Destroying with Purpose

Detonating a bomb inside of my business was a good thing.  It allowed me to think about what I was building for the future and be intentional right from the get-go.  I don’t want just a one-one online tutoring business.  I know I’d find myself in the same spot a year later with no availability.  

I’m building a new business with a completely different model that doesn’t put all my eggs in one basket.  I’m creating math videos for parents to use with their child and offering consultations for parents in addition to that, then I’ll add in the one-one work once those two offerings are earning money.

Rebuilding Takes Time

My business isn’t like a mobile home that I can just move onto a lot, I am building a castle.  A business to last with a strong foundation.  It’s going to take a year tutors and I worry that the Tutor Coach will not make it to see my new business grow stone by stone.

My goal with the Tutor Coach is create a “construction site” with a “camera” (blog posts) so you can watch what I am doing.  In essence, getting the blueprints to build your own own castle.

Putting Out the Fuse

So my friends, I look to you.  I’m asking you for help.  There is a bomb ticking inside of the Tutor Coach and I want your help to put out the fuse.  Please consider donating here or purchase one of my resources.  Thank you!

The post I Destroyed My Tutor Business appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Are you letting your emotions run your business?

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You know that moment when you wish you could turn back time and try again?  Like that time that you asked someone when they were expecting a baby only to find out they are not expecting at all?  Yeah.  Kinda like that.  You know the feeling I am sure.  Last week, I shared my deepest fears with you.  I pulled back the curtain and shared something that really makes me feel so uncomfortable.  It was awkward and definitely scary.

I talked about something that most people don’t want to discuss unless they are like Scrooge McDuck.  MONEY. You usually only hear amazing, almost too good to be true stories.  You know the headlines:  “I earned six figures during a one hour webinar!”  “I tripled my income after making this one simple change!”  I hate those headlines because it encourages us to talk about only the picture of the result.  No one really talks about the fact is these folks that found such success have been at business for years. YEARS.  No one mentioned that their business was on the edge of being shut down several times.

Scrooge McDuck: Living the Dream
Instead of hiding over here in my corner of the internet, I shared the struggle with you instead.  Why?  Well.  For one, I want you to know what it takes to build a big, bustling website. This site has been around for 5 years steadily growing.  But the truth is, I’ve been running the Tutor Coach based upon my emotions instead of the cold hard facts.  I put in the hustle and went without always believing I was just around the corner from the site being able to turn a profit.  I invested my in-person tutoring money into the site blindly.  I’ve gone without income for way too long.  Secondly, I need help.  I really don’t like admitting I need help.  But yet, I do.  So I shared.

The response I got from you was sweet.  My inbox filled up with many replies full of really helpful ideas and tips to keep Tutor Coach afloat.  All great ideas!  All of them considered before.  A few of you donated and I really appreciate every single dollar I received as a result.  It will help pay for the hosting and email for the site this month.  Really, thank you for that.

What am I really saying?  I don’t know.  I just know that some things will be changing here on the Tutor Coach.  I’d love your input on what you’d be willing to support.  Help me out by answering this ONE question survey.

But don’t fret my friend. I have no plans to shut the site down this month or at the end of the year. I’m just looking at my options and trying to make some decisions based in money reality rather than my emotional tie to you.  I’m pretty sure Scrooge McDuck would approve.  But meanwhile, I’ll continue to keep sharing with you.

What about you?  Are you making decisions based in reality?  Or are you doing things based on emotions.  I’d love to hear from you.  Hit me up on Facebook.  If you’re enjoying things here on the Tutor Coach, consider purchasing my eBook or making a donation.

The post Are you letting your emotions run your business? appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Running a Tutor Business Can Be Intimidating

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Riding the tea cups makes me want to….vomit. There I said it. Tea cups are one of the worst rides and I find that I have been getting those woozy feelings often this past year as I work on my new online tutoring business, Math for Middles.

I worry and stress.

Chase my tail about decisions.

Fret over #allthethings.

There are so many ways I could start gaining traffic to my new website and offerings, but I have chased my tail more times than I care to count. I finally made up my mind how to market my new business.  No more tea cups.  Short story of the decision:  Facebook group + Affiliates + Podcast.

The truth is, there really isn’t very many fast methods for marketing out there. Most of the ones I know are riding the turtle and not the hare. Basically, I gotta have patience with the decisions I’ve made. Oh it’s hard to have patience ya’ll!

Riding on the Tea Cups
But it’s not easy.  Just like you, I am starting from zero all over again because I am choosing to build a tutor business all online instead of in-person.  It’s hard and sometimes I feel like throwing up from the dizzy feelings I have.   An important decision has come to me:

Get off the tea cup ride.

Step onto the roller coaster instead. Okay–that may sound worse. But with the roller coaster you are making progress.

Your income goes up and down.

Site views up and down.

Failed marketing attempts.

Successful marketing pays off.

Is this really better? Yes.
 

You are putting in action.

When you spend too much time riding the tea cups, you don’t get anywhere. So don’t waste one more minute fretting over which decision to make. Just make one. See the results. Tweak. Repeat. Learn. Adjust.

Matthew Palmer is riding the roller coaster.

He emailed me a few weeks ago to share his incredible journey into tutoring.  Matthew made the giant decision to resign from teaching math full-time so he could pursue his graduate degree and tutoring career.  He began using the Tutor Coach’s resources to get started and within a week he went from zero students to 3.  The same day he emailed me, he got an inquiry for 2 more!  DUDE, way to go!  I had to hear more about what else he was able to do with the information here on the site.  Here’s his words about his phenomenal experience thus far.

“I found the Tutor Coach towards the beginning of summer 2016. I was in search of a how to do system or template for running a tutoring business. This was an effort to better manage the clients I had and to see how possible it would be for me to support myself off tutoring while in grad school full time.

After going through your website and reading your ebook I decided to make a website and put more into marketing myself. I realized that marketing is one of the most important parts of running any business (I think I got that from the video with your father in-law). The results have been good. I occasionally get compliments from friends, family and strangers about how professional my website is. Additionally, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to command income because of the information you’ve shared.Matthew Palmer - private tutor

I think the video with your father in law helped me the most because he shared so much information regarding running a business. Before watching that the whole idea was pretty intimidating for me.
I think one of things that I assumed is that your client base would be steady as long as you are doing a good job. Sometimes when you do a really good job you end up losing a client because of their improvement in the subject area/confidence etc – they don’t need you anymore. On the other hand, I have received referrals which make up for those who have graduated from me tutoring them which is good.”

Matthew shared that he isn’t sure what the future of Turn UP Tutoring looks like.  He’s taking it one day at a time as he works towards embracing the flexible schedule and influx of students.  If you’d like to check out all that Matthew has accomplished, check it him out on his website and Instagram.

Riding the Coaster

As for me?  I’m applying the same techniques I’ve taught you to my online tutor business.  My marketing efforts are slowly bringing me more website traffic.  I was pretty excited to get an email from my web server that I needed to upgrade so my site would continue to function.  Feels good.  People are coming!

After getting off the tea cups, I am buckling in for a new roller coaster ride and luckily–I’ve got a friend right next to me.

Thanks for being there with me while I scream and smile.

Don’t go it alone!  Purchase my eBook to help you get on the roller coaster.  It will be fun.

(Somehow I feel like an older sibling dragging you onto the ride.  But really–business can be fun)

The post Running a Tutor Business Can Be Intimidating appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Teachworks.

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Guest post by: Karla Rodriguez

Business Management Software for Education Companies.

The demand for private tutoring continues to grow; this represents a great opportunity for tutoring companies focusing on the key elements that drive success to their business.

However, higher demand also creates a potential threat – More competitors.

How can you make sure you manage your business efficiently, provide the best service to your customers and stay ahead of the competition? Our answer is:

  1. Simplification – Keeping your business management simple and organized
  2. Automation – Saving time by automating the most time-consuming tasks
  3. Delegation – Reducing workload on you and your staff

About Teachworks.

Teachworks is a business management software created to help education owners like you take your business to the next level. The software focuses on managing employee and client records, scheduling, invoicing, payroll, communication, and business analysis.

Our primary goal is to make education companies more efficient and effective.

As your tutoring business continues to grow you probably notice that it becomes harder to keep up with administrative tasks and processes start becoming very time-consuming.

An example of some of the features that could save you hours of work are:

  • Powerful & User Friendly Scheduling
  • Rule Based Billing & Invoicing
  • Elimination of Data Re-Entry
  • Easy Management of One or Multiple Branches
  • Teacher Timesheets Automatically Generated from Calendar
  • Automated SMS & Email Lesson Reminders
  • Staff, Tutor, Family & Student Accounts for Self Serve & Online Access

Other features include:

  • Access to your data from any device
  • Integration with leading web services and software such as Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Mailchimp.
  • Free Add-Ons to customize your account
  • Branding & white labeling options

If you are starting to feel like you can never catch up, or are spending too much time on administrative tasks rather than focusing on growing your business you will benefit from switching to an online business management platform.

What makes Teachworks a competitive alternative for managing your tutoring business?

Designed Specifically to Meet the Needs of Education Companies

The features and Add-Ons in Teachworks have been created and modified with feedback from hundreds of educators. We take pride in listening to our customer’s feedback and implementing their ideas. We believe this approach helps us to build a more efficient system that will allow you to operate in a more organized and effective way. Our philosophy is to create a “Common” software with “Custom” features that create excellent value to our users.

Flexibility & Simplicity

Even though we are constantly adding and modifying new features – maintaining an user friendly platform is also a priority. Add-ons and features can be enabled / disabled on your account depending on your business needs. This allows you to only have the features you require, which eliminates complexity and creates a user-friendly design.

Seamless Data Sharing Between Functions

Teachworks allows data to be shared seamlessly between different administrative tasks reducing the need to re-enter data and reducing the risk of clerical errors. For example, you can pull lessons from your calendar onto your invoice so you do not have to re-enter any data. Another example would be the ability to share data between student profiles, your price list, and your calendar which allows lesson costs to be set automatically based on your billing settings.

Helping your tutoring business grow and making managing your business a more organized and streamlined process is our passion. Whether you are starting to build your business or manage hundreds of tutors Teachworks will make things easier for you.

Getting started is easy, use the 3 week trial to find out more about the features and how it can help your business!

What tools are you currently using to manage your tutoring business? What features are most important to you in a business management software? Let us know by commenting below.

Teachworks Business Management Software

Post by: Karla Rodriguez

The post Teachworks. appeared first on The Tutor Coach.


VIPKID for Online Tutoring

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Online tutoring is quickly becoming a great way to fill up your schedule during hours that work better for you.  Recently, I saw Anne share that she was working with VIPKID and wanted to share the opportunity with other tutors.  I invited her to share here on the Tutor Coach.  I hope you enjoy learning more about this opportunity – Adrianne

 

Tutoring is a great job and something I cherish doing, but between no-shows and unfilled tutor slots in the evenings–I knew I needed a little more but in a time frame that works better for me.

I began the hunt for online tutoring opportunities to even out my schedule and income. As I was looking towards doing more tutoring online because of these benefits. I needed the hours to be very different than afternoons and evenings which means I need to work in a different time zone.

Enter VIPKID

VIPKID is an online format to teach 5 – 12 year olds in China. This company provides the North American elementary school experience to Chinese children – all from the comfort of their home.

Their sophisticated virtual classroom streams native English speaking teachers into Chinese homes, linking the world through education.The company itself started 3 years ago by Cindy Mi. She is an amazing woman and one of the top entrepreneurs in China.

All tutoring is done online and 1 – 1 through their software.  All curriculum is supplied for you!

At first I did not think that this would worth my time and effort as there was a very rigorous application process:

  1. Interview
  2. Submission of a resume
  3. Practicum
  4. Mock lesson

Applicants must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.  Even though the process was long, it was worth it to me, as I was hired!

The next thing you need to think about is the time zone. I teach from 4:30am – 6:30 am M-F.  Even though I’ve been tutoring for ViPKids for close to three months now, I still have spots available in my schedule.  Filling up takes time, but working with the students and getting paid make it all worth it.

VipKids

Are you interested in working from home and jumping into another market of tutoring?  If so, head over to ViPKids and check out their program.

(This post contains Ann’s affiliate link.)

 

Ann MitchellAnn Mitchell

Castle Rock Tutoring

The Online Reading Expert

www.castlerocktutoring/blogspot.com

 

The post VIPKID for Online Tutoring appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Learn How to Earn $1,000/week Tutoring for the ACT

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Specializing my tutor business was one of the best decisions I’ve made over the past 10 years.  When I first started out, I was tutoring everything from math to reading.  Then I narrowed to just math.  Finally, I settled on just middle school math.   Matt Fuentes has done a similar move with his business by tuoring for the ACT market.  He’s had a lot of success with it and wanted to share how he’s doing it with the readers here on Tutor Coach.  I hope you enjoy it!  -Adrianne

The ACT is a college entrance exam used by many colleges to rank students applying to their schools. The subject matter covers English Grammar, Reading Comprehension, Math topics, and Science.

Millions of students take the test each year and the test prep business rakes in over a billion dollars a year!

As a reader of this blog, I am sure you want some of that $$$!

Don’t fret if you are not a teacher. I will give you resources to gain the skills and they cost $0.

I believe in VALUE and this post will give you exactly what you need!

First my story:

I am no genius, far from it. But I understood a need and decided to work towards being able to fill that need and put money in my bank account at the same time.

That is what being an ACT tutor did for me. It gave me freedom and options. This post and my EBook gives you the knowledge and understanding to start your own ACT tutoring business and begin to earn money (money that can change your life).

I will get into specifics as to how my plan formulated and was implemented. It’s easy to follow, and before you know it, you’re almost certain to gain clients and income.

A few years ago I was struggling to make ends meet and had my 1st child on the way. After a dinner where I met a couple who tutored and were earning great money I decided to try it out. I began to hustle, learned all the material and reached out to everyone I knew!

I gained my first client the first month, tutoring a middle school student in reading comprehension. I had made business cards and was handing them out to everyone, though I branded myself as an ACT tutor, I found people calling me for other subjects. I was netting $200 a month already.

Within the next three months, I gained another six clients and averaged an hourly fee of $90. I had a few weeks where I was tutoring two students at once (a brother and sister) and earning $200 for the hour!

Within six months I had raised my monthly income to over $2,000 and could barely keep up. I even took on a partner to handle the overflow. I was making money with students I wasn’t even tutoring!

Today I have a network of clients and referrals that keeps me busy and earning anywhere between $3,000-$4,000 a month.

Let me be clear again, I am no smarter that you or anyone else. I just followed certain steps and worked my tail off.

Tutoring for the ACT:Earn $1000/week Tutoring the ACT   |  thetutorcoach.com/tutor-act

Step 1: So why the ACT? 

  1. College entrance exams command the most money per session- Normal charges range from $75-$125.
  1. The test won’t go away- I know stories are circulating about colleges accepting student applications without SAT or ACT scores, however the number of colleges doing this is minuscule. The test is here to stay and millions of kids take it. As per the college board website, 1.92 million students took the test in 2015. That is up from previous years. The clients are out there!
  1. The test is offered year-round – The ACT is offered six times a year. There is really no down time, unlike subject-specific tutors who may only work with a student before tests or on specific topics.

You have a steady stream of income year round!

Step 2: Develop the skill set!

  1. Get to the library – use the free resources at your local library regarding the ACT.
  1. Take a practice test – see what areas you need help in and what you already know.
  1. Find online resources – there is an abundance of materials on the internet.
  1. Set up a practice schedule – dedicate time each day to develop the skills

*In my EBOOK I go into SPECIFIC DETAILS for each step and provide a ton of free resources!

Press HERE to start earning!

Step 3: Pricing

  1. Location– Can your prospective clients pay high-end prices or do you have to cut rates?
  2. Demand– How many high schools are in your immediate area?
  3. Feel– Are the people you are talking with willing to pay for your service?

Step 4: Marketing

  1. Text and email everyone you know– Literally everyone. Let them know of the service you are offering. I have found this the best way to gain clients.
  1. Make Business Cards- Look legitimate. Plenty of cheap options online.
  1. Offer a free seminar- Call your local library, schools and recreation centers. Plenty of prospective clients would want free information.

Follow these steps and work the plan. I can guarantee you that people will start calling you and asking for tutoring services.

The plan is simple. However, it takes HUSTLE and WORK ETHIC!

Good luck and I hope you start raking in the cash!

Any questions feel free to email me at takeaimtutoring@gmail.com or check out my EBook on Amazon.com

Cheers!

Matt Fuentes

For a comprehensive guide to starting your own ACT tutor business, be sure to buy Matt’s Ebook and my EBook.  I teach the basics of starting a business and Matt teaches gives you all the tips for tutoring the ACT.  Grab them both below:

The Novice Tutor by Adrianne Meldrum

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming an ACT Tutor by Matthew Fuentes

 

 

 

 

The post Learn How to Earn $1,000/week Tutoring for the ACT appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

10 Ways to Spot Dyslexia in Your Tutor Students

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|This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.|

During my time as a tutor, I’ve taught reading to several students.  I LOVED it, but there was some that I just didn’t know what was up until I read Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr. Shawitz.  From that moment on, I cannot unsee dyslexia.  It caused a complete shift inside of me and also forced me to get real with my abilities as a tutor.  I quit tutoring reading and decided to focus on math only, but then I realized that the language issues that plague dyslexia students–also affect math.  I decided to get multisensory math training to meet the needs of my students.  

In my efforts to tap into the dyslexia community, I found a parent group with mountains of helpful experts inside of it.  One of them is Sara Dorken of Aardvark Tutoring.  She is a gem and I am so excited to be sharing her awesomeness with you today!  -Adrianne

Thanks Adrianne.  Before we dive into our topic today, I wanted to point out something very important:

Dyslexia is a spectrum disorder. There are no two dyslexic students who present in the same way. This list is for informational, not diagnostic purposes and is in no way exhaustive. If you suspect a student has dyslexia you should discuss your concerns with their parent or guardian and encourage them to seek a diagnosis from a professional.

Being a tutor is an incredibly special job. We have the chance to get to know our students, in a one-on-one environment with the opportunity to have a profoundly positive impact on their lives. There is (usually) only one student at a time, which means that we are able to focus on their needs alone, without the distraction of other students.

 

This opens up the opportunity for us to see how they work, see the areas in which they struggle, and to tailor our approaches to meet their needs. But – what if you have a student who, despite all of your time and effort, and his/her time and effort, simply struggles to make progress with their reading and spelling?
According to The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, dyslexia is a disorder which affects one in every five people, of all backgrounds. Seeing those numbers, it becomes obvious that you are likely working with at least a few students who are dyslexic.

Adrianne’s Notes:  1 in 5 ya’ll!  That’s more prevalent than autism.

Here are 10 signs of dyslexia to look out for:

  1. They read a word fine in one spot – but can’t read the same word in a different spot.
  2. They have weak phonemic and phonological awareness – they can’t match or have difficulty matching letters to their sounds, and they can’t recognize rhyming words.
  3. They have trouble reading words in isolation – for example, from a word list.
  4. Their difficulties with reading and spelling are surprising given their intelligence, strengths and previous learning opportunities.
  5. They lose their place while reading, skipping over words or entire lines of text.
  6. They do not comprehend what they have read.
  7. They confuse the order or direction of letters (not necessarily reversals but a disorientation of letters).
  8. They easily confuse words that sound similar or have similar meanings à The tornado erupted. The windy day produced a volcano.
  9. They tend to try to spell all words phonetically.
  10. They have a family history of reading difficulties

Visit: http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/EDU_signs.html for a comprehensive list of the signs of dyslexia.

Adrianne’s Notes:  When I do my diagnostic testing with Let’s Go Learning, I look closely at the phonemic awareness and spelling results.  If they rate it as poor, this is a red flag for me to watch for other signs and make notes of them anytime I see them so I can present the parents with my findings.

Now that you suspect you might be working with one or more dyslexic students, here are some tips for how you can best work with them to facilitate their learning.

Tailoring your approach to meet their needs:

  • Know that your student’s struggles are not the result of a lack of effort. In fact, those with learning disabilities are often putting in a greater effort than those without.
  • Just because your student isn’t looking at you, doesn’t mean that they aren’t listening to you. Encourage the use of fidget toys and allow them to keep their hands busy.
  • Ask your student how they learn best and try to include their preferences in your teaching style.
  • Give your student processing time. This is extremely important! Those with dyslexia have the ability to give you the correct answer but they will often need more time to think about your question. It’s ok for there to be silence in the room while they are thinking. Resist the urge to ask follow-up questions while they are thinking.
  • Clip the /uh/ sound off when saying phonemes to your student. For example, the letter <b> makes the sound /b/ not /buh/.
  • Avoid saying the word ‘no’ when the student is incorrect. Instead, try to lead them to the answer by having them reference previous work to get to the answer.
  • Ask them if it makes sense the way you have taught it. If they say that it doesn’t make sense, try to say it in a different way.
  • Lead students to the answers rather than giving them the answers.
  • Outline exactly what you will be doing with them in your lesson. Break it down into smaller chunks.
  • Ask them to listen actively. Have them repeat back what you have said in their own words.
  • Identify their strengths! Ask them what they are great at and use their strengths to help with their learning.
  • Above all: make it evident that you are there to work WITH them to make reading and spelling easier for them. You two are a TEAM.

Use the list above to make yourself aware of some of the characteristics of dyslexia. If you suspect one of your students has dyslexia, discuss your concerns with their parent or guardian and encourage them to seek testing through the child’s school or privately through a psychologist. If you’re already working with dyslexic students, the tips above will help you to create the best possible working relationship with your student.

Tutoring really is one of the best jobs in the world! Fostering an environment where our students will thrive and giving them the necessary tools for success makes for happy clients. Keep up the great work!
Sara DorkenSara is a passionate tutor and online trainer who specializes in using the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach while working with students with dyslexia and any other learning differences. She has trained in many OG-based programs and has been certified to teach the OG approach from the Dyslexia Training Institute based out of the University of San Diego. Sara has helped develop the Aardvark Program and has made it unique by using her extensive background in sport and physical activity (M.A. Human Kinetics) to integrate movement in order to build physical literacy and traditional literacy in struggling students.

The post 10 Ways to Spot Dyslexia in Your Tutor Students appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Meeting Pat Flynn

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Part 1 – I'm Meeting Pat Flynn!

Let Go Video Contest

In August of 2017, Pat was releasing the updated version of Let Go a book I had read about 3 years ago.  I was excited to see that he had expanded it to include the transformation of being a solo-preneur to the CEO of his company.  This intrigued me as I was thinking about this transition myself.

He sent an email and I happened to open it to see a video contest to share how letting go of fears has helped you in your business.  The winner gets to spend the day with Pat Flynn in San Diego.

I was super curious now.

My Submission to the Let Go Video Contest

Here's what I shared in the comments of the post:  

For those of you that don't want to take the 3:32 min to watch, basically–I've learned that letting go is the best thing you can do and is a pattern you will see over and over again on this path to success. Thanks for teaching me this back in 2014 Pat.

And for a real example of letting go recently, check out my latest email to other business owners like me: https://ckarchive.com/b/5qu…

No joke, it was a moment of panic that turned into an amazing summer of fun and friendship.

10 Lessons I've Implemented that Pat Flynn Taught Me

1 – SPI 085: How To Finally Take Action—Even If You’re Lost, Overwhelmed, or Don’t Know Where to Start with Dane Maxwell

This was the episode that prompted me to email Pat back in 2013!  I was working online, tutoring part-time, and also working as a virtual assistant.  To my surprise, I was totally touched by this episode which caused me to take a hard look at myself and admit I had too many safety nets.  It was time to cut myself free and take some risks.

I took action and quit doing virtual assistant work.  I felt vulnerable and scared.  I wasn't sure what the next steps were.

Listen to the podcast episode 85 here.

2 – SPI 042: Killer Kindle Publishing Tips with Jonny Andrews

I decided to go back into the archives and find a way to monetize what I knew how to do, which was start a tutoring business.  This podcast episode really helped me wrap my head around how to write the book and publish it on Amazon.

I wrote the first version of The Novice Tutor:  Answers to Your Questions About Starting a Tutor Business and it was available on my website and Teachers Pay Teachers for a long time, then I took the next step and added it to Amazon.

Read my book:  The Novice Tutor:  Answers to Your Questions About Starting a Tutor Business

The second version was expanded as my knowledge increased and as other tutors shared their experiences of starting a business with me as well.  I LOVE the second version and look forward to adding more information again in 2019 as things are changing once again for me.

Listen to Podcast Episode 42

3 – SPI 098: Millionaires and Mastermind Groups 

Game changer right here.  Shortly after I heard this one, I reached out to a large Facebook group full of teachers selling resources online to see if anyone was interested in starting a mastermind.  A bunch of interest was shown and groups were formed based on availability.

My first mastermind consisted of:

Our mastermind is more relaxed, but we check in each week with our goals for the week.  These ladies have taught me SO much!  April has helped me to stay focused on what I do best and stay true to myself.  Erin is the queen of all things Pinterest…she helped me see the light that it is indeed, worth my effort.  Jenny has taught me very cool tricks inside of Adobe InDesign which I used to make premium tutoring policies with fillable fields and logo upload spots that tutors can purchase.

I'm still part of this mastermind and we meet up once a year in the fall to have a work weekend together and yearly report on the status of our businesses.  Mega helpful!

I've also created other mastermind groups and actively participate in three others with varying focuses.

I won't list all of the influential people in those groups as that could be another giant post in and of itself!  But you know who you are…I value you so much!  Thank you for pushing me to do my best.

Listen to Podcast Episode 98

4 – SPI 75: Six-Figure Earnings (Not on Amazon) and a Pricing Structure that Works

This episode helped me to look at how I was selling my book and start packaging it up with various items instead of having customers buy everything individually.  I also learned about Gumroad and starting using them exclusively.

Here's my current bundle of items for tutors:  The Profitable Tutor Framework

Listen to Episode 75

5 – SPI 095: The DOs and DON’Ts of Online Video with Caleb Wojcik

Little did I know that I would fall in LOVE with video.  I have a long way to go in my skills, but I try not to let my amateur status hold me back from making videos and sharing them with the tutors here and also on Math for Middles (my online math tutoring site).

I still follow Caleb to this day and seek his advice on equipment when I am looking to make a small investment in video.  Between Caleb's help, Wistia's Learning Library/Forum, and the book How to Shoot Video that Doesn't Suck…I became hooked.  Video is so much fun!

Listen to Episode 95 Here.

6 – SPI 146: Product Validation and Pre-Selling—A Real Life Example with Jarrod Robinson

This episode got me super excited.  I followed the steps to validate an idea I had to create an invoicing app for tutors.  I recruited my brother-in-law to help me build an iOS app and a group of tutors to help formulate features and test it.  It was a TON of work!  But I am so proud of the final product:

Tutor Tracker

All went really well except for one thing.  I didn't think about the fact that MOST tutors are running their lives on Android and not iPhone.  My brother-in-law isn't interested in building it for Android and I still get emails from tutors asking me to launch it on android.  Sadly, the sales for Tutor Tracker are underwhelming.  Not enough to justify hiring a developer to make the app for Android.  I've priced it out a few times and there is no way I'd recoup the money.

Listen to Episode 146

7 – SPI 115: 9000 Unread Emails to Inbox Zero: My Executive Assistant Shares How We Did It (and How You Can Too!)

By following Pat's advice to engage on a personal level with your audience, I had a very busy inbox.  It overwhelmed me so much.  This episode has completely changed my life.  It took some time to set up, but once I did and started using it—I was saving so much time!

Plus I found that I had a reliable system to go back and pull out conversations that needed my attention.  In fact, I still have the email and reply Pat sent to me back in 2013 in my email.  He has his very own folder called Pat's W of W (words of wisdom).  I save those special messages there plus emails that were really helpful.

Listen to Podcast Episode 115 Here

8 – Will It Fly?

I cannot say enough good things about this book, but don't let the price deceive you!  I was thinking at first it would be this overview of the validation process, but it was deep work.  You really have a super clear picture if your idea for a business will work.

I still refer to the work I did inside of this book.  If you have an idea you'd like to launch for a business, start with this book.  You'll thank me later.

My online math tutoring business is here because of this book.  I used it to help me validate my idea and make sure that I was on the right track.  My idea was to make videos using a technique called multisensory math to help struggling math students get instruction at the level they needed.

Math is a giant field but my niche is largely open right now.  You can see the website here:  mathformiddles.com

9 – SPI 200: How Deleting a Third of Your Content Can Triple Your Traffic—How to Do a Content Audit with Todd Tresidder

At the time of listening to this podcast episode, I knew that I wanted to rebrand The Tutor House to the Tutor Coach.  I wanted to get really clear about what I do here.  I coach tutors!

Since being online since 2011, my archives were a mess.  I wasn't sure what to do or where to start.  This episode helped me to figure out a clear path and also find a way to automate as much of the Tutor Coach as possible so that I could act on Math for Middles.

This was NOT easy.  In hindsight, I should have hired someone to handle the migration part because I am pretty certain I screwed it up.  My SEO did not go up, but took a ding.  I am just now starting to recover from this move to a new domain and getting the same traffic I had before.

I admit, that I lost steam on doing the rebranding and fixing all of the broken links and redirection of different items.  This is on my list to finish completely by the end of 2nd quarter of 2018.

Listen to episode 200 here.

10 – SPI 283: Six-Figures in an Obscure Niche with Cassidy Tuttle

I listened to this episode twice on my way to my annual mastermind meetup this past fall.  It truly inspired me.  Six-figures talking about…succulents?!  Yes, those cute little trendy desert plants that seem to be everywhere.

It caused me to wonder, could my own class about fractions be my own “succulents”?

I am passionate about fractions.  I completely nerd out on them because they are everywhere in math.  And when my students completely understand fractions, math seems much easier.  It's magical and I LOVE fractions.

Listen to episode 283 here.

Part 2:  My Big Day with Pat is Here!

The wait has been worth it!  Got on a plane this last weekend to meet up with Pat in San Diego…only I didn't stay there long!

Pat had a slight change of plans –

He wanted me to join him at Marketing Impact Academy Live with Chalene Johnson.

The event was great, but for obvious reasons hanging with Pat was just the best.

He's the real deal and so genuine!  I'll never forget how he gave me a big hug and put me at ease immediately.  We spent 6 hours together chatting life and business strategy.

A day never to forget!

Part 3 – 5 Tips from My Day with Pat Flynn

Pat had mountains of great info to share with me.  It was mega helpful to have him spend hours picking apart my business and sharing tips that I can start applying immediately.  By the end of the evening, I walked away with a five-step plan to get me even closer to my goal which is to fill up my fractions class every month on Math for Middles.

This video, however, helped me to reflect on 5 big ideas that I gleaned from Pat.  I wanted to share them with you because I knew that you may be struggling with these as well.

Comment below and share with me your thoughts!  How close have you been to giving up on your business?  Can I help you keep going?

An open letter to Pat Flynn-

Your generosity drives me to do better than before.  Thank you for giving me permission to be my nerdy self and embrace my strengths.  Somehow you've always been there each time I wanted to throw the towel in.

Your podcasts have been a powerful catalyst to keep going.

This day with you is my jet fuel as I shoot for the moon.  

Thanks for the boost,

Adrianne

The post Meeting Pat Flynn appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

Nitty Gritty of Tutoring Insurance and Legal Stuff

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In this video we discuss the legal and liability issues that come up when owning an online business.

  • Are you wondering if you are doing what you need to when it comes to business?
  • What paperwork keeps my business legal?
  • What do I do with the money I make in my business?
  • Do I need insurance and what kind?

If you've ever wondered about these questions, then this video will get you on the right track to a legal business.

Helpful links:
Background checks
Liability insurance

Have you heard of my math business? Check it out, http://mathformiddles.com/

 

The post Nitty Gritty of Tutoring Insurance and Legal Stuff appeared first on The Tutor Coach.

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