What do You Look for in a Tutor?
A few days ago, my dear friend told me she has been thinking about suggesting to a few friends of hers that they become reading tutors for children using my Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™ program. “They are lovely women. I truly believe they would love tutoring children.
“What do you look for in a tutor?”
I paused in thought thinking carefully of my answer, then I smiled and said, “Well first, I look for someone that truly loves children and adults – someone who loves people! I say children and adults because Silent Elephant “e”™ is perfect for teaching preschoolers to adults.”
I thought a moment more, “I look for positive minded people who are extremely patient, as most of the people I tutor are struggling readers with one or more learning differences. It’s important as a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor that they relax and allow their students to learn at their learning pace. As a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor they must be uplifting and encouraging as most of the children/people they will be tutoring will begin with a low self-concept – often not realizing how capable of learning they are.
More often than not, those they tutor don’t feel good about themselves and they need their Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor to genuinely care about them and believe in them – believe that they truly can learn to read with Silent Elephant “e”™, because they will. No question about it.” 😊
I continued, “I’m not necessarily looking for a person with a teaching degree because I wrote Silent Elephant “e”™ to be used by classroom teachers, student teachers, paraprofessionals, parent helpers, homeschool educators and tutors. I wrote the Silent Elephant “e”™ directions at about a fifth grade reading level so that they could be easily used by anyone. I wrote them in what I call “cookbook” directions, in other words, as simply as I could so no one would have to struggle to teach with Silent Elephant “e”™.
“Another thing I look for is a person who is willing to devote at least two hours per week with each student for a year or more. That may seem like a long time but it’s really only 2 hours a week per student and during those two hours the tutor will be seeing amazing growth in their student. Of course, I know people’s lives change as unperceived circumstances present themselves, look what happened with Covid. However, as a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor, you will be building a long-term, trusting, loving relationship with your student and that is a very important relationship.
At this point I eagerly began sharing with my friend how I had recently had a student graduate from me who I had been tutoring for 5.5 years. I shared how at first it was very slow going with Micah because when he began with me, he was in the fourth grade and was not able to read at a beginning PrePrimer reading level. In other words, he was 10 years old and a non-reader. Further, he had multiple learning differences and was staffed in special education for reading and math and had speech and occupational therapy at his elementary school. But more than anything, Micah was defeated at 10 years of age. He didn’t believe he would ever be able to read and was afraid of trying because he failed every time.
Five years later, he graduated from me as a confident, assured, successful high school student. He has been staffed out of Special Ed.
Silent Elephant “e”™ changed his life. I can’t imagine what would have happened to him if we hadn’t met and I hadn’t written Silent Elephant “e”™.
That’s the power we have as Silent Elephant “e”™ tutors. Being a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor is about changing lives.
In my next email, I will fill you in on Micah’s story. You will love it. I am so proud of him.
You’ll see how as a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor you will change lives. You will be the person who is both so proud of them as they graduate and a little sad that you won’t be seeing them twice a week anymore. 😊 I know the feeling well.
Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com. We would love to visit with you and answer any questions you have.