During the last three years, adjustments have been the theme in most people's lives because of the pandemic. As a result of COVID-19, online learning became one of these adjustments. My family has six grade school children that were in school at the time of the pandemic or were about to start school (two of the children were autistic and one has a learning disability). Struggling through this transition is when I really began to understand how difficult online learning can be. Just helping to tutor my family members with schoolwork was difficult enough.

This is where I began to draw off the strength of being a licensed master mental health social worker. Patience, commitment, empathy, and compassion played a role with our students, their teachers, and with our families. Stress, depression, and anxiety were manifested throughout. This is when becoming a tutor took on a different meaning. Infusing the skills I learned as a social worker helped my family to better adjust to uncertain times.

Gratitude is one of the most important parts of the pandemic adjustment period. I was grateful to witness the experience as well as to be able to help my family through that difficult time. Assisting my family by tutoring our grade school children afforded me a great opportunity.

This is the reason that I decided to become a tutor. Teaching can be a challenging experience. Online tutoring helped me to understand that my personality of being a help agent and my teaching style had to be infused with my social work skills and knowledge. I believe that this will be an asset to my interaction with my students.