If you’ve got a background in math and enjoy teaching the subject, you may want to consider becoming an online math tutor. Math degree jobs that truly use your knowledge and skills are hard to find, so teaching math privately can be one of the most rewarding pursuits you can undertake. Best of all, you’ll make some extra money, all without a long commute.
What are the qualifications you need to be a math tutor? Find out what it takes in our article.
Selling your services as a math tutor - even if you have to offer a free online math tutor session to get started - isn’t hard once parents or even adult learners see what kind of skills you can offer. At the elementary school level, where classes are often crowded, it’s not uncommon for kids to have math teachers that cannot support every child, so if you have a background in the field and can teach simple concepts you are likely to be successful.
It’s no secret that math scores have declined in recent years among Canadian students, leaving many parents worried that their children will not be able to access jobs that require math: engineering, medicine, architecture, and accounting, just to name a few.
Moreover, Canadian educators all agree that math skills are a huge asset in the workplace and everyday life. So why not give it a try?
- Students may miss important math concepts in school, so math tutors are in demand. Source: Unsplash.
In this article, we are going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of becoming an online math tutor in Canada. We will describe the best technologies you can use to provide high quality instruction and the most effective math teaching strategies you can use in a virtual environment.
How much do you know about the history of Math instruction? Learn the history of Math teaching.
What are the Advantages of Teaching Virtually?
Live the Work from Home Dream
Working from home can be pretty amazing: you don’t have to wake up early to catch a bus, train, or fight traffic; you can eat lunch in the comfort of your own kitchen; if you have kids, you can have the time to prepare them for school without worrying about getting yourself ready. When you work from home, you can sleep in a little longer, get more things done around your residence, and have all your comforts at arm’s reach.
Find out how to advertise your services and get more math tutoring clients.
When we work onsite at an organization, school or business, we lose so much time simply preparing for the job and actually getting there. We have to deal with the stressors of unpleasant coworkers, moody bosses, and spend hours upon hours away from our homes and families. If you’ve often thought you would rather not be at your workplace, then tutoring from home can give you that work from home dream.
- Tutor online and live the work from home dream. Source: Unsplash.
Picture yourself getting out of bed knowing the only place you need to be is steps away. You head over to the kitchen, pour yourself some coffee, and step over to your classroom - a chic and cozy home office equipped with a large monitor, webcam, and math teaching resources.
Spend some time preparing for the next tutoring session, and get into the rhythm of your tutoring day, breaking for lunch and ending for dinner. Take a walk, head over to the gym, knowing you haven’t lost any energy rushing to get to and from work.
Sounds pretty dreamy, huh?
With no time lost travelling, you’ll be able to take some extra clients, market your services to areas that are less populated with tutors, or simply have more time to take care of yourself or your family.
Are you thinking of becoming a math educator? Find out all you need to know about becoming a math tutor or teacher in our article.
Of course, if you find that tutoring isn’t quite enough to pay your bills or that you would like some variety, you can mix things up with another job or tutor part time. The point is you will have the flexibility and options to grow your tutoring business or simply have some extra income to take home.
Save Money
When you aren’t spending money on gas or transit to go to work or visit students’ homes, you’ll quickly see all that money accumulate. Remember that coffee or fast lunch you had to buy to get you through a busy afternoon at work? You’ll see that money as well since you won’t need to buy refreshments in your own home.
Thinking of getting into math tutoring and not sure what to charge your clients? Make sure you know how to determine your math tutoring rates.
Virtual tutoring is a cheap, easy way to make extra money with very little investment. You probably already have a laptop or desktop computer, and can easily improvise with some lighting. Of course, if you truly enjoy tutoring you can invest in new technology and teaching resources: save your receipts, and deduct them from your taxes as an independent business when tax time arrives.
Work Wherever With Whomever
Tutoring virtually means you won’t have any geographical restraints. You can work with any student anywhere, as long as you don’t mind working across time zones.
Furthermore, if you don’t mind working late, you can even teach math to kids around the world in areas like China, the Middle East, or Europe. Work in a country where the currency is worth more, and you can compete with the local talent. Of course, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with curricula in areas you aren’t familiar with, so make sure you do the research!
Zero geographical restraints means you can be anywhere you want as well, whether it is in a charming village in Mexico or a cottage in Muskoka or the Okanagan. Make sure you have a strong internet connection, and you can tutor from anywhere you like.
How do you become a math tutor in Canada? Learn how you can become a math tutor.
Students Benefit from Virtual Tutoring
Your students also benefit from learning virtually as they become more articulate and also get to experience working in their comfort zone. Students that receive virtual tutoring often have to express their ideas verbally in clear and concise ways without the aid of body language, so their communication skills will improve. Your tutees will also get to work in the comfort of their family home, which helps to eliminate any math anxiety.
Do I Need to be a Certified Teacher to Start Online Math Tutoring?
Having a strong teaching skillset is important to becoming a successful online math tutor. However, formal certification is not required for anyone looking to offer their services as a tutor. If you have a teaching background, it will certainly help you to be a more attractive option for those looking for an online tutor!
A lot of tutors out there are not qualified teachers, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. What families and students want in their tutor may range. Here are some factors people consider when finding a tutor:
- cost
- experience with kids
- academic background
- personality
Ultimately, people want the best help they can find, and if traditional teaching methods were working they likely would not be looking for a tutor in the first place. If you are an uncertified teacher, emphasize the strengths you bring, whether it is making a connection with kids or having a math background that few people have.
Who knows, maybe the experience of tutoring will motivate you to get your teaching certification!
How Should I Organize Online Math Classes?
When you are planning your online math classes or tutoring sessions, you will want to develop a strategy to engage and pace your learner that is predictable and natural. You might start by creating some sort of template, or chart, to plan your lessons every time.
You may find it helpful to keep a binder or record of the students you work with, with a quick run-down of their strengths, weaknesses, learning goals, and observations you have about their work. Having observations at the ready will support conversations you have with the student or their family about their progress.
Here are some guidelines for planning an online math tutor session:
- Build Relationships: online learning is limited in that it can be a challenge to build relationships with students. So to start your session, make time to talk about non math related things. These icebreakers can be silly and fun, and help students to open up!
- Activate Math Thinking: use a "minds on" activity like a puzzle, problem or prompt related to the session. Think of this as a warm-up to help students engage in mathematical thinking in a practical way. Older students may need more challenging problem, and university aged learners may benefit most from a conversation about something they have encountered in their classes.
- Teach According to Needs and Priorities: in talking to the student or their family, you probably have a sense of their learning needs. It may be ongoing work in school, or rebuilding a basic numeracy foundation. Teach using examples, clear and simple language, and check for understanding after the lesson is done.
- Give time to practice: math skills improvement is all about practice, and it is important to carve out time for students to explore and problem solve. Initially, they may need a lot of scaffolding and guidance. But ideally, you will be able to give them time to work independently and they can show you their work.
- Provide feedback: after students have had time to practice, look at their work and see where improvements might be made, or where they have made gains. The work they do should ultimately guide the next round of instruction.
What are the Best Virtual Math Teaching Strategies?
Sharing information is also much easier when working virtually thanks to screen sharing, document cameras, and tools like Google drive. You can see their work if they are using a virtual whiteboard or a camera so you can see their problem solving. If your clients want to bring in friends or family, offer group tutoring sessions - this format will make math learning much more fun.
- Many kids benefit from the convenience of learning from home. Source: Unsplash
Want to know what math teachers earn in Canada? Find out the salaries of math teachers in every province.
What are the Biggest Challenges in Virtual Tutoring?
We realize that virtual tutoring and teaching have challenges. Let’s go over some of the major ones.
- Technology can fail or be spotty. When you or your students have a poor internet connection, it can be stressful and hard to get the job done. Lags in audio, slow screen sharing, and echoing are a few things that can ruin a good lesson. Invest in a good internet connection and up-to-date technology and you can avoid these technical pitfalls.
- Students don’t always learn best online. Some students are too easily distracted from the internet and need someone beside them to help them self-regulate. When this is the case, tutoring can be unsuccessful.
- Explaining math can be hard online. When you are in person, it can be easy to model problem solving processes with the ease of a white board or a sheet of paper. Virtually, you must have a virtual whiteboard that is easy to use, and be able to check regularly for your student’s understanding. Be patient, practice using your tools, and stay focused on the student and you may avoid this challenge.
The digitization of teaching came rapidly with nearly every student being pushed to online learning during the pandemic, so in many ways teaching online will be very familiar to kids.
Effective Online Tutor Strategies
In many ways, students are perhaps no better equipped to receive online tutoring and instruction than they are now. Teaching math successfully, however, will take some work, and while you won’t need to know math history you will need some effective strategies. Here are ours.
- Use Google Drive to easily share and edit documents simultaneously. The G-Suite of tools also has plenty of add-ons like interactive white boards and drawing tools you can use to make teaching easier. You can add a virtual protractor, share problem solving processes, and screen share with a few easy clicks.
- Check out other virtual math tools like GeoGebra, Math Up, YouTube math videos, and sites like Khan Academy for plenty of ways to change up instruction or offer some visuals.
- Explain concepts slowly, and don’t overwhelm your students. Remember that virtual learning takes a lot of energy to listen and articulate, so don’t push your students to the point they are too frustrated to learn.
- Communicate with your students' families to set clear and measurable goals for success. When you know what the parents or guardians expect, you can plan accordingly to maximize the best possible outcomes for your students. If your student is an adult, find out what he/she is trying to achieve so you will be better positioned to support him/her.
See online tutoring jobs here on Superprof.
How Might Families Support an Online Math Tutor?
When you are working with kids, especially smaller kids, families can play an important role beyond simply paying for your services. Building a relationship with families is key to successful tutoring, as they will likely be near their child observing the work you are doing. Why not leverage their presence to be more effective as a tutor?
Use family support by interviewing them, perhaps even separately from the student, about what they see are the biggest learning issues. They may be able to shed light on any social or emotional concerns the child may have, or any frequent issues they notice about the child's study habits or learning behaviours.
You may find that part of your tutoring session will be spent addressing or reflecting learning skills that will help them to be a success in math, such as taking good notes or starting homework promptly when they arrive at home. One strategy you may find useful is showing kids how to find support when a teacher or tutor is not around, such as through peers or math learning videos on the internet.
Chat with your student's family as often as possible to ensure that they are giving frequent reminders to their child to attempt their homework, or practice additional work you have provided for them. Part of academic performance is not only understanding learning, but having an organized work flow and good work ethic. Should the student only be working on their math when they are with their tutor, you might find it useful to recommend additional sessions until the child is more independent and can self-regulate their learning.
When you have consistent family check-ins and their support, you may find that you can start to see progress in the learner sooner. Having strong results will only give you more experiences to speak to when you are being considered for a tutoring or teaching job. You may even get referrals from that family to others that are also looking for tutors.
So in sum, always make an effort to build relationships with both students and their families - it will make your teaching stronger, easier, and students may even see results sooner than expected!
How can I Start Online Math Tutoring Today?
Jobs that truly involve math can be hard to find, so be sure to check out some online tutor math jobs to make the most of your skills. Sure, it would be great to build your own website. But that takes time, technical skill, and you will have to work at it every day to make sure people actually see it. Wouldn't it be great if someone already did the work?
Lucky for tutors, Superprof.ca exists and makes the job of promoting your tutoring services easy. So why don't you try posting your profile on the Superprof site to attract new clients? Superprof connects online math teachers with students across Canada, and makes it easy to market your services quickly and efficiently.
If you take this route, consider offering a free math tutor session where you can interview your students and family, if applicable, and give prospective clients a sample of your abilities. If you know how to teach math, you will certainly be called back for more sessions.
Superprof has a dynamic, user friendly interface that will enable you to look polished and professional. You can even see the rates of other tutors near you, so you'll know exactly what a reasonable tutoring rate might look like.
Thousands of people around the world see listings of talented local tutors every day teaching dozens of subjects and skills: not only math, but English, Science, Chemistry, Cooking, Dance, Art, and even Karate - just to name a handful. It takes minutes to set up an account and you will ensure that your tutor profile will be seen by Canadians everywhere.
Why delay on becoming a math tutor? Check out Superprof today!
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