Anticipating the excitement of new students and a new academic year

Now that the garlic is all braided and almost all sold, my attention turns in earnest to finding new students to tutor. And just in time as the academic year gears up.

It is a great joy to meet with the same student for a session each week. We look at what tasks they are developing for various classes and study strategies to help them complete those tasks successfully. There is nothing better than receiving a text from the student: “Ms. Deborah, I got 97% on my AP practice Multiple Choice (MC) exam!” I am as excited as the student. It is delightful to see their skills and confidence develop week by week, term by term, and course by course.

As the student is more independent of my help because they have integrated skills into their planning and drafting processes, I seek new strategies for the next assignments they will encounter in their courses. I let the student guide me to know what task or skills they need for upcoming assignments. We rely on teacher scoring rubrics, comments and in class instruction to be sure my instruction is in sync with what the student is receiving in class.