It’s a safe bet to say that tutors prefer their students to be well-prepared, both mentally and with the necessary supplies. After all, all the material things that they use to learn with are what they’ll also need to use to revise. These are most likely the things that you’ll call on them to use during your learning session together:

  • writing implements: pens, pencils - graphite and coloured, felt-tips and highlighters
  • paper: notebooks, loose-leaf, cue cards, sticky notes
  • learning resources: textbooks, workbooks, class notes and handouts
  • a curriculum overview/syllabus - so you'll get a rough idea of what you should prepare your students for
  • questions: your students should have a list of questions ready for you to answer about the subject material
  • a good attitude; openness to learning and willingness to work

Unsurprisingly, these are the same things you should bring to every learning session.

You shouldn’t just turn up with no preparation and nothing in hand. At the very least, showing your students that you're organized and well-prepared shows them that you take their academic concerns seriously. By proving your investment into each learning session in this manner, you’ll keep your student engaged and invested as well.

Let's take a closer look at the things you should take with you to help your tutoring sessions go smoothly.

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Tutoring Supplies: The Basics

Unless you tutor through a peer-tutoring scheme at your school, it behoves you to come to your sessions equipped with a few hallmarks of the educational trade. Even if you're a peer tutor, you should have at least these few things on hand.

You should always have writing tools and paper at your lessons.
At the very least, you should bring something to write with and to write on to your tutoring sessions. Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

Writing Implements

Practically every type of lesson, even fashion design and music, will require you to write. Therefore, you need something to write with. Just imagine the loss of face when, come time to correct a paper, you have to ask your pupil for something to write with!

That being said, your writing implements should suit the lesson.

If, indeed, you're tutoring in fashion design, be sure to have a stock of coloured pencils so you can better illustrate the details of accenting the design. Conversely, if you're coaching a student on the finer points of essay writing, maybe for their IELTS or A-Levels exam, a fountain pen is indispensable.

Some highlighters and markers: when it comes to making revision notes and the like, you really need to… erm, highlight the key points that your students need to know.  Key facts, methods and points in the margin all need to catch the eye, so making judicious use of a highlighter will help them recognise the key takeaways listed on the page.

Just be careful with them – you don’t want so many things to be highlighted or the point of them is lost.

You should always have enough on hand to share, too. It would be nice if every student were as dedicated to lesson preparation as you are but there's a good chance that they'll forget their learning tools, at least occasionally. Don't let them borrow unstintingly, though. That sets a bad example and is contrary to your duty as their academic coach.

Paper

Whether you need to demonstrate how to solve a linear equation or show your ESOL students how to write complex sentence structures, you have to have something to write on.

If you conduct lessons in your office, you might use a dry-erase board but, in all other cases, keeping a stash of scrap paper with you at all times is the right idea. As with your writing implements, your stock of paper should match the lesson: graphing paper for maths, writing paper for essays and so on.

Sticky notes: as your student will likely bring their textbook with them, it’s rather useful to be able to make notes on the page without having to write in the book itself – schools might not be so keen on that.  A little note here and there will help your students add a little point or clarification to the printed material.

Flashcards: Come revision time, making flashcards is the generally accepted practice. Leaving off, for now, the electronic version, paper cards are interesting to make and truly helpful for revision. Indeed, making flashcards with your students will jump-start their revision. Even if they aren’t close to sitting exams, recording key facts throughout the semester will help them get the basics down and keep them reinforced as you go along.

You should keep a notebook for your own usage.

Taking a notebook with you to mark down what you get up to with each student is really the key thing; it will give you a record of each student, all in one place.  Some tutors like to keep a separate notebook for each student. Not only does it help them stay up to date on each student's particulars but, over time, it reflects the progress the students made.

What about keeping records on a laptop or tablet?

Introducing technology into your lessons is one of the 8 ways to become a better tutor. However, personal usage, even to record students' progress, is discouraged.

We'll talk more about technology in your lessons later in this article.

You could conduct lessons with the bare minimum of supplies; those detailed above. However, what works best, according to students, is having a full range of educational materials to keep lessons fresh, lively, engaging and diverse.

Here are a few you should consider.

Hand your students worksheets to go over with you
Keep a stock of worksheets for your student to go over with you. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Extra Work

If your student is preparing for their school leaving exam, college entrance exam or any other significant ordeal, downloading and printing out past papers and marking schemes is advisable. You could go over them together and/or assign your student a portion of one to go over. If you're not in a region that provides those indispensable study tools, look for practice exams, preferably those that come with answer sheets.

Note that you can go over them at any time during the school year, not just ahead of exams. Incorporating this work into your sessions helps your students understand what will be expected of them, come exam time.

If the students you tutor are far too young to have such exams on their horizons or, conversely, if they're past that stage and already at university, stock your files with level-appropriate worksheets. The more your students flex their intellect on the subjects you teach, the better they will grasp that knowledge and the faster they will be able to demonstrate their capabilities.

You can find many sites online that offer everything from simple arithmetic worksheets to activities that will help your students develop their critical thinking skills.

Besides printing out worksheets and review materials, you should also give them work to complete on their own, outside of your time together. Assigning your students extra work sounds counterintuitive; after all, they/their parents hired you to help them make sense of all the work they already have to do.

There's a good chance your students won't love you too much for this one but setting your own work will go far in finding out what your students are capable of and where they need  the most focus.  Also, it spares you from having to rely on the questions and exercises that feature heavily in textbooks, some of which are admittedly limited in scope.

And, again: it shows your students the extent of the preparations you make on their behalf.

Learning Maps and Mind Maps

These maps are two of the most versatile and practical study tools in your kit.

Students often suffer from disorganisation. Not that their desks and study spaces are necessarily messy; it's all the information in their head that could stand a bit of structure. Laying out information sequentially and visually will help them keep their knowledge stores in line, particularly if your students are preparing for exams.

In that scenario, the mind map is the one to draw as it shows the connections between various pieces of the subject/topic at hand and points to the conclusions that could be drawn.

Conversely, if you're at the start of your mentoring relationship, drawing learning maps will make for the most productive, progressive study sessions. Learning maps start with outlining the desired conclusions of the topic at hand and work their way backwards the more you advance through the lesson.

You may choose mind mapping or learning map software for this task but it would be more helpful for you and your student to create your maps by hand.  

Other Learning Tools

You could hardly teach geometry without a protractor, square or compass; nor could you tutor in higher maths without a graphing calculator. If those are the lessons of the day, be sure to keep those tools in your teaching kit.

Likewise, if you tutor in art, lugging around a paint kit and a set of brushes is essential. If you teach music - particularly how to play an instrument, bringing one of your own to class is a great idea. As feasible, of course, Lugging a piano around could be a bit rough. For reading comprehension, level-appropriate books, for photography, a couple of camera bodies and your kit, for fitness training, you'll need at least clothing if not activity-appropriate gear - a yoga mat or resistance bands, for example.

In short, whatever subject you tutor in, from cooking to academics, have as much kit as possible at the ready.

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Tutoring Supplies to Stay Organized

As an independent tutor and in your role as a mentor, organization is your key to success. You could hardly run an efficient tutoring business running from client to client with no preparation, no schedule and no direction to take the lessons in.

Also, neither your students nor their caregivers will appreciate the lack of focus and professionalism. Indeed, calm, steady competence is another of the things that students say works best for them.

A Calendar/Planner

If you have a long-term plan for a particular student, this utility is absolutely vital. You’ll be able to work out when you’ll next meet and where, what you want to discuss in each session and what you want them to do in the meantime. Should you decide to assign them extra work, for example, you can record it in your planner. All of this will help you keep to your decided path as you go along.

Also, if your student gave you something to review, making a note in your planner is the sure way to remember to bring it back for your next session together.  Not only will they be happy you took the time to look at their efforts, but they will be impressed that they got their work back so quickly.

Side note: as a bonus, be sure to highlight the interesting bits of their work when you review it. Who hasn't gotten a teacher critique that contained valuable information? Every little bit helps.

It's a great idea to keep a notebook of learning tips and tricks
Keeping a notebook of learning shortcuts and teaching tips to share with your students as needed is an excellent idea. Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash

Your Notes and Ideas

For a student, there is nothing like looking over the ideas and theories of their tutor, a mentor intimately familiar with the education system but not constrained by it. Their teachers may have to teach to the test but you're free to express ideas outside of the relatively narrow band of knowledge the school instils.

Another reason why your ideas and notes are so valuable to your students: you're free to think outside the box. Unlike classroom teachers who must function within a hierarchy, as an independent tutor, how you arrive at your conclusions is entirely up to you.

One student who was struggling through certain parts of A-Level maths was astounded when,  upon their next session, she found that her tutor had devised useful insights into a given method of reasoning and calculation. You should do the same. If there’s something you and your student aren’t sure about during a session, take it home and give it a bash. Your effort won’t go unnoticed.

A Copy of Their Syllabus

You should get a copy of every student's syllabus during your initial meeting. It will guide your efforts and help you plan your lessons as your work together progresses. You might even refer to it to help your students prepare for upcoming lessons in school so that they're not overwhelmed by all the new information they'll get in class.

If there is no such document available - maybe the student in question is still in primary school, you might check their school's website for an overview of what will be covered during the term.

Ten Things: Summary

To appear and be competent and professional as you build your tutoring business, these are the 10 items you should have with you for every lesson:

  • writing instruments
  • writing stock - paper, cue cards, sticky notes and the like
  • tools for specific subjects: maths tools, art supplies, fitness accessories and so on
  • a notebook for personal use to record session/student information
  • a planner to schedule and plan your lessons
  • extra study materials, such as exam past papers and marking schemes or exam prep materials
  • worksheets and other activities to do during lessons
  • supplies to create learning maps and/or mind maps
  • each student's syllabus or, missing that, your own lesson plan outline for each one
  • a laptop, tablet or other connected device

As you look for tutoring jobs, take the time to build up as much of these resources and materials as you can. That way, you can hit the ground running with your very first student.

Get better outcomes of your tutoring sessions by using tech selectively
Using tech selectively during your lessons yields more student engagement and better tutoring outcomes. Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

The Final Word: Using Tech During Your Lessons

Today's student is irrevocably married to their electronic devices. They use them for everything from paying for their curries to chatting with their mates. FOMO, the fear of missing out is a very real phenomenon that drives the student demographic to stay on their phones way past bedtime and keeps them distracted during the day.

All of that would imply that allowing technology into your tutoring sessions is not recommended. Oh the other hand, though...

These days, the best teaching and learning resources are online. Or, at least, digital. Should you deprive your students and yourself of the convenience and functionality of mind mapping software, explanatory videos and educational technology?

Your best bet is to use them selectively.

Instead of playing Kahn Academy science videos one after the other with a short explanation between them, play just one video, maybe to introduce the topic of the day. Rather than relying on mind mapping software, show examples of mind maps so your students will have an idea of what you're assigning them to do. And rather than using Quizlet flashcards, follow the Quizlet template to make and use flashcards of your own.

The debate over technology is settled; it's here to stay. However, it's not in students' best interests to use it exclusively because they lose valuable learning capabilities by not working manually.

Studies have proven the link between manual writing and building neural pathways to strengthen memory, especially explicit memory. Furthermore, writing, drawing, colouring and calculating by hand reduces stress and improves the fine motor skills needed for precision work like drawing, sewing and performing surgery.

Finally, remember that rapport is the most critical aspect of your success as a tutor. Placing a computer between yourself and your students diminishes the amount of time you have to interact with one another.

Naturally, all of these points are moot if you tutor online. For those lessons, technology must be front and centre. The only question is deciding how much to charge for lessons online; less than or more than in person? Or would you charge the same?

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Laura

Laura is a Francophile with a passion for literature and linguistics. She also loves skiing, cooking and painting.