Award-Winning Private Summer Tutoring in Raleigh-Durham, NC

"The student and I had a very productive session. We started by taking a hard look at his schedule, as I showed him (based on his conservative estimates) how much of his day must be scheduled to accommodate his activities. It was a sobering exercise! This week, I have asked him to pay very close attention to how much time these activities actually take. We also decided that he has until Tuesday to show that he can handle this level of structure, before he must give up one activity. If we do have to eliminate that activity and he is still unable to complete his work to a satisfactory level, we will either eliminate another activity, or move to the system of consequences that he and I agreed upon. The two consequences are a "money jar" idea, which I think we need to iron out a bit, and some reduction of phone privileges. After we worked on his planner a bit and established these new ground rules, I gave him some SAT grammar exercises to work on. We started with subject-verb agreement, and trimming sentences. Subject-verb agreement is very challenging for most high-school students, and he is no exception! We will continue to work on those concepts until he feels confident with them. "

"We reviewed his progress during the first two weeks of schools. He filled in important dates from his class syllabus into his calendar planner. We discussed roadblocks to his success and came up with solutions. We also discussed the importance of him keeping track of not only his assignments but consistently checking his grades."

"This session was focused on evaluating the student's progress so far, working on studying for a social studies quiz on Thursday, and preparing for the transition to a new tutor. She feels she completed her summer reading much more independently this summer: reading a chapter at a time (more sustained reading than in the past) and taking notes and quotes from the book made the assignment easier. She took ownership of her work. She's much stronger with analyzing plot development, themes, and characterization. Her comprehension skills have improved and she summarizes what she's read more accurately more of the time compared to when I first met her. She is more confident guessing with me. She has a homework assignment from me to raise her hand one time in one class when she isn't sure but thinks she knows the answer. On social studies, our strategies for reviewing for the quiz included associating certain words with others and reviewing them in groups (e.g. all the flashcards relating to the South, then all the ones about the North). We also acted out some of the concepts and used some mnemonic devices. She could benefit from a review of some of the key historical events she learned about last year--she's now in a unit on Reconstruction but was fuzzy on the basics of the Civil War. With the new tutor, she wants to continue working on ELA practice tests, focusing on strategies, especially how to re-read under the pressure of a time limit (she feels she sometimes forgets what she's read by the time she gets to the questions). She also wants study skills and organization help with all of her subjects (not just English). It was an absolute pleasure working with the student and she is a very dedicated and bright student. I'll miss working with her!"

"The student and I had a very good first session today. He finished his final summer assignments (prep for fall classes) and I advised him on how to choose classes this quarter. We also worked on how to stay organized through the year."

"Today we worked on studying for French. We discussed integrating her homework with studying vocab by taking note of their use in exercises and using them in her responses. We also continued working on connecting key terms in AP Human Geo with one another and integrating them into the "big picture.""

"Today the student worked on his math homework and completed a Spanish assignment he has due tomorrow. He seems to be doing well. He did have to do some reading to complete his math homework and he did seem to struggle a bit. This is something I will continue to watch, and we will continue to work on."

"Today we worked on identifying verbs and nouns, sentence completions using a word bank, reading comprehension and finding syllables of words. The student also practiced adding and subtracting two digit numbers. "

"We talked specifically about Spanish and how he can study for it. We talked in depth about how and when and for how long to study vocabulary and how to practice conversation. I advised that he study vocab for a few minutes before bed and explained why. I also recommended three things for practicing conversation: 1) talk to anything (even inanimate objects), 2) talk with his classmates about mutual interests or subjects from class (such as how we spent a few minutes having a conversation in Spanish about the book he had to read for English), and, 3) philosophize in Spanish. That last one is a funny one but one I always tell my language students to do! Talk about the things no one talks about in a normal day, because it prepares your brain to be ready to talk in this new language even when it's not the kind of conversation you've been taught in class to be ready for. We, for example, also spent a moment reflecting on the meaning of life in Spanish. I also ran him through a few other things I tell my language students to try to help themselves improve. We talked about immersion, finding some music or TV in Spanish he can engage with. When you ask questions, you engage conversationally and expand your knowledge beyond what even your teacher can teach you in the short time they have you in class. Lastly, we talked about listening to music while studying. Many people will tell students not to listen to music while studying, but students tend to do it anyway and personally I have found many excellent ways to use music to improve studying. So I didn't tell him not to use music; instead I talked with him specifically about how to use music intelligently while studying. I told him that the first thing is never to use music that is distracting: that means only music you know well. I explained that his brain can engage even with music playing as long as the music doesn't ask his brain to think. "

"This first session was just get-acquainted and assessment. I asked the student a lot of questions to get a better idea of what her needs are and to begin to determine the causes of her poor study habits. She downplayed her difficulties, I think. I explained to her how I thought we should work together (i.e., with me more as a coach than a tutor), and she seemed to respond positively."

"We covered additional pre-algebra concepts. The student worked on essay outlines and gave I recommendation on how to prioritize tasks."