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Things I Learned While Tutoring Children Why Tutoring Children
is a Rewarding Job for College Students
By Jenna Hansen
Being a tutor was probably one of
my favorite jobs. I worked with children from kindergarten
through third grade. Most of the time, I came to work to be
greeted by smiling faces ready to learn. It was hard to have a
bad day at work with such great kids. While working as a
tutor, I learned a lot about children, parents, and education.
I learned about motivation, success, and failure. It was a
wonderful job experience that I'd love to try again sometime.
Kids Really Do Want to Learn
Rarely, if ever, did I get a child who just didn't want to
learn. The trick was to find out what they were interested in.
Most of my students loved math. A few enjoyed reading the
most. While you couldn't make every subject their favorite,
you could tie subjects together to help them out. Just
disguising one subject as another was often enough to do the
trick. If a student liked math, but had difficulty reading,
you could give them word problems in math. Their desire to
keep doing math problems and not have to read a book, would
usually win out. Most children understood things better if you
could show them an example. Whether it was a definition of a
word or a new concept in math, they wanted to know why it was
useful and what exactly it was. I found it was much better to
answer these questions, despite the time it took. I always
hated that as I child, when I asked "why?" my parents and
teachers often told me "just because." I was determined not to
brush off these kids like that. If they asked why if one word
meant the same thing as another, we couldn't just use one
word, I would explain the subtle differences of the words to
them. They may not have liked learning an extra word, but at
least they somewhat understood the reasoning behind knowing
that additional word. Many had been taught that division was
just multiplication tables in reverse. They were just
memorizing things, but didn't understand how it worked. By
using food as an example, they saw what division really meant.
They did not want to end up with the smallest piece of candy
(I soon learned that candy was a horrible teaching tool, as it
made kids bounce off the walls). Kids enjoyed being in my
section, as they wanted more than just to finish their
homework. They always knew that they could ask me about other
things as well, not included in their assignments. Kids are
curious and they really do want to learn.
Parents Want Their Children to Succeed
I never met a parent who didn't want their child to succeed. I
think that parents, if given information on what they can do,
will help their children at home. At the end of each tutoring
session, I would fill out reports on each child in my section.
The reports would include information about what the child is
doing well at, what the child somewhat understands, and what
the child really needs some extra help on. These notes were
not only for my record so that I would know what to work on in
the next session, but also for the parents. Some of the
children I worked with were struggling with reading in English
because they did not speak English in their home. Some parents
would come up to me after the session and tell me that they
knew their child struggled with reading, but that they
themselves could hardly read in English, so they didn't know
how to help. What these parents may not have realized is, that
by taking their child to tutoring, they already were doing
something to help. In addition to that however, I gave them
information on various tools to help their child at home, such
as a talking dictionary. They didn't want their child to
struggle, but felt that they couldn't help. Other parents
wanted to help their child too much. Some parents would come
in during the tutoring session and make sure that I was
working with their child. I only worked with three children at
a time, but some parents really would have rather had one on
one tutoring sessions for their child. One thing I would ask
of parents, is to let the tutor do their job. There is no
point in going to tutoring if you just want to stand there and
correct your child the whole time. Some parents seemed to
correct harshly, while others didn't even want me to point out
mistakes to their child (nevermind that they were well
balanced with compliments on the child's work). No matter what
their parenting style however, parents did want to see their
child succeed.
What I Learned About Education
While I've never been in favor of homeschooling, after
tutoring I could see why many people view the school system as
being inadequate. These students came from different schools
in the area, yet they all seemed to lack similar important
things in their education. They lacked teachers who would
explain why things happened (maybe the teacher couldn't even
explain why). They were told to memorize a lot of things, but
weren't given any information on how to apply their knowledge.
Obviously kindergarteners and third graders are a long way
from joining the workforce, but these kids loved to find out
what they could use their math skills in or why reading was
important. If a child didn't see the point in phonics and
pronouncing words correctly, I'd remind him that if he were
ever to become the President, surely he would want to read his
speeches correctly (or at least, one would hope so). I noticed
that to some degree, many teachers also did not seem to be
objective. While I certainly offered up my opinions from time
to time, I did not have the students do projects involving
political issues. If they ever had to do something for a
homework assignment which should have had two sides involved,
I made sure they learned the other side. The children wanted
to learn these things, yet the school wasn't giving it to
them. This didn't really change my viewpoint on homeschooling
however. Rather, it made me realize that students need
supplemental learning. While these children were learning a
lot of wonderful things in school, they needed another source
(or two) where they could ask more questions and learn more.
For these students, they had tutoring sessions and their
parents to give them additional information.
Motivation Made Easy
I'm not sure why motivation seems to get harder and harder to
find as we get older. I can't seem to file for a tax return
until April. I want to do my chemistry lab report, but I know
I'll end up doing it the night before the next lab. Yet for
these young children, they didn't want to procrastinate. Why
was that? Motivation made easy: I had stickers. Children will
do anything for stickers. Especially if you can make handing
out stickers competitive. Making stickers seem scarce also
works well. Truthfully, I had well over one hundred stickers.
The children never knew that. They would see maybe 10 or 20
stickers on me at the most. They knew that they had to earn
those stickers, and they wanted them. Stickers work much
better than candy because there is no sugar high. Instead,
sugars provide a different kind of high. Children felt a sense
of accomplishment as they counted how many stickers they had
earned since joining my session. At first, stickers seemed to
work best when handed out to everyone at the same rate. One
page of math problems would earn you a sticker, but so would
one page of reading. Then this one kid joined my group. He was
in 2nd grade, but had a 6th or 7th grade reading level. He
would have wiped out my sticker stash in no time if I hadn't
come up with a new system. Plus, it was really starting to
discourage the other children when they saw that this child
was getting 10 times more stickers than they were. So I came
up with a new way to distribute the stickers. Since this child
could read 10 pages faster than anyone else in the group could
read a single page, he would only receive one sticker for
every 10 pages. Some of my kindergarten students from
non-English speaking homes were extremely slow readers, and
therefore got 2 stickers per page. This kept everyone trying
to improve, while not making others jealous of the high amount
of stickers those ahead of them could receive. If only I could
find the adult equivalent of stickers for myself, I'd be all
set in life.
Success and Failure
While of course, for adults success and failure are big deals,
the reactions just aren't the same. We get an A on an exam in
college and are just happy to not fail. We go on an interview,
don't get the job, and it may be a big deal and cause some
tears, but we'll be okay. When kids get a happy face on their
paper, they are ecstatic. They will show anyone they know and
they want that paper up on their parent's fridge. Give that
kid a sad face with tears on their paper and they'll make that
same face as they cry about their failure on the assignment.
Watching the children and their reactions reminded me of how
when I was younger one failure would be the end of the world.
Maybe these kids just cared more than most.
Overall, I found tutoring children to be a very rewarding job.
One thing about tutoring young children is that you really
notice a lot of progress happening quickly thoughout the year.
Children seem to have this energy about them. I could go to
work after a long day of school and then be totally energized
when I got to work. I think I probably learned as much while
tutoring as I taught the children. It was a wonderful
experience that I think more people should try.
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