I have clients this summer who are working with me to enhance their skills in a variety of areas. They are not attending summer school and have chosen to work with me instead. We meet twice a week for either 2 half hour sessions, or we do 2 one hour sessions. I don’t recommend more than 40 minutes for students that are in third grade or below. The simply cannot focus that long, and I want my students to be absorbing the information I am teaching them. My students who are in fourth grade and above do well with one hour sessions and we typically have plenty of time to take a deep dive into the things they are working on.
So, what does this look like? I send home a calendar reminder that we will be meeting the day prior to our meeting. I include important links that my student might need to have access to. They open our link by going to the calendar app on Google. I am on the other end of the link with the same links open. I make sure we both have the same things open and ready to go. We do a quick check in, and then we get started.
Each meeting looks different because each leaner is working on skills that they want support with. To illustrate what happens during the online meeting I will give you an example. If they are doing math, we will do some skill practice, and then work on some more challenging problems or skills-based problem-solving activity. Then we typically do some sort of work on a management system like khanacademy.org or splashlearn.com. Both of these math management systems have phenomenal content that can be used with students in math as well as reading. If parents are available at the end of the lesson, I will always do a quick chat with them and see if there is something that they would like me to focus on for the next meeting and I will take notes so I remember to include this the following week. If parents are not available, then I always send home an email update of our lessons. Then I end the meeting.
What does the student do in-between our meetings? Most parents like me to “assign” some work for their child to do outside of our meetings. If that is the case, then I create a private Google Classroom for them and I post weekly activities for them to do. Depending on the age of the child and what they are able to do independently, I will give things in khanacademy.org or splashlearn.com to complete, or I will send home links of things to complete. I post these things on their Google Classroom under their Classwork tab. Some of my students continue to work on projects that we started but they didn’t have time to complete.
I want to support the learning of each child and meet their needs and this seems to be the most effective and efficient way to do so.
If you are in need of summer tutoring for your child, feel free to reach out to me. I will set up a Google Meet and send you a personal link to a private online meeting. We can discuss the needs of your child. I will then do a free assessment of your child, on a date that will work for both of us. Then I will compile the information and send you a report of my findings. I will follow up with you and give you a plan of action for the child and if you are in agreement, we will move forward with private tutoring lessons.
I have had a lot of very happy families. They are very pleased with the results and the children are supported, encouraged, and challenged. I would love to help your child move forward through the summer months so they are ready to go next fall.
For more information about my tutoring services, go to midwesttutor.com. You can send a request via an email directly to me at sheryluehling@gmail.com.
Happy summer learning to all of you! Don’t let the summer slide hit your child and find they are behind at the beginning of the school year. We can work together to prevent that and start the school year ahead of the game!
Tutoring with Sheryl 