What in the World Are You Talking About?

For the past twenty years I have been teaching kids. I have taught a variety of grade levels and subjects. By no means do I claim to be an educational expert. I write based only on my experiences as a teacher.

Language. I have found that often the common factor in why kids are struggling is language. Simply, the kids don't know what we as teachers are talking about.

After becoming an online tutor, this really became apparent to me. Reading comprehension and math are the two main culprits.

Before I start tutoring a student in reading comprehension, I ask the student, "What does 'comprehension' mean?" I have had only one student so far who knew what it meant. Most just shrug and have a look of dread on their faces. I don't blame them. I remember the stress of not being confident I would keep the terms the teacher used straight. I start talking to them about how it simply means being able to understand what we have read. Usually, their faces immediately show relief. I know they are probably thinking, "Oh, is that all? I can do that." I then explain I am going to work with them on strategies to break it down so they can understand it.

I also see this confusion when dealing with word problems, fractions, and division. Actually, I see it in other mathematical concepts but primarily those. I do remember as a child stressing out on trying to remember which was the divisor and which was the dividend. Those terms sounded so similar to me. I could remember them at times, but when put on the spot, they just slipped away.  Confusing the numerator and denominator is often a problem as well. Word problems used to totally stress me out. I didn't understand you could break down the language to determine whether you needed to add, subtract, multiply or divide.

Before we think a child is struggling with a concept, we need to first make sure he understands what we are talking about. Although that may not completely clear up his confusion on the concept, knowing the language will assist him while you are reteaching the concept. I have found that mastery of the concept usually follows somewhat soon after the language has been learned.

Treat the Online Classroom Like a Real Classroom

The online classroom is a real classroom.

But we are learning from the comfort of our home and behind the computer screen, so it is going to be a little more on the relaxed side. That is perfectly fine.  However, sometimes there is a tendency to not respect the learning space.

If you are using an online teacher or tutor for your child, you may not be able to have a room where that child can work without interruptions. Try to at least find a space that presents fewer interruptions and distractions. To allow your child to tutor while people are going in and out of the room, having loud conversations, or even having the TV blaring is not going to get your money's worth for that session.

Some parents may not want their child online with a tutor in a room they can't monitor the student. As a parent, I can totally understand that. I would want my child in the same room with me too. But I have had parents who did so, but continued to bang pots and pans while cooking or carry on very loud conversations with other people in the room.

Situate your student so no one can walk behind him and be seen on camera. This can help create more of a classroom feel for the student. It also prevents people from being a distraction walking around in the background. I recently had an adult walk behind the student, wearing only underwear. This was neither respectful to the classroom, nor my retinas.

That brings me to this point: the camera and microphone pick up far more than the family may realize. Just be aware of that, please. The tutor does not want to hear all of your dirty laundry or see it either.

Teachers are not off the hook on this either. I have seen teachers show up for their sessions in the most unprofessional way. Please know that "work from home" is not synonymous with "unprofessional". Teachers should be modestly dressed in their sessions. I did have to ask one teacher to stop wearing a sports bra to her online sessions. She was not aware of how it looked on camera and quickly complied. I even had a male teacher show up for his interview while in bed. Yes, that will make parents feel very comfortable indeed. Teachers need to make the online classroom as distraction-free as possible. The student did not pay for a session to watch the teacher answer her cell phone, text, or talk to her fur babies.

Keeping the relaxed setting for online learning is a definite must. But let's not get carried away.

Happy online learning and teaching!