What Others Expect From You

There are many situations where students and parents may need to employ the services of a skilled tutor to help a child in his or her studies. Study is a process, it requires effort, consistency and hard work. Some students seek help early when they encounter difficulties, they're willing to work hard and put in the effort. However, some students may procrastinate or become unmotivated in their studies. Your job as a tutor is not to do the work, or to help a student cram for their exams. A good tutor will provide hints and suggestions to help put difficult concepts into something that can be clearly understood by the student. You need to encourage learners to put in the effort into learning.

Before we go into what is expected of a tutor, here are some things that you should be expecting from your students:

Before the start of a tutoring session, the student should be mentally and emotionally prepared. They should have had enough sleep and be mentally alert, they should eat or use the rest room before the tutoring session begins. As a tutor you should as try to provide a place that is comfortable, free from distraction and make sure that all necessary study tools and references are close at hand. Build your students confidence, by communicating faith and trust in their natural abilities to learn. Just as dishonesty, disrespect and negativity can discourage your students, so too can the trust level between you and your student deteriorate if the relationship is not sustained. Build up your students trust and sustain it by using words of encouragement. Encourage them at the beginning of the tutoring session, encourage their efforts to learn and encourage them as they make progress. The psychological support and positive encouragement of a tutor, is probably one of the biggest contribution that you can make to helping your students succeed.

Students should try their best to understand the material before meeting the tutor.
Expect your students to participate during their own classroom session, and for them to initiate and ask questions of their teachers.
Students should know their syllabus, assignment deadlines and any other special dates during the course of their studies. Communicate and ask your students about exams and tests, it will greatly help them in their preparation.

Tutor Expectation

Be A Role Model
People learn best when they have a positive role model to imitate. Students are always looking for guidance and inspiration. You can serve as a role model and maintain a caring professional attitude by sharing your own personal experiences in learning a particular subject. Discuss your learning strategies, books that you read or how you became interested in learning the subject.

Keep Things Confidential
As a tutor it is both an ethical and professional obligation to respect and protect the relationship and people we walk with. Keep your students learning progress private, even amongst fellow tutors, on campus, in schools, and among your own family and friends.

Be punctual
When a student sets up an appointment with you, make sure that you are punctual and that you take down their number. If you are unable to make it to the appointment, call them as soon as possible and reschedule your appointment. Missing an appointment makes you appear unprofessional, and others may misjudge and label you as a tardy person.

Meet On Neutral Grounds!
Harassment is a serious crime, and educational institutions have very strict measures and guidelines to deal with offenders - be they be a tutor, teaching aid or the head professor. If you are not working in a tutoring center or in some kind of store front, you should be weary of inviting a student to your own home when you setup your first tutoring session. Arrange to meet them in a place that you feel comfortable in, such as a public library, the student union building or a cafe.