Tutoring has always been a great way to work part time and earn money while helping others. Traditionally, tutors have met with their clients in person but there is a growing trend towards online tutoring. Students seek tutors when they are having trouble with a specific subject or if they are simply curious and want to learn more about a topic than their current curriculum provides. Tools like Skype, Dropbox, and Google Documents make it possible to have tutoring sessions with clients in the next town or halfway around the world.
If you think that you would like to be an online tutor, you will want to decide in advance what age group of students you would like to work with as well as what topics you feel that you are qualified to help them learn. Some middle school students need tutors, as do high school students. Adult students also require extra help from time to time – I know that when I was in college, I went to see a tutor to help me pass my calculus class. Students are looking for assistance in all areas of education, but the most popular topics are things like math (especially the higher levels), science, and English.
Before you put yourself out there as a tutor, check your local rules and regulations to see whether there are any licensing or certification requirements that you must comply with. Also, research your options. You could become a part of a larger tutoring company that attracts clients for you in exchange for taking a percentage of what you earn for them. In the alternative, you could set up your own, independently owned and operated tutoring business. You can create your own web site to attract clients, and set your own fees, terms, and availability schedule. There are also tutor search directories that independent tutors can choose to be listed in so that clients can find them more easily.
Online tutoring can be a wonderful way to work from home. It can also be very satisfying to know that the work that you do is helping students to make the most of their education and really learn the material that they are studying. Your style of teaching may be just the thing that gets through to a student struggling to understand a subject and helps them to not only learn the material, but to feel good about their own abilities.
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