One of the questions I always get are can your tutor come in to be a homework helper to help with his grades?
It would be so easy to just say yes and ask the parent for a credit card. But, in good conscience I feel like we’d be stealing from them.
Parents may think that’s what the student needs, but in reality if a parent really wants to maximize their experience and get the most out of their Academic Coach, they need to allow our coaches to work with the whole student.
Most students don’t know how to study and have poor or no organizational skills. They often have foundational holes in their knowledge base that requires an instructional coach to go back to an earlier level to help turn on the switch. Test prep is often done the night before, and when the student thinks they know the material after cramming and they don’t score as high as they hoped or expected on the test, they blame it on test anxiety. Yes, test anxiety is real and exists, but it’s very rare if a student is prepared. Preparing early requires organization of priorities and planning ahead. Test taking skills also play a big part in learning how to take a test to get the highest scores when they definitely know the material and do prepare in advance.
How can we address all of these issues if all we are doing is helping with homework. There’s no time. Then 2 or 3 months later, you are wondering why you wasted all this money on tutoring and it didn’t do any good. It must be the inadequate tutor, because they work together every week on homework and my child isn’t progressing.
Have your child attempt to do their homework or complete their homework before your tutor arrives. That gives us time every day to address the whole student. They have questions about the homework and time isn’t wasted on things they could accomplish independently. Remember, we’re not there every day to help with homework. They have to be able to do the work on their own if our coach isn’t there unless our coach moves in and gets a room in your house.
treat the whole child and dedicate them to a long term solution in order to see permanent positive results. Then don’t stop the minute they get a good score on a test. There’s more coming down the road and they are finally starting to see the light.
Academic Coaching is not just for struggling students. Tiger Woods has a golf coach every day and he’s one of the greatest golfers of a generation.
