Tutor: The First Person I Need to Teach
...is me.
When teaching is your business, you tend to develop a quick eye for what your learners lack. Some require skills training, others specific knowledge, and still others a fundamental attitude adjustment, which you should be well trained to deliver.
We see the deficits in others so clearly. Do we always recognize the same in ourselves? Alas, no.
Leadership guru John C. Maxwell shared an insight into a blind spot many of us suffer: “As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.”
Maxwell’s concept of a 360° Leader demands that those who lead should be able to lead up, down, and across an organization. Teachers are leaders (and so much more) so of course we as educators should endeavor to be 360° teachers, which means we must begin and end with ourselves.
You have to laugh at the sight of professionals who seem to reject the very services they peddle—from mental health counselors badly in need of therapy to my son, the gourmet chef, who mostly eats junk food! Are teachers who turn their noses up at professional development any different? In an ideal world, tutors will be as immersed in the learning process as our students should be.
How many of these training resources have you pursued–or had thrust upon you–over the last month?
Books and articles
Podcasts
Live or video courses
Masterminds and coaching
Professional organizations
If you’re not indulging in consistent and varied PD, you are not walking your walk as a tutor. Hypocrisy aside, learning just makes you better operationally, pedagogically, and psychologically. Case in point, I try to attend every single National Test Prep Association conference, summit, Test Deconstruction, and Tutor Roundtable I can, not as a leader but a learner. I also love Masterminds, Happy Hours, and every other opportunity to benefit from the experience and insights of my colleagues.
Teaching is, of course, a form of learning, so you’re surely doing plenty of that. But what about more conventional forms of learning? Embrace instruction with even a portion of the commitment you expect from your students, and you’ll see their outcomes and your own skyrocket.
As a teacher, the first person you need to teach is you.
And speaking of learning, are you ready to learn what it takes to teach test prep or raise your current prep game to the next level? I have over 30 years of advanced skills, strategies, and insights into how to prepare students for the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT & ACT and—for the first time—I’m running a special session to train educators outside my practice the same way I train my own teachers. Register to be a part of the inaugural session of the TestBright Tutor Training program this September!
Tips, Tools, And Thoughts
The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey
Reading for pleasure among Americans has declined by 40% over the past two decades, surprising no one.
Oxford University neurologist: The No. 1 way I boost my brain energy when I 'hit a mental wall'
Do your students know the 5-Minute Rule?
Tiny Clients, Jumbo Returns for Your Consulting Firm
Focus on the size of the problem rather than the size of a prospective client.
“Teaching is a wonderful way to learn.” —Carol S. Dweck