What do you need to work as a tutor? How to start working as a tutor? Personal experience

HLEB continues to introduce readers to the inner workings of various professions. In today's episode, a private tutor talks about the children of rich parents, the disadvantages of the age difference and attention span

I chose tutoring as a way to earn extra money because it seemed easy to me. You came to your child’s home for an hour and a half to two hours (yes, I visit students, and don’t host them at my home), explained everything to him, gave him a bunch of tasks, and at the same time you sit and scroll through your feed on VKontakte or stick to Pikabu " But this job is no easier than others. In some ways it’s even harder.

I teach Russian language and literature to schoolchildren. Considering that at the university I studied both of these disciplines in depth for two years, at the beginning of the third year I considered myself ready to explain my knowledge to other people. The main advantage of a young tutor, a student or so, is that he has recently gone through all this hell with the Unified State Exam, all the memories of preparation, passing, chips and tricks are vivid in his memory. He is also close to the age of five-minute-graduates and therefore can speak the same language with them. In general, I considered myself an ideal candidate for this role and thought that I could handle it in no time. How wrong I was.

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My first student is in 9th grade, preparing for the OGE in Russian. She’s lazy, but she understands that she needs to pass the exam well, and that’s why she studies. Here I discovered the first inconvenience of working as a tutor: you must constantly hold the child’s attention. In recent years, this has been even more difficult, because a phone with Internet access always on is pestering you with messages on VKontakte and Twitter. You have to put the phone away, both of them: you can’t force a child not to do what you do yourself.

I learned to maintain attention after about a month. This is not difficult to achieve: you need to do different things all the time. We wrote the theory, did oral exercises, and chatted about abstract topics. And I also set aside time to complete tasks independently. As a result, we never do one type of work for more than twenty minutes. I remember some interesting incidents from my life, from my studies, interesting facts about the Russian language. Did you know that in our language there are many roots consisting of one letter? But the child is captivated, he has never seen anything like this before.

The second problem is laziness. I encountered this when working with a second student who needed a tutor in both Russian and literature to pass the Unified State Exam. It seems that he understands that he needs to pass the exam, it is simply necessary, but he does practically nothing. Constantly cancels classes, citing poor health, illness, or some errands. Doesn't do homework or does it "to get rid of it." And how to deal with this? I'm not her mother to tell her off. I took the following position: if you want results, do it; if you don’t, don’t waste your and my time. It helped.

But all this is nothing compared to the third problem - lack of education.

The mother of a seventh-grader who had problems with the Russian language school curriculum contacted me. I thought it would be easier than the Unified State Exam or Unified State Exam. Well, I read the textbook and retold it in my own words. And, probably, it would have worked with another child. But not with this one.

Antosha (let's call him that) is a real teacher's nightmare. Even if I howled, how did the teachers who interact with him at school every day cope? All the previous problems were here: it is impossible to maintain attention, and even more so to overcome laziness. In the first lesson, out of everything I had planned for an hour and a half, we only managed to complete a third. He was constantly distracted, endlessly talking about his school, about hockey, which he plays every day, about his cat, which was immediately running nearby. And when you try to bring him back to the topic of the lesson, he’s like:

- Yes, let's... Oh, you know, I weave baubles from rubber bands, would you like me to show you?

The topic of my second lesson with Antosha is communion. Everything seems simple: you take an adjective, take a verb, combine it - you get a participle. But Antosha didn’t even know what a verb was. And then came a generally stunning question:

- What is case?

This completely finished me off. I don't have the case definition in mind. To me it is as simple as “what is a chair.” It's a fucking chair. That's all. In the seventh grade, a student should already know cases, like the multiplication table. In a normal school, of course.

There was no third lesson with Antosha.

I guess it's not me. Yes, a professional teacher would probably have handled it much more calmly. But I didn’t have such problems with other students! I think these are shortcomings of upbringing. From communication with the student’s mother, I concluded that he is the only child in the family. And also - that they don’t have a lot of money. And he talks to mom and dad in such a way that it’s immediately clear: he is the king here, the master of the situation. So everything is clear.

I made a conclusion for myself: the smaller the age difference between the tutor and the student, the easier it is for both. At least for me it is.

Therefore, the next student was just a gift in comparison with the restless seventh grader. And yes, I finally got a child who is really interested in the subject. An eleventh-grader asked me to study literature with her to pass the Unified State Exam. And I understood why some teachers have “favorites.” This doesn't always happen on purpose. It’s just much more pleasant to communicate with those students who are interested in acquiring new knowledge and ask you questions themselves.

But, of course, an approach must be found for everyone. And this is the most difficult thing. Everyone has their own favorite topics of conversation, their own working capacity limits, and their own view of the subject being studied. For some, it is enough to cross the “threshold”, while others strive for high goals. And when you have five such individual lessons a week, sometimes you simply cannot connect to the next student. And connecting to him, being on the same wavelength with him is very important. Otherwise, nothing will work out at all.

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If you want to get into tutoring, it is important to understand that it is not the “easy way to make money” that I initially thought. This is work. You should always be prepared for the topic of the lesson. You must swim in the subject being taught like a fish in water - at least at the level at which the student is studying it. You should always have a backup plan if something goes wrong. You have no right to be tired, sleepy, irritated, angry. You should always have a smile on your face, otherwise you will not make the student smile. Don't tune in to his wavelength. You must become his friend. A friend who just knows a little more and is ready to help you learn the material.

The most important joy from such work is when the student understands. Then work turns into a pleasant, even favorite thing. Then you don’t think that this is additional income. This is a job like any other, and in some ways it’s not easy. And when a student achieves success, this is the best reward for a tutor.

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Experience and higher education are the basic requirements to start tutoring. However, for successful individual teaching, subject knowledge alone is not enough.

Firstly, it is necessary to have an idea of the psychological subtleties of each age category in order to identify the specifics and needs of the student.
Secondly, the presence of creative and organizational skills, and a sense of humor is also important.

The teacher’s task is to become an assistant and ally, and at the same time an authority in the eyes of the child, to achieve favor and respect. It is important to be able to present the material in an accessible and understandable way, because the main goal of personal lessons is to interest and motivate to improve and replenish knowledge.

How to become a tutor - where to start

Before starting a marketing company, it is necessary to determine the age category of potential students and thoroughly understand your capabilities (what to offer, how to surprise and interest). Understand the organizational nuances: cost of services, operating hours, territorial issues (on-site or at home), etc. Next, start looking for clients. Now the advertising market provides a lot of options for publishing information:

On the Internet - bulletin boards, social networks, thematic tutoring sites, employment sites.
Advertisement in the newspaper.
Posting notices near schools and other educational institutions.
Recommendations from colleagues, friends and even relatives (still the most effective advertising method).

What you need for successful work

When meeting with a student for the first time, pay maximum attention to detail to determine the level of knowledge and the reasons for difficulties with discipline. Prepare interesting tests, questionnaires, creative tasks to establish further principles of work.

How to become a tutor in Russian, English, social studies

For tutors of each subject, be it Russian, English, chemistry, physics or social studies, there are uniform rules for successful work:

exceptional knowledge of the current curriculum, in any case this is the foundation from which to build;
selection of interesting and different material from the school curriculum for each new lesson;
selection of individual and non-standard teaching methods (game elements, use of media technologies, visualization, etc.) - the student should not be bored;
competence and desire to teach.

For teaching the humanities, it is very important in your work to confront the student with the textbook as little as possible; it is preferable to build your work on dialogues, examples from life, reading and analysis of what is written, for example, in newspapers, age-appropriate magazines, or heard and seen (audio and video recording).

To practice grammar and conversational speech, you can use popular fiction that is interesting to the child, enrich your vocabulary, as an example, by working with synonymic series, try yourself as a poet, etc.

How to become a tutor in mathematics, physics, chemistry

With such sciences as mathematics, physics and chemistry, the choice of methodology is a little more difficult, since the school curriculum lacks clarity and practice (experiments). Since not every potential tutor has the opportunity to organize his own mini-laboratory, these sciences should be brought as close as possible to real life - work with what is at hand (household items, food, etc.), and thanks to the Internet technologies, all chemical and physical reactions can be demonstrated using video materials.

For the successful development of this craft, it is necessary to earn authority for yourself, for this you need to constantly engage in self-development, apply modern techniques in practice, don’t neglect the classics either, share experiences and best practices with colleagues.

Unfortunately, there are individual cases when the tutor is practically powerless; the cause may be various psychological factors, and as a consequence pathological laziness, a specific inability to perceive the material, etc. Therefore, it is imperative to contact parents, tactfully share observations and report changes in academic performance; perhaps, by acting together, there will be a shift in a positive direction.

Many of us are able to teach other people something. The desire to transfer knowledge usually motivates people to become teachers and work in schools or universities. But you can go another way. For example, become a private teacher - tutor.

A tutor is a fairly free person; he does not have supervisors in the form of, say, a head teacher or vice-rector. However, in such a seemingly free and creative work as tutoring, there are all sorts of nuances that should be taken into account and for which you need to prepare when deciding to teach someone at home.

If you decide to become a tutor, the first thing you need to do is place an ad.

Take care of the absolute literacy of the text, even if you are going to teach pottery, and not even the Russian language.

Specify the area - this way you will weed out obviously unsuitable clients. It is advisable to write your name in full, and not just “Lala” or “Anya”. Add a last name, and the level of trust of potential clients will increase. It is also advisable to attach your own photo, and not a picture of a schoolboy sweating from diligence.

Now let's figure out what you need to be prepared for when you undertake to help someone study science, even if this science is mathematics in the elementary grades. I’ll tell you using the example of teaching schoolchildren.

Immediately explain to the students’ parents that you are not a magician and will not be able to instantly turn a C student into an excellent student.
Or maybe you won’t even be able to scrape together a B in a year, because a lot, but not everything, depends on the teacher. This needs to be stated clearly so that there are no complaints later. There are people who sincerely believe: since they paid money, it means they bought knowledge at school. Not all students will like you, but you have to like them
, otherwise they will simply run away. Therefore, you, the free sculptor of the child’s mind, will have to work hard to find an approach to each of them without showing negative emotions. Of course, it is necessary to make a suggestion to a child if he does not do his homework or is late, the main thing is not to overdo it. Don't humiliate your students, be friendly, joke, and they will respond in kind. Always keep in touch with your parents.
Even if, in your opinion, learning is going smoothly, there is progress, parents may have a different opinion. In addition, it is unknown what the child tells about you at home. Call, communicate, share your thoughts, praise or scold the child (however, express your dissatisfaction very tactfully). In general, let your parents see or hear you. They need to know that their money is not going into a silent void. There is no need to rely on improvisation and your own teaching talent. In every business, discipline and consistency are important. In, perhaps, especially. Don’t worry that you may not know something or understand the question. Tell the student that you will clarify this point. Of course, don’t forget to look into the issue afterwards.
If a student behaves extremely badly - whines, does not complete assignments, looks at his watch every two minutes, snaps, etc. - say goodbye to him.
No need to beat yourself up. As a result, you can lash out at the child, and then the parents will come to you. Why spoil the image? Politely explain to parents that the child may not yet be ready for individual lessons. Schoolchildren, especially younger ones, are physically unable to sit through an hour of classes
, and even one-on-one with the teacher. If a child, who is generally responsible and smart, begins to yawn and slow down towards the end, shorten the lesson time. Be sure to tell your parents about this, they most likely won't mind. Accordingly, the payment will decrease, but for us the main thing is the result, right? If after the lesson a student forgot to pay, do not hesitate to remind him.
Don't think what he will bring next time. What if he doesn’t bring it? You never know: I forgot, lost it, spent it on nuts. But at home they may not know about it. Get ready for what The schedule of your classes will constantly change, you will have to adapt to the students.

Moreover, students will be late or miss classes altogether, often without warning. It is advisable to remind about the lesson the night before by calling or texting.

In tutoring, as in any other job, responsibility, diligence and a focus on good results are important. But, first of all, a teacher is a creative profession, which sometimes drains even a significant reserve of spiritual and physical strength.

Respect your work and the work of your students. And remember: teaching someone is sometimes more difficult than learning.

Do you have experience as a tutor? Share it in the comments.

One of the areas of self-employment that does not require significant expenses is tutoring - the provision of private educational services at home. Where to begin?

The services of a good tutor are highly valued, and with the introduction of the Unified State Exam, additional training has become even more popular and in demand.

Therefore, tutoring can be a worthy alternative to working in an educational institution, or simply a good addition to your salary.

This business option is perfect for school teachers and university professors specializing in a certain field. Since the main and sometimes only investment in a future business will be your personal professional knowledge and experience in teaching.

So where to start?

First of all, in order for your initiative to be legal and free from problems with the tax office, you need to register as an individual entrepreneur.

The next step will be to purchase the necessary teaching aids and decide on the location of future classes with students:

The first option is to work with students at the teacher’s home - in this case, the teacher must prepare a comfortable room equipped with everything necessary for the educational process.
Conducting classes on the student’s premises – in this case, the question arises about the tutor’s travel costs.
Tutoring in rented premises. This option is optimal if you plan to work with groups of students or even open a real center for the provision of private educational services.
Remote learning via the Internet is gaining increasing popularity - the advantage of this option is the opportunity to conduct classes with students from different parts of the country.

And last but not least, you need to take care of attracting future customers.

Finding clients, or where do students come from?

The target audience of the tutor is, as a rule, schoolchildren. Those who have not fully mastered the program material, or, on the contrary, whose knowledge needs go beyond the scope of the curriculum.

But the largest part of the clientele consists of applicants who need preparation in specialized subjects for admission to a university.

There are many ways to notify interested parties about your services.

The first students can be found by placing advertisements in educational institutions, the entrances of your neighborhood, and the media.

In the future, your reputation as a professional teacher will make the difference.

Another effective option is to select students through tutoring agencies.

How much does a tutor earn?

The answer depends on many factors. The main indicators that determine the teacher’s tariff are qualifications and the subject itself.

Qualifications, work experience and experience of the tutor determine the cost of an hour of classes:

Recent university graduates and senior students, as usual, offer prices in the range of 300-600 rubles. per hour of training.
Prices for teachers with 5 to 7 years of experience range up to 1000 rubles.
The price category from 1000 and above is represented by university teachers and experienced school teachers.

Tutoring - good income and self-employment

Region of residence– prices for individual training services vary significantly depending on where you live. So, in a small city, the cost of an academic hour of training usually does not exceed 500 rubles, in the capital - from 1000 rubles.

Class location– if it is necessary for a teacher to visit a client’s home, the cost of the lesson increases by an average of 100-150 rubles.

Subject of study– the most “expensive” disciplines in the tutoring environment are the English language and mathematics – the cost of classes in them in Moscow averages 2000-2500 thousand per hour.

The rate for tutoring services is also affected by preparation time and complexity of the material.

Thus, the idea of tutoring can bring very good income, the main thing is to be an excellent specialist in your chosen field and regularly improve your professional skills.

The main fundamental part on which success in any professional activity is based is quality education. Today, the provision of tutoring services is extremely popular. Everyone knows that a well-prepared student can easily pass exams at a prestigious university and enter it. Many people who need the services of a tutor want to improve their basic educational level in any subject, and many want to approach this issue very seriously. In general, the tutoring industry is a fairly promising area of business. And in this article we will talk about where to start tutoring primary grades. Moreover, in this article we will let you know how to turn this business into a profitable field of activity.

What you need to make money from tutoring

Are any of you asking yourself the question: How can you become a tutor? The most important thing is to understand for yourself that your desire alone will not be quite enough to answer this question. You can create a successful and profitable home at home when you adhere to a specific plan of action. Therefore, below we will talk about what you need in order to achieve success in this matter?

Basic requirements

Tutoring is a very responsible and difficult profession. Many believe that this work provides additional income for teachers of universities and schools. But in fact, real professionals in this matter do not teach in these educational institutions. The main and important condition for organizing this business at home is excellent education and extensive experience in this work. Another important factor for a tutor is good knowledge in the field of psychology and teaching skills. The more experience a tutor has in a given field, the better their professional skills. Based on this, we can safely say about the possibility of increasing tariffs for the services provided in the future.

Everyone knows that many people have great difficulty believing information about experience. In order to prove yourself well, you need to ask your students for help in writing letters of recommendation. Any person who has not only excellent knowledge, but also his own personal qualities, which every good teacher should have, can become a tutor.

So, how can you become a tutor? In order to achieve success in this, the following personal qualities will help you:

Such a quality as responsibility will help to competently approach the work of maintaining discipline in lessons and planning them.
Great interest in your work. A good tutor always strives to improve personal knowledge and a better teaching method.
The opportunity to teach and present the necessary material in a more accessible way. Even if a teacher knows the answer to a question perfectly well, he can always competently explain it to another person.
Such a quality as punctuality allows the tutor to start and finish his lesson at the right time.
Competently establishing a common language with students. Personal qualities and charm are the main basis for excellent relationships with your clients. And competence, in turn, also plays a huge role in building relationships.
Inner self-control and patience for mistakes.

If you also have all the qualities that we listed above, then you can safely start working as a tutor. But first, you can work with the children of your friends or acquaintances. Thanks to this, you can gain experience. After that, you can look for new clients.

Search for students

From this article you can learn about how to make money from tutoring. Above we have listed the qualities that every tutor should have. But here it’s worth talking about how to find new students for your activities. If you have just begun to engage in such activities, then now a novice tutor can be of great help from various resources on which specialists post questionnaires for the opportunity to find a job. This information indicates the place where the training will be conducted, the city of residence, the cost of these services, work experience, time of training and personal education. If you don’t want to bother posting your personal resume on these resources, you can print out advertisements and post them at the entrances of houses or bus stops, near various educational institutions. An excellent option is also to create a personal website. Skype training has become extremely popular these days. Therefore, if you have a computer with a working webcam, you can teach your students remotely.

Is it necessary to obtain a license?

Tutoring is a type of teaching activity that does not need to be licensed. If the tutor has a diploma, then it acts as the main confirmation of the qualifications you have received. Since tutoring is considered a business activity, in order to start working, you must register with the tax authority as an individual entrepreneur. This action will be an excellent option in the future to increase your income, since most people began to turn to those tutors who work legally.

If you are at the stage of drawing up your business plan, tutoring may not be classified as home-based tutoring. If you are essentially a businessman, then you can consider the option of creating a training center. In this case, you will definitely need to obtain a license.

Tutor cost

Most tutors ask themselves the most important question: what price should they set for their services? Many tutors, in an effort to attract a large number of clients, set low prices for their services. But this is far from correct. In this case, you personally will have minimal motivation to perform your work at a high level. Among other things, your clients will begin to doubt the quality of the services you provide. You should always remember that the work done must be paid accordingly. At the moment there are no established payment rates for these services. Below we will describe the facts that will affect the earnings of a tutor conducting classes at home:

Personal experience in this field;
Education in this profile;
Place of residence (locality);
Number of classes held per week;
Guarantees provided by the tutor;
The uniqueness of the discipline.

"Inconvenient" questions

If a client, for some reason, has not paid for the lesson, there is no need to be afraid to tell him about it. You perform your services for him, and monetary compensation for this should be mandatory. You can ask the client how it is more convenient for him to pay for lessons: for each lesson separately or for 6-7 lessons.

How to achieve success

You probably already understood that tutoring as a business activity can bring good income to every tutor. But in order to be able to bring your plans to life, you need to constantly work on yourself. It is impossible to become a tutor if you do not improve your level of knowledge or are impatient with students' mistakes. If these qualities are inherent in you, then they will have to change. The most important thing in this matter is your personal desire to increase the client’s level of knowledge or give him new ones. The main thing for you is to become a great friend to your student. When doing your work, remember that there are no unsolvable cases!

You need to choose one area of activity as your main one and try to become an excellent professional in it. After you achieve success, you need to start learning new knowledge.
It is important to apply a special individual approach to each of your students.
You need to take your first lesson with a particular student with special responsibility. After the lesson, you should evaluate the level of his knowledge and determine goals and possible loads.
You need to make your lessons more interesting. If you force a student to simply cram his subject, you will not achieve the effect you need.
Try to give your training client the opportunity to express his personal opinion. In the same case, if it differs from your point of view, try to enter into a debate with the student.
Try to get your student to respect you. If you still fail to achieve this, it is better to refuse to conduct lessons with him.