Had anyone heard of ‘Online Tuition‘ before 23rd March 2020? Indeed, a tutor or teacher outside of school wasn’t something that was immediately thought of when people generally talked about education. It wasn’t too long ago that students, teachers and parents were used to the daily routine of getting up in the morning and making their way to school to start their busy day. Teachers would be thinking about their workload: will all those long hours of planning give them the results they need to move their students along in their learning? Students eagerly thought about their friends, projects they were working on and new topics to be explored and, yes, ok tests which may or may not have been high on the list of exciting events in their day (let’s be honest here…). Year 11s stressed about their upcoming GCSEs. Parents raced through the morning, getting everyone washed, dressed, fed and out of the front door for a certain time (let’s not forget those teachers who are also parents here…)… It was all part of the daily ratrace of life and we all relished our own individual roles – until Coronavirus appeared.
Now, we are all facing our day-to-day lives with quite a different set of tasks and priorities. Teachers are working from home in a variety of ways. Home schooling has become a byword for ‘the school day’ and students of all ages are commonly starting their day with a bit of PE in their PJs followed by an hour of Maths and an hour of English. Parents have had to become adept at becoming ‘academic educators’ – making learning fun whilst catering to perhaps a number of year groups within their family dynamic. It’s been a huge learning curve for us all.
For many, a specialist teacher or tutor will be a valuable resource. As students move through the education system, subject content becomes much more in-depth and for those parents who are struggling to continue to work from home (despite all the distractions of family life), trying to juggle the day job with analysing the key quotes form Macbeth or how to calculate the mass of a particle can become a bit much! I say this lightheartedly but as a teacher and a parent myself, I feel qualified in saying that the struggle is real!….
So, what IS online tuition? You may have had a private tutor for your child before Lockdown kicked in (contact me for private/online English and Maths tuition) who came to your house to work on a 121 basis. I certainly worked like this, intensively, for a number of years before Covid-19 struck. However, with all the uncertainty surrounding school closures and when they will be safe to open again, parents are turning to other sources of educational help for their child. At the time of writing this blog post, the Government stated that schools will start phased reopening to specific year groups from 1st June however, individual Councils are advising their schools based on the 5 tests. If these 5 tests are not deemed to be measurable then it is likely that some schools will not reopen as soon as this.
There are many ways in which online tuition can happen. Basically, the teacher/tutor links up with the student via an online platform such as Microsoft Teams (which also works well for meetings) and the popular ‘Zoom‘. Zoom works much like Skype in that you can see eachother while you talk. The event organiser will send an invite to the participant (or a group of participants if the event is a meeting or webinar) by email. The student then clicks on the Zoom link in the email on a smartphone, tablet or laptop, and the meeting is opened. You can choose to not link your webcam and audio for the meeting however this would be counterproductive in a learning environment. The host can mute the participant at any time. Within Zoom, the host can also share their screen or just display a presentation as a series of slides. Throughout, the host will be visible in a smaller frame in the corner. I have been using Zoom for a while now and have found it to be an effective platform. As time moves on in this new era of digital learning, I’m sure other popular platforms will arise. Watch this space!
Book your English and Maths tuition with me: Lynn Doyle Home Tuition
Lynn Doyle Home Tuition 
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