“Do the best possible attempt to help students in studies with any effort required…”
Tutoring came as a spark in Bala Mandir (BM) from a few Lakshya volunteers (Prasanna, Rajan, Rajasekar, Marwa, Satheesh, Gnanambigai to name a few) during the 2011-12 academic year. Despite lot of concerns from the management in terms of productivity and the impact it can create to the students, we were successful in conducting the tutoring sessions. From then on it has come a long way. Continuing the momentum, 2012-13 has been a steep learning curve for tutoring in BM. “Tutoring has been really good this year. Compared to last year, it was more organized and quite challenging” says Satheesh, who has been a key tutor at BM. There had been suggestions to start tutoring from 9th class itself to make the basics clear for the students and help them excel.
So, how to go about a tutoring session? You need to plan a lot of things like small fun activities or a math trick (especially when it is a Maths session) to make the students feel comfortable. The main thing for the tutor is to choose the subject you love to teach from basics and be comfortable with. The plan should have a long term goal to be covered at an appropriate time along with small short term goals. The planning phase should also include a backup plan.
The primary factor in charting the plan is Time & Time-table i.e. how am I going to manage my time to co-ordinate with that of the student. Another major factor is the student’s interest level and ability along with tutors’ attempt to make the subject more interesting without boring the student. Not always there is an interest to study for the students, that too with someone who has already been mentoring every week. “Do the best possible attempt to help students in studies with any effort required & reach out to someone when you require assistance or not sure of any situation or resolution.” says Prasanna who pioneered the tutoring team last year.
Another key aspect to look for is the current situation of the student. Due considerations need to be given when it comes to pressure, family problems, friendships and their biological issues. Before we start studying together, it is better the tutor spends time to get rid of unwanted things and make the student pick up his books. It happened successfully for one of the tenth standard student in BM, who had issues with memorizing and low scores. It is equally important for the tutor to be little flexible in making the student study. Make a time table to his/her convenience to study.
The important thing in tutoring is to understand the student’s potential and to learn along with them. You are 90% successful then. Teaching is just a topping for the rest 10%. That brings confidence and instills greatness in thoughts to the student. It also helps the tutor to set goals. Thus, it not only helps the students but also the tutors to groom in a personal level.
Last but not the least; don’t give any false promise or appreciation.
Ripples team would like to congratulate all the tutors who have put forth their time, commitment, dedication, energy and efforts in enriching the students’ knowledge and enable them progress in their academics.