Tips on private tutoring?

[joossa]

I am looking into offering some private tutoring (math) to the local high school students in my area during the summer. I am planning to print out some ad pamphlets and to go to the schools and hope that they’ll let me distribute to the math teachers when summer school begins for them. Do you guys have any general tips?

I will only meet in the local libraries. I am charging $10 per session (about an hour long). I also plan to have the student and parent (if the student is under 18) to sign a contract; agreeing to the price per session and agreeing to the fact that I do not guarantee any type of improvements grade-wise because of the possibilities of outside interferences toward the student. Does this sound okay or is it too menacing? Would you go about it in a different way?

Thanks for your help/opinions.

 

[seedjar]

That sounds pretty standard to me. If you go around to the local schools and ask a guidance counselor or someone in the academic office, I bet they can give you the run-down on how tutors usually operate.
~Joe

 

[jiana54]

the contract is a good idea. you know how people are nowadays. if they cant do something, they blame someone else.

 

[xvart]

Sounds good to me. I would offer a list of what makes you an "expert" in whatever areas of math you have completed. Like a list of completed courses such as calculus, algebra, etc. just to show how good you are at math.

xvart.

 

[herenorthere]

I don't know anything about tutoring, but I've seen posts for tutors on bulletin boards in libraries. I've seen "community" boards other places too, like grocery stores, where people post all kinds of things.

 

[Est]

Only thing is that most kids wont be taking math over the summer; this sort of arrangement is generally more common during the regular school year. However, I'm sure you can find some students taking math remedially or to get ahead (pray for the latter ).

Going through the school councilors would be a good idea unless there is already a tutoring "institution" of sorts which you could join. During my latter highschool years they asked if there were any math students interested in tutoring math students in the previous classes, so they may even have some system set up that you can get in to.

 

[joossa]

I moved a little over a year ago to where I currently reside. The school districts where I currently live are not the best academically… A large percentage of the high schools have LOTS seniors that are barely talking first year algebra! In my hometown (before I moved), you were expected to have taken that in middle school or at the very least during your freshman year of high school. Thank goodness I was already out of high school when we moved!

Most of the students are forced to take (remedial) math during the summer in order to leave the possibility of graduating on time open to them. So I believe I will get a decent amount of students that are interested.

I will talk to the councilors and see if they have a system set up. Hopefully everything will go alright.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Tropics]

It's great that you're going to provide this learning opportunity for high school students that need it. However, you might want to check on whether the library may be used for commercial purposes just to make sure in advance that it's okay.