Horror Stories - Tutors
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weatherbee:
Have a talk with the tutor. If things don't improve, talk to your daughter about changing a science tutor. There are so many tutors around. I don't know about you but I like to get full-time tutors. Tutors who depend on tuition for a living/money. I had student tutors and moe teachers tutors before. Find that they tend to call in sick, etc more often. Perhaps they don't need the tuition income that much so that they can afford to keep cancelling lessons but I don't want my children to miss so many lessons and become more lost in school.
Not necessarily true. Many of my friends and myself depend on tuition money not only to make a living, but also to make payments for our university. I don't want to take any loans from the bank and therefore have to save about S$600 for my university fees. Plus my own spending, I would to earn at least S$1000 from tuition.
A number of my friends are also doing the same thing to avoid paying the bank interest. We dont have excess \"money\" to cancel tuition. Whenever a lesson is cancelled, we eat into our pathetic savings and having to take on part time work during the holidays to make up for the short fall. -
snowcloud:
[quote]Have a talk with the tutor. If things don't improve, talk to your daughter about changing a science tutor. There are so many tutors around. I don't know about you but I like to get full-time tutors. Tutors who depend on tuition for a living/money. I had student tutors and moe teachers tutors before. Find that they tend to call in sick, etc more often. Perhaps they don't need the tuition income that much so that they can afford to keep cancelling lessons but I don't want my children to miss so many lessons and become more lost in school.
Hi,
I agreed with weatherbee about engaging full time tutor but I would like to highlight something about tutor who claim to be full time tutor. I ever work as a tuition coordinator and when tutors said they are full time tutor, I would ask them how many years of experience they had. Reason is some tutors quitted their full time job to be a tutor and hence calling themselves a full time tutor. However, they might not be able to take in enough students to substain so they will start looking for job while giving tuition. Once they found another full time job, they will tell parent they can't give tuition anymore. Hence, hope you will check on their experience instead of the title \"full time tutor\".
Hope the above helps.[/quote]Thanks Snowcloud, this is a good advise. -
Hi concernmother,
You are most welcome.
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Positive reinforcement is an absolute key to a good learning experience. So patience is a key virtue for a good teacher. Some students may take longer than others to learn something, but that may be why they are hiring a private tutor. Also, I find some kids that may seem slow are just trying to get a good clear understanding of what they are doing rather than just speed-memorizing their way through a topic. The ones that are trying to figure things out take longer initially to learn, but then learn much faster once a good solid foundation is in place. So the teacher needs to be patient and take the time to explain things clearly, starting from the basics.
It may sound ironic, but I also believe that a good teacher must be a good listener. If a teacher asks questions and also creates an atmosphere where students feel free to express themselves, then if you listen carefully to what a student is saying, you can pick up whether they really understand a concept. And sometimes the student just needs a little guidance to get to a correct understanding.
The majority of students that are struggling are actually smarter than they think they are. Too many expressions of frustration on the part of the teacher can cause someone to think they are not smart. But that’s a bad self-image to be creating inside of a student’s mind. A teacher needs to be a patient optimist, and if the teacher believes in the student, then that attitude acts to bolster the student’s confidence.
And yes a teacher should smile
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My DD had lesson with the tutor last week and the same thing happened. He still showed his frustration. My DD said that she does not dare to voice out any questions or doubts, afraid that he will "msk" at her again. Enough is enough. Dr Daniel is right.
That was the last lesson. -
The last thing that should happen is for a student to be afraid of raising questions with their tutor. I’m a full time science tutor and one of my students is a sec3 girl, whom I’m currently teaching physics and chemistry.
Before I was her tutor, her mother engaged a female tutor to teach her. The student told me that all the tutor did was ask her to try one assessment problem after another, without exactly explaining the concepts. The mother had also sent her to a tuition centre but she learnt practically nothing as she was afraid of raising questions in front of the whole class. So her mother finally stopped the tuition centre and the previous tutor. Then they hired me.
Initially, the girl was a bit hesitant to raise any questions, and would say she understood even though she didn’t. Sensing that she was afraid of appearing "stupid" in front of me, I tried to put her at ease and made her feel that it’s ok to ask me any "stupid" questions. Not long after, she began sharing with me about her school teachers, her classmates, what happened in school… and was fully expressing herself about the problems I gave her to solve. She would even squeal in amazement when she realized how easily a problem can be solved, instead of cracking her head for so long. Yes, besides good academic knowledge, it’s also important that the tutor must be patient and understanding. I think many students do feel somewhat inadequate or even inferior about having to get a tutor. So as a tutor, i will make them feel that im there to help them, and not make them look stupid. Just sharing from my own experience. Hope it helps. -
Original Title: tutor lying about his credentials
I discovered a tuition centre tutor lying that he is an ex-moe jc teacher when he doesn't even have an NIE certificate. this is absurd. moe doesn't check on tuition centers? -
Dont think so.
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How did you discover it. Share with us so no one else falls into this trap.
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Did you complain to the centre owner? Which centre is it? PM me?
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