Math 101 - What Makes a Good Tutor?

My wife and I run a small "mom and pop" tutoring center in Naples, Florida. Recently, one of my tutors demonstrated that he was not here for the student, just his tutoring payment. He's gone.

But, the incident caused me to think anew about our center and how we operate. It also gave me an opportunity to define what makes a good tutor.

First, you have to understand that our center began as a serendipitous event. It wasn't a planned thing. One day, we simply realized that we had discovered a niche market.

Now, our whole operation has become a work in progress. There is no master business plan because things change by the minute, hour and day.

But, as we have evolved, we seem to be doing the right things (i.e. serendipity continues).

First and foremost, we are NOT following the money, like some of the larger national chains are. Having done some mystery shopping and careful listening to our clients, I have discovered that these larger companies often want big dollars (many thousands upfront or in a contract). One Maryland tutoring company wanted me to sign up for 150 hours of SAT tutoring for my "fictitious" high school son, sight unseen. That bill amounted to almost 7 thousand dollars.

Instead, we key on the student, even if the client doesn't hire us. We even often follow up just to be sure the student has gotten the needed help either at school, through another tutor or through a home-based learning program. We also provide ideas for overcoming problem areas outside of a paid tutoring environment. In the process, we have discovered the money follows the student.

We like this approach a lot better!

Our tutors are in lockstep. They often go "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty" (which I refer to as ABCD). This includes just chatting with the student about things like last Friday night's school football game and knowing who the quarterback was, places they have both visited or lived, the latest movie or the latest technological gadget. You'll be amazed at how these small interactions enhance the camaraderie and bonding between tutor and tutee.

For example, consider the tutor who sees their student arrive with iPod buds in their ears. Some tutors might start off by asking that the child put the iPod away and get out their book. Imagine the bonding that takes place instead, if the tutor asks what the child is listening to and comments about the neat color of their iPod before embarking on the study session.

Good tutors also don't stop at the end of the hour and ask students to put their things away. Instead, they might inquire about weekend plans, sports team practice, or other things.

Recently, one our tutees queried her tutor about college. She wanted to know if she should go immediately to the college of her choice or start locally and then transfer after a year or two. Our tutor shared information and experiences and discussed the matter with the tutee.

These interactions, above and beyond the actual tutoring session, make the tutee want to come back because they see that someone cares about them.

A good tutor is a good tutor regardless of the subject being taught. You want a tutor that can connect with your child - his/her personality, learning style, and needs. You want someone that can guide and mentor your child to build knowledge, skills and abilities. You don't want to have your child take hours upon hours of tests to define where the difficulties lie. The tutor should be able to pick up on these through a review of student tests and homework; discussions with the student; and a careful assessment of watching the student do his/her work at the tutoring session.

Although we don't provide formal assessments concerning learning issues, our tutors can provide information to parents that may lead them to this type of support. They have also flagged and explained issues such as parent-child conflicts, recommended eye exams and answered questions about various medications, sugary foods and the like.

Our tutors are also savvy when it comes to assessing what the students are covering in class or supposed to be covering. Recently, we discovered there was a disconnect between what was being taught in one classroom and the types of questions found on the state assessment test (FCAT in Florida). In this elementary classroom, students were shown math concepts via one step problems. On the FCAT, word problems dominated.

One reason we can do this is that we have bought copies of all math textbooks used in our County and many local private schools, other resource materials (including some computer-based software), and even some "cool" math games. As we expand beyond math borders, we'll do the same for language arts and other subjects.

We have also recommended some products to parents outside our fiscal realm that they can access at low cost to help out beyond tutoring. Several parents have subscribed or used these and are reporting excellent results as their child uses these for review and fresher work.

We also pride ourselves in not just being a homework helper. We work to ensure that the student understands key concepts. Then we work with the student so they can do their own homework problems. This applies to classroom, online and even test preparation work.

And, we may just add some humor to our suggestions for improving test scores, taking notes and the like.

Some of our tutors are certified teachers. But just having a teaching degree doesn't mean one is a good teacher/tutor. The key is not how one teaches in a larger setting, but how effective they are one-on-one. This is because when it comes to tutoring, you will most likely want your child to receive individualized attention.

This is where you want the tutor to connect with your child at several levels. Your child needs to view the tutor as being there to really help. Just being there may not be enough. So, capturing your child's confidence, learning about your child (even beyond the subject matter being addressed) and demonstrating the ability to explain complex subjects easily (at the child's level) is paramount.

For the actual subject matter tutoring, you want the tutor to be able to take complex topics, break them down into manageable pieces and show your child how easy each individual piece can be. For languages, for example, reading comprehension means "reading" and "comprehension." Hence, your child will have to go back and answer specific questions about the paragraphs they just read. If the answer isn't obvious, they will have to search for clues. Can the tutor show them how do this in a meaningful and understandable way? In chemistry, mathematical equations and chemical interactions can be quite complex. Can the tutor provide real-life examples to support the math and science involved? If history is the subject at hand, can the tutor place an historical event (even hundreds of years in the past) in context with things happening today? For math, numbers, shapes, patterns and computations abound almost everywhere one turns.

This type of "real-life" focus often goes a long way toward helping a child internalize the subject matter.

Finally, for math and language, nothing beats playing games. If your child's tutor can take a few minutes out of an hour tutoring session to play a relevant game, that will make the tutoring experience even more "fun." The game doesn't have to be presented as a math or language activity. Rather, it can be offered as a reward for a good job or a break because the first 45 minutes involved such intense learning. And remember that games work for young and old.

Yes, you should check for tutor credentials and reviews from previous students, but remember that your child is unique. What worked or didn't work for a student last year may not have any bearing on your child's situation. This doesn't mean you shouldn't check on these things, but realize that there are other intangibles that may be more important.

We know that our approach is probably replicated in almost every city and town across the Nation (in one form or another). This applies to companies, as well as individual tutors. But we know that there are some tutors that are not quite as student-driven. We want you to be on the lookout and avoid the latter.

You'll know quickly if your child is paired with a good tutor. They might smile, eagerly look forward to attending the tutoring session, or simply like their schoolwork a bit more than before.

For example, one parent recently shared that our tutoring completely transformed her son's outlook on learning. In another case, the tutee arrived for her first tutoring session close to tears; she left smiling. Mom was amazed at the transformation.

And, through the grapevine (sometimes we just don't get direct feedback), we learned that a student we tutored 3 to 4 years ago is now doing outstanding work in his high school Algebra class.

But, recognize, the learning curve varies by grade level, the child himself/herself and other factors. Typically high school and college students produce the fastest turnaround. Younger learners take longer to internalize concepts, operations and other parts of a subject.

The bottom line is that once you have a good tutor, keep him/her. With connectivity in place, learning often follows fairly quickly and steadily.