What Does a Tutor Do?

Here's what happens to essay writing when super-duper-everyone-is-special-and-don't-hurt-any-student's-feelings takes over the classroom. Tutors, please fix! Image courtesy of Tutor Memes.

 

Well, if you're like a good friend of mine (who shall remain unnamed), then you spend half of your day sleeping, several hours cognizant enough to berate his adolescent tutoring students for their disinterest in the fine arts offered at their expensive prep school, and the remaining hours writing literature that will one day end up on the library shelves of such an institution.  As for the logistics of how you choose to spend your day, well that's entirely up to you, Dear Tutor.  Here's a general idea of what you should be doing while tutoring:

• Help students navigate their coursework from the week to figure out what homework they have to complete.
• Help students prioritize homework and projects into urgent and important lists.
• Help students to figure out how to complete said homework--don't complete the work for them, as that kind of work represents an entirely different (though lucrative) part of the education industry.
• Teach students study skills.
• Help students with organizational and time management skills.  This service is often referred to academic coaching.
• When fortunate enough to receive the opportunity, tutors provide enrichment lessons, working with students purely for the purpose of enlightening their young minds; the focus is on education for the sake of knowledge, and not for the sake of test scores and grades.  (Cue: Visual of yourself as Socrates lambasting Plato--"The unexamined life is not worth living!")  Seriously, though, enrichment tutoring offers tutors the opportunity to truly plan individualized lessons and discuss complex ideas one-on-one with students; it's fun, I promise.
• Provide students with the constructive feedback they actually need in order to help them succeed.  Case-in-point: See the essay edits!