Secret to Success: Students who feel Connected with their Tutor Succeed Faster
Students who are struggling in school improve faster when they have a tutor they can trust. Developing that rapport is essential to sparking the student back to success. At A+ Home Tutors, we make the match between the student and the tutor our top priority, and our students respond quickly.
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February 6, 2008 (FPRC) -- When a person needs help with something, they often ask someone they trust and respect. The key to effectively getting the needed help is often tied to the level of trust, respect, and comfort between the two parties. This also applies to students learning their academic subjects.
Students Often Need Connection to Succeed
In school, students do not get any choice as to who their teachers are, so they have to deal with whatever personality or teaching style issues they may have in their classes. Students may feel intimidated or bored by the teacher during class, which makes them less likely to want to ask that teacher for help. What a struggling student needs is someone he can connect with and trust, and someone with whom she feels comfortable making a mistake.
Tutors Can Provide Necessary Connection
The same can be true for tutoring. If the student does not like the tutor or does not connect with her in some way, then those one hour sessions can be very very long. Parents can force attendance at tutoring sessions, but they cannot force progress. In tutoring, it is so important to make sure the match with the tutor is a good one. The great thing about tutoring is that parents and students are in control of the match, unlike in school.
Tutors Reach for "Mentoring Relationship"
This is not to say that the tutor and student should be best buddies. The healthy tutor relationship is more like that of a respected uncle or sibling who is 10 years older. There is a respect and a connection, and the student feels safe making mistakes and fixing them in front of the tutor. The student also may feel like he can talk to the tutor about fears and current issues the student faces. In effect, what the tutor is building is a mentoring relationship with the student that can go far beyond the subjects being tutored. This bond between the tutor and the student is what fuels the improvement, and jump starts the student to success.
We Take the Match Seriously
At A+ Home Tutors, we take great care in matching students with tutors. It starts with hiring only the best, most experienced tutors who have a record of positive interactions with students. We factor in personality traits, learning styles, gender, age and knowledge and teaching ability. We offer a free consultation, where we learn more about the student's unique needs, and then we tailor the tutor and tutoring plan to those needs. The results are striking.
Tutoring with Connection Works
At A+ Home Tutors, we have seen many students jump started by a good match. For instance, a five minute conversation about basketball may pave the way for 55 minutes of intense geometry, where the student "gets it" for the first time. At first glance, a parent might see that five minutes as a waste of time, but it may have been the trigger that engaged the student emotionally. With young people, motivation is so important, and the ability to motivate often comes from the connection between two people.
About A+ Home Tutors and Owner Brian Cheek:
Brian Cheek is owner and founder of A+ Home Tutors, an in-home, one-on-one tutoring service that serves the San Francisco Bay area, from San Francisco and Marin to San Jose and Morgan Hill, and the East Bay. Before starting A+ Home Tutors, Brian was a teacher, coach, mentor, and guidance counselor for 6 years, and a full time private one-on-one tutor for a year and a half. A+ Home Tutors has been providing quality tutors and dramatic results since 2004.
Send an email to Brian Cheek of A+ Home Tutors
408-876-0577
Keywords:
tutor, private tutor, in home tutor
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