Set Your Child Up for Successful Online Tutoring
Online tutoring may seem much like a business meeting on Zoom or Skype. There is a world of difference! Some of the principles are the same, but some are specific to making online tutoring successful for your child.
How Online Tutoring and Business Meetings Compare
Flexibility
The most obvious similarity is the flexibility of conducting virtual tutoring sessions and business meetings online. Anywhere there is a stable internet connection, you are set to go!
Location
Another similarity is location. Whether your child is involved in a tutoring session or you are speaking to a client on a Zoom call, the location needs to have specific characteristics. Where you sit for the virtual meeting should be distraction-free, outside the common areas of the home.
Background noise such as TVs, music, other children, barking dogs, loud traffic or other distracting noises is, even more, an issue during tutoring sessions. While essentially just polite during a business session, the primary skill the student learns in Orton-Gillingham is enunciation. So, they must be able to hear their tutor clearly, and their tutor must be able to hear them.
Technology
The next similarity is the tech. Many attendees have discovered the joy of a wired, noise-canceling headset with an adjustable/movable microphone for business meetings. This is a requirement for tutoring sessions, just desirable for business meetings. Not acceptable equipment for tutoring sessions includes cell phones, white apple headsets, and the Dollarama headset, as they do not have a proper microphone.
Students may need to be reminded to pack their headsets, laptops or tablets when completing sessions virtually on summer vacations at the cottage, etc. The lack of proper equipment will hinder the tutoring approach and progress.
Attendees
A big difference is who is on the call. Whether your student attends in a learning pod or receives one-to-one virtual tutoring, they are a child. Adults tend to understand the need to speak up and speak clearly when on a virtual call. Children often speak softly and move around. This is where the headsets help so much!
Ultimately, remediation is not like a virtual school where students do more listening than talking. In Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Toronto, your child is taught enunciation for the duration of each class. Asking students to repeatedly repeat themselves for the entire 50-minute session is understandably frustrating.
For more information about how to successfully set your child up for online tutoring, call Class In Session today.