Teachers teach a class, but tutors facilitate learning. As learning facilitators, tutors are more effective than teachers. Teachers usually teach up to 30 children in one class. The group setting most effective for learning should only have up to 15 students in one class. A tutoring session, on one hand, usually consists of one tutor to one or two students, which is an ideal set up.

Tutors, especially summer tutors, bridge the gaps in learning in a classroom setting. Summer tutors focus on their students’ needs more than a teacher can do in the classroom. Students who enroll in summer classes benefit from this one-on-one guidance. Tutors closely monitor their progress and immediately apply interventions.

Several reasons for summer tutoring exist. Since the teaching set-up is one on one, the lessons focus on the child’s needs. A summer tutor pays more attention to the child’s learning process and can attend to the child’s weaknesses. Aside from that, summer tutoring address the child’s learning style and matches it to the pacing of the lessons.

In the classroom set-up, the teacher attends to an average of twenty to thirty students. Naturally, students learn at different levels and speed, and using different styles. Some students need lengthy discussions and more time to digest the lesson, while others read the materials and study on their own.

If the majority of the students understood the lesson, then the teacher moves forward, leaving behind one or two students in the process. In-house tutors help these children catch up with the rest of the class.

A summer tutor also makes it easier to diagnose learning problems. Although tutors are not expected to diagnose and correct these problems, they may give advice or refer the child to the proper professional.

For parents who cannot find time to help their children with homework or projects, summer tutors act as substitutes. Children can easily manage schoolwork while parents get the assurance that their child’s needs are met.

A sudden drop in the grades of your child indicates a disturbance in learning, but it does not necessarily mean your child needs tutoring. Disturbances, such as a death in the family, a long period of illness or a sudden change in the child’s home life, can affect the child’s grades.

Another factor contributing to low academic performance could be the absence of challenges in school. The child might be a fast learner who finds the pace of regular classes boring. The teacher and the teaching method also affect a child’s performance. Changes in the child’s social circle also affect the child’s attitude towards school and learning.

While most children easily cope with demanding schoolwork, some kids lack the intellectual stamina to keep up. A pattern of low grades and lack of initiative to participate in school show a set of alarming behavior in children. These children need more attention and help from someone who understands their difficulties in learning.

A teacher can help, but the rigid schedule at school, and the strict rules of some schools in disallowing tutoring jobs for their faculty, restricts the capacity of a teacher to tutor students beyond school hours. Hiring a professional seems a better alternative, aside from parents putting in time helping their children with schoolwork.

In-house tutoring, as opposed to online tutoring, provides more than academic assistance. Another human being who does not appear to be on the same level of authority as teachers eases the flow of learning. Pressure from maintaining good grades, getting high scores in exams, and competing with other children do not exist in in-house tutoring.

The most important basis for hiring an in-house tutor answers the question: Does your child actually need tutoring? Observe your child’s attitude towards learning. Is your child showing distaste to studying? Does it affect your child’s self-esteem? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should consider in-house tutoring. If he or she remains curious and exhibits a desire to know, then the problem could be in school.

Some parents prefer to give their child a chance to recover from low grades. However, if you see your child try his or her best, and yet grades remain low, then it would be better to hire an in-house tutor.

Most of the time teachers take a proactive approach and recommend tutorials to students who seem to require some help. The teachers usually call the attention of the parents and discuss with them how to help their child cope up with schoolwork.

Parents often have second thoughts when hiring tutors. They hesitate because they hope the child can still improve without the need for a tutor. The think children can overcome that phase eventually.

Some parents mistake tutors as expensive ways to deal with their child’s academic woes. This wrong perception probably came from novels and films featuring scenes of governesses and private tutors working for the rich.

However, times have changed and private tutors do not only work for the rich, but more so for the disadvantaged students who truly need their help. Aside from that, private in-home tutors do not charge exorbitant fees to help children learn.

If you and your child feel a tutor will greatly help improve your child’ academic performance, then you should look for the following qualities when hiring a professional tutor:

Well-trained: Look for tutors who have undergone the right training to handle children with learning disabilities, behavior problems, and other possible causes for the child’s difficulty in dealing with lessons and pressure at school.

Also, seek the ones with extensive training in the subjects they tutor; ask for certifications and recommendations from previous employers and from previous clients, if possible. A tutor has to be equipped with the necessary knowledge that he or she can impart to the child.

Positive attitude: A tutor must have a personal investment in the child’s welfare. Look for someone who loves children and teaching. This positive attitude leads to positive actions during the tutorial sessions. A tutor with a positive attitude motivates the child to take the initiative to learn.

Passionate: This trait often goes with a positive attitude. The tutor who loves what he or she is doing can impart the same love of learning to the child. This same trait also leads the tutor to show patience and determination in helping the child.

Reliable: Being reliable as a tutor has many indicators. Professional tutors are punctual and prompt. They come to the scheduled time and place early and well prepared for every lesson.

Empathetic: A tutor who can put himself or herself in the shoes of the child would be a good choice. A good tutor understands how the child feels and knows how to relate to the child. While the tutor has the expertise and knowledge to teach, he or she should also learn to pace the lessons according to the child’s learning style and speed.

Face-to-face interviews, recommendations and feedback from other clients help parents decide which tutor to hire. To be sure, parents should hire a tutor from a reputable source, such as from an agency or from an online source, which provides testimonials from previous clients.

Often times, parents will ask me “how many hours of tutoring will we need?” My answer is always the same, that there are many factors involved in effective tutoring. The first being that it should be your child who wants a tutor and not the other way around.

An experienced tutor can either be a tremendous help or not much help at all depending on how interested the student is in working with them.

If it is only the parent who is interested in their child getting better grades and they are missing a large part of the equation. As a parent, you need to sit down with your child and have a serious discussion about the possibility that they might need some extra help with someone other than you but ultimately they need to come to that conclusion on their own.

After meeting with your tutor for the first time, you should have a discussion as a family afterwards about how the session went and agree together on whether or not you want to continue with the tutoring.

Every tutor has a different teaching style and personality. Assuming your family and the tutor clique in this department and you believe the tutor has sufficient experience and knowledge of the material, based on your finances, you child’s needs, and any recommendations from your tutor or your child’s teacher, you should come up with a plan for how often you will want the tutor to come and how long the sessions should be.

The most effective tutoring combination is usually when a tutor comes regularly, 1-2 times per week or more, followed by additional assignments from the tutor and/or teacher(s) to help fully master the material and to see really improvement. I also recommend ongoing dialogue between the family, tutor, and teacher(s) so that everyone stays involved and engaged in the goal of improvement.

Let your New Year’s resolution this year be to finally get a handle on grades by working with an in-home tutor.

Right now we’re offering specials (up to 25% off) to get 2010 started on the right foot.

As always, there are never any sign-up fees or contracts.

Just a quick note since we hire a lot of tutors, make sure you always follow the instructions listed on a job application. If they say “no phone calls” for example, make sure not to call. The same applies to sending documents as attachments versus inline text. We get hundreds of applications a week for people who want to tutor at http:steppingstonetutors.com but immediately weed out the ones that don’t follow our instructions.

The biggest reason for an employer to be specific about their requirements when applying for a position is that they may receive a huge number for resumes or applications on any given day and simply don’t have the time or resources to read through each one if there isn’t a standard format. Here’s an example.