“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
That popular phrase is one you’ve probably heard before. Whether or not you believe it to be true, the truth of the matter is that it’s a quote that makes teaching seem incredibly easy when in reality, it isn’t.
Teaching and tutoring is not something that everybody can do. There are tons of challenges that a tutor has to overcome. It’s not something that just anybody can do which is why that quote can be incredibly misleading. In this article, we’ll go over the typical challenges a tutor may have to face in their career and what they can do to overcome them.
3 Challenges You’ll Face as a Tutor and How to Overcome Them
- Coming up with creative, individualized lesson plans
One of the most difficult things you’ll have to do as a tutor is create personalized lesson plans. Creating a lesson plan requires a lot of thinking. You have to factor in the goals you have for your student, what you want to achieve with these lesson plans, and how you can best teach them such lessons.
A lot of students will have different strengths and weaknesses. In order to properly use their strengths and build on their weaknesses, you have to be able to create a solid lesson plan. This is something that a lot of you tutors will struggle to do, especially during the beginning of your tutoring career. Don’t worry! It just takes a little practice.
How do you overcome this? There are tons of tools online that you can utilize to create your lesson plans. To read more about the best tools you can use, check out our other article.
Beyond these online tools, we suggest starting early and talking to the child or their parents to decipher their academic goals. Don’t procrastinate these lesson plans and don’t be afraid to ask the parents a question. The more you know about the child’s academic abilities, the better your lesson plan.
- Procrastination
Procrastination will get to you in all aspects of life, including tutoring. The thing is, to be able to properly tutor, you need to make sure you’re prepared. How can you prepare if you’re constantly pushing that to-do away and away?
We suggest utilizing a planner or a reward system. If you struggle to motivate yourself to actually start doing the work, set up a reward system. Maybe you’ll let yourself use your phone for 30 minutes after a few hours of work. Or, you’ll buy yourself that item you’ve been eyeing for a while. This will motivate you to stop procrastinating.
- Tiger moms
When it comes to tutoring, you will not only have to speak to the child. You must also speak to the parents and form a professional relationship with them. They will be a very large part of the process. This can be a big challenge for tutors, especially when the parents pressure the child.
Tiger moms and dads will want their child to have the perfect grades and might blame you if they fall short. Your anxiety levels will rise. You’ll feel a lot more pressure because such parents push the need for perfection.
To deal with such parents, remember that you were chosen for this job for a reason. While they may seem to pressure, you have a specific skillset designed to help their child learn better. Maintain good communication between you, the child, and the parent. Let them know of their child’s progress, how they may help at home, and what you plan on teaching them later on. This will help the parents feel more involved in the learning process.
The Takeaway
Now that you know a little bit more about common challenges and how to overcome them, during your journey as a tutor, you have a little bit more knowledge on what to do should you have to face these challenges too.
We’re sure you’ll do great as a tutor! Nobody’s experience in anything is always going to be smooth sailing so having these challenges will be very common. Besides, it will teach you things that will help you grow as a person. Goodluck!
By Moira Du
