10 Tutoring Apps for Reading

In tutoring, assigning reading material is a great way for students to expand their learning when they have free time. In that way, you strengthen the various perspectives of students and enhance their memory retention, vocabulary, and stock knowledge in the process. In this digital age, reading has taken another new wave of mediums that students are very much comfortable with. For instance, your student may have an iPad and he or she can download some of these ten recommended reading apps for his or her perusal. Of course, as a tutor, you should integrate with the latest trends, and this is one great venue to do so.

Zite - Your student can catch up with the latest news updates through his or her iPad. This is very useful for building stock knowledge and even letting your students search through the various reading options available by this app.

Flipboard - For that sleek, magazine-style reading sensation, your students can enjoy this app, for free. You can select various websites to gather news and then check the updates during your free time. This will help your students learn about the latest trends in whatever topic they wish.

Google Currents - Similar to your Google Reader, this reading app allows you to save content for reading offline. You can also embrace the easy-to-use interface for your reading convenience. It comes free so try it out.

iBooks  - You can easily download PDFs and other books from the store, especially text book material. This will definitely help your students out whenever they want to check against a reference without the bulk of carrying the book around all the time.

Science 360  - For students to build up their scientific knowledge, you can introduce this to them. This app continues vivid images of various scientific concepts to give your students a better understanding of the material.

Press Reader - Your automatic connection to the major newspapers, this app will give you the insights on what really matters. Let your students increase their awareness by immersing them into journalism.

Amazon Kindle - The Amazon store has a wide collection of books for your students to enjoy. Downloading this app opens them up to the various classical pieces and contemporary works of great authors.

PocketPhonics - For effective reading based on pronunciation, you can help students who have a hard time through this app. Various recorded sounds are available for your students to learn how they ought to be pronounced. There is a lite version available.

Reading for Kids - This app gives your student that push toward reading material that he or she wouldn't. There are creative ways that you can teach your student to read, and here are a 100 ways to do that.

Zinio - Zinio is your go-to app when you want that sleek, magazine style for your documents. Play around with this fun design available to ensure a dynamic appeal to your reading experience.

These apps are definitely tailored to providing your students with the right reading experience that they deserve. So recommend these and you will notice positive results.

Why Values are Important in Tutoring?

Tutoring is a career that is sensitive when it comes to values and principles. You won't be plainly teaching your students material for their enrichment, but you will be imparting values as well, and these things do not come lightly. You are going to be a mentor to a lot of kids, so make sure you understand that you have as much responsibility as a tutor because you are a moral compass, not to convert people, but to guide them the right way. As a result, values shouldn't be taken as something as trivial, but should be inculcated in the best way possible. Here are some pointers for you to reflect on.

Values are usually Engraved

The thing about values is that they are engraved in the minds of your students. Especially if you have the influence to redirect students' thoughts, you should remember that these values will be taken note of and even wholly embraced by your students. Always remember that they are there to learn, and whatever you introduce to them, they will listen. Focus on providing values of good study habits and effective learning to help them defeat their weaknesses. Most students need that extra push so exert extra effort to provide them with the necessary actions you want of them. Values help shape students, so be wary that they can be engraved and not forgotten, so choose what values to impart.

Values will be Practiced

Students you tutor have their priorities misplaced. When you provide them values, they will definitely practice them. So, ensure that these values are positive and developmental. If you inculcate the need to interact with their peers, your students will eventually catch on and implement this in their everyday lives. Putting values to practice is basically every tutor's dream, especially when they see their students being responsible in managing their time and school work. This makes values very much important for any tutor, because, as mentors, you will be giving them that insight and growth that they deserve.

Values make responsible Citizens

Most of all, values teach students proper ethics and conduct. If you report to the tutorial early and provide them with adequate information and interaction, your students will be more responsible when they, too, work later on. They will learn that punctuality matters and proper etiquette is necessary. These simple gestures will already shape how students view their tutors, so make sure you optimize your time and provide the necessary values to help your students, not only during their academic lives, but also for their work lives later on.

Values are very important in tutoring because they provide them with the necessary background and assets in handling situations more responsibly. Basically, it provides them with ethics that is necessary to enhance their conduct as citizens. Educate and inculcate these values to ensure that your students grow and learn about important life lessons, one step at a time. After all, as a tutor, you are more than just a person who shares knowledge, you’re a person who shares a piece of your soul to your students so make it count—help others with their own academic journey and dreams.

The Nuts and Bolts of Crafting a Welcome Letter to Clients

When a client avails of your service, you should give them a welcoming letter so that they can understand how you work. After all, your clients deserve to know your "classroom" rules and how to handle different aspects of your tutoring services. This can be done effectively if you know how to write an effective welcome letter. Always consider that your clients want to know more about your work process, so if you're wondering how to write that welcome letter, here are important points you should always consider in writing it.

Explain Your Tutoring Service

First things first, explain how your tutoring service works. Include the mission or objectives so that your client will know where you're coming from. Also, this gives your client a clear idea on how you handle your business. Having your client aware of the different parts of your business is important to ensure that the both of you maintain a strong working relationship. He or she would know what to expect from you and as a result, the both of you can work together with little misunderstanding.

Focus on the Specific Subject Matter

Elaborate on the subject matter your client has signed up for. Attach a syllabus or something so that your client knows what to expect during the tutorial service. Overall, provide him or her with a projection of how you're going to handle the topic so that your client can definitely know what to expect from your tutorial service.

It is important to explain the different aspects of the topic for your client so that your client can learn as you explain, with a background of the information in mind. Through this, you will find out that your client is more prepared, enhancing the tutorial interaction at hand.

Provide Agreement Notices

Where do you plan to have the tutorial? What is the specific schedule? These things will remind your client about your appointments. Moreover, it gives them a clear idea that you are serious in having them as clients for your tutoring service. This will establish the business relationship even more effectively, enhancing how the both of you deal with each other.

Agreement notices are effective reminders of commitment and development. This gives both the tutor and the tutoring client a sort of contractual agreement that they will uphold the given conditions drawn by contracts.

Request Suggestions

As a gesture of openness and as a testimony of your willingness to adapt to clients, it is important that you solicit suggestions so that your working relationship can improve over time. As a tutor, you will expect that clients may not accept how you handle things, so be open to whatever changes they want. The bottom line is to maintain a strong line of communication so that things work out the best way possible.

The welcome letter is your first impression toward a strong business relationship. Make it work and make sure it is written properly so that you effectively start out right and progress as smoothly as possible.

 

Setting a Holiday Schedule for Your Tutoring Clients

Tutoring usually happens during school days, especially after classes. Other times, during weekends. But, one of the best times to handle tutorials would be during the holidays. Specifically, summer or even Christmas break. But, these are times when students usually prefer to relax from school work and just spend the time enjoying. But, if you can tutor over the holidays, that's a definite plus for your income and for the students. The hardest part is getting them interested in the whole scheduling thing, especially since you'll be taking their holiday away from them. But, here are ways you can motivate students to engage in your tutoring service even during the holidays.

Market Your Service as an Important Development Scheme

What you should engage on is marketing your service as a development scheme. Make students want to engage in your tutoring services so that they can supplement their knowledge during the holidays. It is clear that students would prefer relaxation over additional learning; however, if you provide them with the right incentive to learn over the holidays, you will find out that you can enhance the business projection of your tutoring service.

It helps to market your service properly by motivating students to expand their knowledge over an interesting topic. For instance, don't market your tutoring service for a simple Biology lecture. Market it as an additional discussion on let's say, stem cell and its development in society. Not only does this make Biology sound even more interesting, but it provides students with that uniqueness, making the subject sound a whole lot more interesting.

Focus on giving Advanced Lessons

You can also provide a schedule for tutoring during the holidays by providing advanced lessons. Students can learn a lot about next semester's topics with a few refresher courses over the holidays. This can help students prepare for the subjects to come and to enhance their learning curve so that they can perform a whole lot better next time around. Focus on providing parents with the opportunity that their children can enhance their knowledge for future subjects. The good thing about advanced lessons is that these provide students with the opportunity to learn something new while taking rest. They aren't pressured, and they retain most of the information at hand. Through this, students can gain better perspectives in the various lessons they learn.

Provide Promotions

The best way to schedule in tutor clients in the holidays is to offer your services at a lower price. This way, students would choose to engage in your tutoring services more readily because of the cheaper rate. Providing more services for lower prices can help your business flourish because you encourage students to pay for your service at better rates.

Getting tutoring gigs during holidays can be tough, especially since students prefer to relax. However, if you tap into the right measures for gaining business, you can earn a little extra by providing tutorial services to students who desire it. It's how you market your business that will determine how many students will enroll in your holiday “specials”.

 

What have you used as promotions or scheduling that has helped or hindered your tutoring services? 

How School Districts View Tutoring?

Tutoring has always been a supplementary to many students who need that extra help outside of regular class hours to catch up with academic material or even learn something new so that they won't have to worry about new lessons coming up. School districts have different perceptions regarding tutoring services, especially in the merits they provide and the problems that may arise due to some bad eggs.

Some tutoring providers are known to abuse their clients by conducting fraudulent services. In fact, the money that has been cheated out of the clients can amount to over $500,000 in a district. As such, the tutoring industry has been marked by local districts as one that is prone to abuse. Hence, tutoring hasn't been necessarily that completely beneficial for these students, especially in extravagant charges that may arise.

The actions taken by school districts involve moderating the various tutoring providers in affected districts, limiting the area of contact that tutors may require in expanding their services. Because of the fraudulence by other providers, tutors in general suffer from the problems that others have given to school districts. Because of this, it is important to take measures that will ensure that tutors are not viewed as people who extort money, but those that help students through honest service.

In fact, tutoring has become vital in many school districts because it provides students with a more integrated approach to learning, something that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom setting. Tutoring offers intimate communication, which is necessary for enhanced learning. Tutoring basically works, because it provides students with more insight and an increased body of knowledge needed for them to perform better in class and even real life instances.

Moreover, the need for tutoring has increased because students need more attention rather than the standard methods taught in schools. Students require something fresh to ensure that such learning is retained. Through the varied approach by tutors, students learn a lot and perform better because of innovative ways to ensure the information they understand is effectively put to practice. That way, students develop an even more integrated approach to learning that tutoring services specialize in providing.

As a result, so that tutoring service can provide their services to the district-in-concern, schools have sought out measures to safeguard the district. This involves the creation of tutoring programs of their own where tutors can integrate in, especially as these programs would be with trusted partners or allies in the industry. Honestly, who could blame them? Tutoring suppose to be about helping others and a quality program takes at least 20 sessions to see progress, if not sooner. This really depends on the learner’s needs.

Overall, the projection of school districts and tutoring may be on shaky ground for a while because of the fraudulence involved, but the scenario looks bright. With this in mind, it is important to consider the different concerns that are involved in the development process. This will help shape effective tutoring that will not only enhance the industry, but strengthen relations among schools. Without them, some tutors wouldn’t have students to teach, so it is important to maintain such effective connections and keep the focus on the learner. A quality program will definitely bring in more clients or even referrals. It doesn’t get any better than that!

With this said, as a tutor, what would you suggest to improve school district relations? Let’s be proactive and focus on what tutoring providers can do to correct this situation.

When to Let Go of a Tutoring Company

Letting go of a tutoring company is never easy. You've developed relationships and even committed yourself to various students, but you should learn when to end things and move on. After all, tutoring is a career that is always growing, so you never know when you'll find better opportunities out there to develop your tutoring skills even better and providing you with benefits that will enhance your career. If you're wondering whether you should let go of the company you're working with, here are instances where you should, and look for greener pastures elsewhere.

Work Overpowers Compensation

Whenever you feel that you're given too much work and the pay isn't enough for you, then either your standards have increased or, worse, you aren't getting paid enough. It's a fact that you can never be satisfied by certain rates when you hit the mark of being a seasoned tutor. It isn't that you thirst for more income, it's just plainly your services have become more expensive. You deserve that so if you feel the company isn't providing you with the right compensation you're looking for, then it's probably time for you to scout out better opportunities. Always realize that no two companies offer the same rate for tutoring services, and that tutoring always grows, so there's definitely another company that would meet your standards and skillset.

Short-lived interests

The issue could be a personal decision on your part where your interests have shifted to other modes of tutoring. If you continue working with the company when your interests have changed, you may find out that carrying out your tutorials can be quite challenging. Moreover, you may face greater difficulty in making the subject matter interesting if you've lost interest in it in the first place. Although it is important for tutors to maintain professionalism in everything that tutors do, but you should realize that passion is vital in order to ensure that tutorials are carried out without exerting much effort. When you feel that you've suddenly lost interest, take the initiative and let go of the company so that you can find one that fits your interest the most and ensure that you optimize your skills in the process.

When You Feel Your Integrity as a Tutor is Compromised

Sometimes, companies may fail to provide you with what you deserve due to internal issues or other problems that arise. You may be constricted in what you do as a tutor because of this. For instance, a tutoring company may tell you what materials you are allowed to use, and this is valid for copyright issues. However, this may impede how maximized you can utilize the various references for conducting your lesson. Moreover, if you feel that a company has been treating you worse than others, you may reconsider continued service in that company and look for others that you deserve.

Tutoring companies are great to stabilize your career with, but make sure you get the right compensation and treatment that you, as a tutor, deserve. So if you think that the company doesn't fit in with your personal goals, then it's time to let them go. After all, you could definitely find another one or even start your own.

 

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt your integrity was compromised?  What did you do?

Message from Alise: Part-Time Online Opportunity with ETS

Happy Monday!

I just got an email from one of my contacts at ETS. If you are qualified and interested, please apply for this position. If not, check out the rest of the jobs that may be of an interest to you.

It's a great way to supplement your tutoring income as well.

As always, Happy Tutoring!

Alise

________________________________________________________________________________

Hello:

My name is Marni Smith and I am a recruiter for ETS (Educational Testing Service) and would like to share an opportunity specifically targeted to Bilingual teachers residing in Texas. At the present time, we are looking for educators who are currently certified to teach Bilingual Spanish in the state of Texas to participate in the scoring of theTExES Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) assessment.

Scoring for this assessment is conducted online via your secure, private home or office location. The scoring sessions are ongoing throughout the year. It is possible to score in the evening and on the weekends to suit your schedule. If you know of anyone who may be interested in this opportunity, please pass along the below information. If there are any questions, please contact me.

Program Requirements:

Applicants must have certification/licensure to teach Bilingual Spanish and at least three years of recent or current experience teaching Bilingual Spanish in the state of Texas; candidates teaching higher-education courses in an accredited educational leadership program for Bilingual teachers will also be considered.

To Apply:

If you know someone who meets these qualifications please apply by cutting and pasting the link below:

http://etscrs.submit4jobs.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=85332.viewjobdetail&CID=85332&JID=300052&BUID=1865&notes_id=1

*** Please be sure to attach a copy of your Texas Educator certification/licensure.

Educational Testing Service (ETS) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance quality and equity in education by providing fair and valid assessments as well as research and related services. Our products and services measure knowledge and skills, promote learning and educational performance, and support education and professional development for all people worldwide.

Thank you,

Marni

10 Qualities on What to Look for in an Accountant

Your tutoring business won't grow properly if you don't have your finances in check. Realize that without having your finances properly audited by an accountant, you may not budget your income properly and handle various taxes, especially if you don't have any idea on financial management. Also, you most likely would want to focus on your tutoring business, which involves promotion and development. Financial management can take most of your time, so delegating it to an accountant can save you a whole lot of time and trouble. Before you do, though, here are 10 things you should look out for when hiring an accountant.

Strong Communication Skills

An accountant must have strong communication skills to transact among clients and other colleagues regarding any financial matter in your tutoring business. This will allow payment to go through smoothly and without failure through such dedicated connection.

Effective Initiative

Initiative can make or break the functioning of your tutoring business because of the wits and money-smarts your accountant would have when he or she takes the initiative. It is important that you gage an accountant by the willingness to kick-off ideas without you telling him or her.

Established Integrity

Professionalism and ethics are vital in your tutor business. Financial management involves the upholding of these two values high enough to ensure that the process occurs smoothly. An accountant with integrity can understand what necessary action must be taken without batting an eyelash.

Developmental Leadership

Having an accountant with leadership is vital to strengthening your business establishment. In this way, your accountant wouldn't be hesitant in dealing with sums of money and in finding solutions to any issues that may arise. It is taking charge that matters here.

Likability

Of course, you must mesh well with your accountant. You can't hire someone who is abrasive or aloof, so make sure your accountant must be willing to talk anything business-related with you without a negative attitude.

Risk Taker

Money is risky matter in its own right, and having an accountant willing to take risks can ease up the financial burdens in the future. This can also enhance the development of your company focus with the various risk management routines you'd engage in.

Reliability

This comes without a doubt that a reliable accountant is your go-to person at all times regarding money matters. Obviously, you should trust your accountant and he or she should give justice to his or her duties.

Ambition

Accountants who have ambition grow a lot in a given industry. This can spice up your financial patterns because of the zeal your accountant would go for.

Competitiveness

Accountants who are competitive show that they are willing to improve. This is vital in expanding your business perspective because of the idealism and market-ready attitude your accountant would exhibit.

Knowledge

Lastly, your accountant must know how to find proper financial trends and provide solutions to any problems that arise. Stock knowledge and developmental knowledge help out in this scenario, enhancing your business development at hand.

Accountants help you run your tutor business effectively, so make sure you find the right one for your company and you'll realize the profits and the relief in doing so. Just keep these 10 tips in mind.

Three Reasons Why You Should Update Your Website

Having a website is great to enhance your tutoring service market value and to enhance the potential for having new customers drive into your business. When you think about expanding your business, you think of enhancing the reachability in the process. This is fueled by developing your website not only to industry standard, but to the qualifications that will make customers want to hire you or your company for the tutorial services. Why do you need to update your website, though? Here's a look into the reasons why you should definitely go the extra mile for your tutorial service.

Meets Market Demand

First thing you should realize is that when you update your website, you are paving the way for effective market development, which is necessary in expanding your own consumer base. By spicing up your layout or perhaps venturing into social media extensions for your website, you expand the connection pathways people can use to connect with your tutoring service. This is definitely a huge plus for online tutors who live and breathe on the Internet. When you meet market demand, you ensure that the people who matter get informed, and with updating your website accordingly, you enhance the chances of improving your business perspective.

Provides Income Opportunities

Improving your website allows you to include new services that would interest students. These can be promotions or other innovative approaches that can develop students. Website innovation involves the structuring and analysis of different approaches to enhance your market. This differs from market demand because it focuses on enhancing your inflow of opportunities. This will give you that head start into helping people out. When you expand your services, you not only expand your sources of income, but you also help more people out, which is a win-win situation in tutoring.

Enhances Your Tutor Reputation

The most critical development potential that updating your website provides you with is that it enhances your reputation as a tutor. Through the new appeal connected with your design, you gain this enhanced professionalism that will give your business the edge it deserves. For this, you can enhance it by including your resume, information, and latest services rendered or training seminars you've attended. You will find out that more people are willing to request your services because of the professional flair you have going.

Enhancing your website is important in maintaining integrity as a tutor and developing your services through the extensive medium that is the Internet. Don't hesitate to play around with style and spice up your website for your clients, because you definitely deserve that edge over others. What's important is that you meet market demand, provide income opportunities, and enhance your tutor reputation in order to develop your expertise as a tutor. Always make sure that you’ve got your tutor services in the right place to ensure that you can enhance your tutoring skill and even reputation to serve your clients better.  The bottom line is to enhance your tutoring services through your website and through this, you should embed the three important reasons to make sure your website stays up-to-date.