Tutoring in the Summer: 3 Things to Ask Yourself
Tutoring can be the perfect teacher summer job. Here are 3 things to ask yourself before starting up, in order to be successful.
Amazon Teaching Supplies: 3 Great Finds for Reading Tutors!
Amazon Teaching Supplies: 3 Great Finds for Reading Tutors! When I started my teacher business, I had a moment when I realized something. I had purchased much of my classroom supplies from my own pocket for my classroom. And I had a lot of stuff! I realized that it would be too difficult to take items back and forth. I would need to buy some things just for my reading tutoring business. When it comes to teacher side jobs, our contracts often specify that we cannot use school supplies or materials in a private teacher business or for tutoring students. And if it’s not directly stated, it’s at least implied. So, Amazon teaching supplies became my favorite shopping solution. I was already using Amazon for lots of household items (Ok, maybe, I like it a little too much!) I was able to search for and find just what I needed. If you are looking for teaching materials for reading that you can easily find on Amazon, check out the list below. Small Mirrors for Teaching Letter Sounds If you tutor younger students or even older students in need of basic reading skills, you may need to teach letter sounds. This can help to teach students what their mouth is doing when they make the sound for each letter (or group of letters). For some sounds, we can see our teeth, but for others we can’t. There are some sounds where our mouth is more open, and others where our lips are more pressed together. Mirrors can help the tutor to model correct sound production for the student. They can also show students what their mouth is doing as they practice correctly forming sounds. I love these small colored mirrors that I found on Amazon. They come in a pack of 12, which is great if you have multiple groups and need each student to keep one in their cubby or a supply box. https://amzn.to/3ODiPeV (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 2. Sound Box Mats and Chips https://amzn.to/4cKmYpd These mats are another great find for teaching reading. They provide the visual support that many students need when working on phonemic awareness. I love that there are multiple options for using with words with different numbers of sounds. I also like that I can use dry erase markers to write the letters that correspond with each sound. I also added an additional activity for when I use these mats. I give students a choice of which mat we need for a given word. For example, I might say the word, “clip”, while presenting both a 3 circle mat and a 4 circle mat. My students need to figure out how many sounds they hear in the word ‘clip’ (which involves segmenting the word, and in this case, splitting up the blend at the beginning). When I give them this task of choosing which mat we need, I’m also doing an informal assessment of their phonemic awareness skills. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 3. Colored Highlight Strips for Reading Tracking My favorite thing about these strips are that they include a variety of sizes, which is great if you work with students who are readign different sized fonts. Some of the strips have colors that are light. That way kids can still read the text underneath. Some students find these strips helpful, either for tracking text or for focusing their attention. I find it worth the time to try them out, to see if students find them helpful. Some kids find that the color focuses them and helps them to track their reading, but others may find it distracting. They might prefer a simple piece of paper to place under the section that they are reading. If you have several students who would likely benefit from using something to track their reading, these are worth a try. https://amzn.to/4t9SfYY (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) For more tips, sign up below!
Starting a tutoring business: 3 mistakes
Starting a Tutoring Business? Don’t Make These 3 Costly Mistakes! Starting a tutoring business of your own is exciting! Here is your chance to do what you love, in the way that you want. You already know how to teach. So, tutoring feels like the perfect business for you. And it likely is! But all that being said, there is something that you should keep in mind. Tutoring through your own business is not exactly the same as working for a school. In order for you to succeed, there are often a few mindset shifts to make. Below, I’ve outlined 3 common mistakes that teachers often make, I’ve also provided tips on what to do instead. 1) Setting Your Hourly Rate for Tutoring Too Low It’s very common that teachers undercharge when first starting out working as a tutor on their own. I know, because I did it! So, I’m sharing because I don’t want others to do the same thing. We love what we teach and who we teach. That can sometimes make it easy to momentarily forget our worth. But remember that your experience, personality, training and love for teaching make your services extremely valuable. Also remember how hard you work as you put all of those characteristics into play. Know your worth as you set your rates! If you set your rates too low, it can be costly, and I don’t mean only in relation to actual cash. You can get emotionally burned out by doing too much for too little pay. This can be a hard lesson for teachers to learn. In most cases, we become used to our salary being determined by the “steps” on our salary grid. At least in the United States, all teachers earn the same amount for their years of experience, no matter what they teach. Tutoring is different, as certain specialty areas are valued at a higher rate. As teachers, we might also feel guilty when thinking about how much to charge for our tutoring services. We tend to forget the true value of our knowledge and skills. As long as you are providing quality instruction, which is evidence based and designed to improve your students’ skills, you should be compensated fairly for your services. While you are figuring out what you would like to charge for your tutoring services, there is something important to keep in mind. Providing services as a private tutor (or owner of a tutoring business) is very different than working for as an employee for a tutoring company. While a tutoring company may pay you $40 per hour, they are charging the parents or school at a higher rate. As the owner of the business, they keep the rest. So, remember that parents are actually paying the center more than what the tutors are earning. Keeping this in mind can help you to realize that your rate may not be as high as you think. 2) Forgetting that Your Tutoring Business Runs on Your Schedule Due to the nature of the job, a tutor business feels a lot like teaching. After all, tutoring is teaching (or reteaching), but often in a smaller group or with a specialized focus. However, it is important to remember that unlike working for a school, when you own your own tutoring business, you should set your own schedule for days and times that work for you. This can be hard! As teachers, we often want to accommodate everyone who is interested and in need of our services. I also think it’s because we are so used to being told what our schedule is. But again, this is a whole different ballgame. It’s important to first determine what works for you and then offer those days and times. It can be challenging to stick with this rule at first, as many teachers are afraid to miss out of clients. But teachers will find themselves easily burnt out by trying to make their schedule work for everyone. We are all busy. Parents, students, business owners. If your schedule doesn’t work for someone, that is ok. As long as you provide a great service doing what is best for your students, you will find enough clients to be able to fill your available tutoring spots. Planner Recommendation: Here is a link to a planner that I really like. I love that it offers both a monthly spread, as well as a section for each day. I like to be able to look at my schedule for the whole month, but also see my plans for each day as well. https://amzn.to/4sVuHH3 (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 3) Thinking that you are just working as a Tutor…When you are actually Running a Teacher Business Which means that you are the boss. Or maybe I should say, you are “the principal” when it comes to your tutoring business. And just like scheduling requires a change in thinking to really understand that concept, so does the idea of being the “boss”. As the “principal” of your business, you get to decide the subjects that you teach. You can choose the days/hours that you will work. You will select the materials that you will use. And you will determine and write any policies that you choose to implement. These decisions will all help you to provide great tutoring services and allow your business run smoothly. As the decision maker behind your business, you get to make decide each step that you take as you work to grow your business. Just keep in mind that everyone’s journey is different, and that you will never know if you don’t try. As we grow, we learn through our mistakes. I think that the best piece of advice that I could give to a teacher trying to start up a business, would be the advice that
Teaching Reading: 3 Tips for Letter and Sounds
Teaching Letters and Sounds: When I switched grade levels and started teaching kindergarten, the idea of teaching letters and sounds was honestly a little overwhelming to me. While they often still had some confusions, my upper elementary students had always come to me with this basic knowledge. So it was new for me to teach this from the beginning. However, I was soon able to realize that I loved the process of helping students learn about letters. There is something magic about witnessing the process of students take that big step toward officially reading. If you are lucky enough to get to see this magic as well, read on for some strategies that I found helpful for my students. 1. Decide The Order in Which You Will Teach Letters Sequencing: While teaching letters and sounds, you may have a choice with whether you teach the letters in alphabetical order. Or you may need to follow the order required by your program or district. Either way, it is important that you stick with it, at least when you first introduce the letters and sounds. Sometimes the order that letters are taught is aligned with a school wide theme, support, and resources. It can also help to avoid confusion if you have a clear vision of your letter sequence from the beginning. Some programs focus on the order in which children are expected to learn to write the letters, rather than alphabetical order. Again, if you are teaching for a school, this may already be determined for you, but it’s important to be consistent. If you are a private tutor, I would highly recommend that you use a program or methodology supported by the science of reading. A common way to teach letters is to teach uppercase in preschool, since these letters can be easier to learn how to write. Kindergarten programs often begin with lowercase letters, since books (and all text, really) are written with mostly lowercase. Many schools teach all lowercase first, and then go back and review (or for some children, teach) uppercase letters. Uppercase, Lowercase, or Both?: This next factor may also be determined for you by your school or program, but it’s also important to be consistent with whether you start with uppercase, lowercase or teach both at once. A common way to teach letters is to teach uppercase in preschool, since these letters can be easier to learn how to write. Kindergarten programs often then begin the year with lowercase letters, since books (and all text, really) are written with mostly lowercase. Many kindergarten programs teach letters and sounds by teaching all lowercase first, and then go back and review (or for some children, teach) uppercase letters. You might like: I love these small mirrors for helping students to learn to correctly produce letter sounds. They are small, colorful and come in packs of 12. These mirrors allow students to notice what their lips, tongue and teeth look like when they make letter sounds. Teachers can also use these to model what this should look like, so that students can properly form their sounds. You can grab them here: https://amzn.to/48zOSmE (As an amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases). 2. Be Prepared for Confusions There are a few things that can make learning letters and sounds tricky for young children. One of the most challenging things can be when a letter’s name doesn’t begin like it’s sound. For example, lots of confusion happens with the letter “y” and it’s sound. Kids often assume that the corresponding sound for “y’ is /w/, like the beginning sound of the letter name. It seems to be easiest to learn the letters that have a name that starts with the same sound as it represents. It is often easier for kids to remember the sound for “T”, because it starts with /t/, just like the letter name. Considering this ahead of time can help you to plan out the order that you teach letters (if you can). It can also allow some extra practice time to work on those tricky letters, if needed. There are also several other confusions or reversals that children often make when first learning letters. Sometimes it’s hard to know what these will be until you get started. But checking for confusion as you will help you to figure out the best ways to reteach needed skills. 3. Stick with the Basics Sounds: As adults, we know that some letters can make multiple sounds. But as young children learning letters and sounds for the first time, it’s really important that we stick to the basics and use only examples that make it easiest to remember the most common sounds. Using pictures and objects to demonstrate beginning sounds of letters is a great hands on activity to help kids learn their letters and sounds. Just be sure that when you introduce the letter Gg, you use keywords that being such as goat or game. Please don’t use a picture of a giraffe just yet. Letters: Another skill that we have as adult readers is that we have been exposed to a variety of fonts. In most cases, we can recognize letters, even if they look different. We know that one letter can have several different “looks” to it. It’s important to remember that our students who are just learning letters are not there yet. They need to learn to recognize and write the most basic form of the letters. It’s best to teach the “easy” fonts first, but still good to expose them to what “fancy” letters look like, as they will see them in text. For this reason, I try to be very deliberate with choosing the type of font in my activities. I want the letters to look recognizable for my students, and not lead to letter confusion, as some fonts do. Just something to keep