I was a volunteer teacher at St Stephen's Primary in my junior college years and I taught P3 to P6 children English, Math, Science and Chinese. I am currently privately tutoring a P4 in English and Math, and a P3 in English,Math, Science and Chinese. I was also a peer tutor for my JC classmates and taught them physics and chemistry.
I am available from 7 pm onwards on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night, and from 2 pm onwards on Saturday.
Rapport Building
I normally give my contact number to the child's parents and I will follow up with the week's lesson through whatsapp. My students can ask me questions on whatsapp and I will do my best to answer them. I also remind my students to complete their homework weekly for more effective learning. I believe that parents also play an important role in motivating children hence I try to get the parents to check up on their children and identify the possible difficulties they might face, as well as get feedback on my teaching style and areas for improvement.
Keeping Up with Curriculum
Before I go for lessons, I would look through the relevant textbooks and guidebooks to get a good grasp of what my tutee is supposed to learn and I would teach them the relevant skills and content that they need to do well in school. I would also buy workbooks which i think are good for practice and tackling their weak areas, based on my observation of their stronger and weaker areas. I would brush up on their concepts in class and assign them adequate homework for practice.
As a Good Tutor
I think a good tutor should be responsible. She should only accept the job if she is able to commit to the sessions and even when something comes up, she should inform the parent immediately to reschedule that weeks lesson so that the child would not have to miss out on any lesson.
I think that a good tutor should also have integrity. When the child happens to ask the tutor a question that she is not sure about, she should not try to come up with a slipshod answer that might end up making the child confused or leave the child with wrong concepts, but rather she should admit that she is not sure and tell the child that she would research before giving the child a reliable answer.
A good tutor should also be patient, especially towards students that take a longer time to learn and internalise concepts, and yet be firm when it comes to getting the child to do homework or to concentrate when the child is not willing to listen.
A good tutor should also be committed and go to lessons prepared so that she would be able to have a productive session with her student.
