Environment and Location for Good Tuition
This is one of the first questions you should debate when starting private tutoring. Where is the tuition to take place? Depending on your location and your means of transport, the solution can be obvious or tricky. This being said, there are three main options you can chose from: teaching at your home, your student's home or a neutral place.
In Your Own Home
Deciding to teach from your house can have many advantages for you. To start with, this will save you time, money and energy, therefore allowing you to book more students.
It is essential to create a professional atmosphere. Ideally, you should have a room in your home dedicated to receiving students. The best set up for this study area is a room accessible from a hall, so as to avoid having to go through a personal room in order to access it. This would allow a clearer separation between home and office.
Make sure the study room is clear, clean and tidy, with space for two chairs, and a desk large enough for two people to sit asides comfortably. Keep the decoration as neutral as possible, with highly functional furniture (book shelves, etc.) and sufficient lightening.
It is also essential for the study room to be a distraction-free zone. Double glazing will keep street noises out, while light curtains will bring in the light but prevent your students from glancing by the window. Make sure your family does not interrupt your lessons: it is very important to create a strict separation between your work and family time.
You will be able to judge your success at creating a comfortable yet neutral study area from your first lessons and be able to make any necessary adjustments over time. Over all, try not to change the room set up too drastically as a familiar place helps setting up a routine and encourage concentration.
In The Pupils Home
Most parents will be keen on the tuition taking place under their roof, especially in the case of younger children. This is easily comprehensible as they may not know the tutor and want their children to feel safe and comforted by a familiar environment. This is also advantageous for them in terms of time, money and energy.
This setting presents pros and cons for tutors.
The main issue for tutors is transport: this can be a real problem in the absence of a car or of other reliable/easy means of transport. This must be discussed with the client in order to reach a satisfying compromise for everyone. However, you must keep in mind that the student is paying for a service. It is therefore advisable for the tutor to be as flexible as possible. Try to be punctual: check the route to your students' home in order to arrive on time.
One of the potential advantages of this system for tutors is the ability to keep their home to themselves and make an easier distinction between their working day and private life.
Before your very first lesson, make sure you are provided with a clean and tidy area in which you and the student can work together. This is your client's responsibility and should be made clear prior to starting tuition. This area should be free of interruption as the success of your tutoring depends on this (no family members, television switched off, phone in another room, etc.) so make sure this is the case, before any tutoring commences.
Working In a Neutral Setting: a private room rented from a third party
You can rent a room for the hour from many reliable third party resources; a good place to start would be your local library. Alternatively, ask your local council for other options. This not only provides a quiet distraction-free room, but may have many resources for your study subject at hand. We suggest contacting your local library, and asking if they have any rooms available for private one to one tuition.
Wherever you teach, make sure that your lessons do not overrun by more than a few minutes of your student's allocated time. Parents in particular will quite naturally want to get some feedback or discuss their children results with you. Ideally, this should be done within their imparted time. Should they need a more in-depth discussion, tactfully suggest they book some extra time, so as to allow a professional assessment of their concerns. In the long run, it is wiser to keep a financial count of your time.
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