At a glance, online tutoring appears to be pretty straightforward; you log onto your video chatting app, explain a concept, and repeat. However, if you’re ambitious or just looking for some extra cash, you can have back-to-back lessons scheduled all week, and at that point it becomes very easy to forget exactly what you’re teaching and to whom. The best way to keep yourself on your a-game is to develop daily and weekly lesson plan calendars that keep your lessons organized and detailed. Keep reading to find out effective teaching strategies and where to find helpful resources.
Teaching Strategies: Lesson Plan Templates and Samples
If you’re new to the tutoring and teaching game, it’s okay to not be exactly sure where to start. Luckily, there are hundreds of websites for teachers and tutors that offer a variety of lesson plan templates and formats to suit everyone’s style of organization. You can even find pre-filled lesson plans by searching for a specific subject, but if you take advantage of these, be sure to modify them to fit your student and time frame. LearnBoost.com and HaveFunTeaching.com are two of our favorite online lesson planning guides, but feel free to explore the Web and search for more!
Teaching Strategies: Writing Your Own Lesson Plan
If you’d rather start from scratch and write your own lesson plan, ask yourself some important questions to ensure you cover your topic thoroughly. Start with an objective: what exactly do you want your student to be able to do at the end of the session? Be sure to take your student through a clear, step-by-step process to meet that objective. This is especially if you work with special needs students. Are your steps clear and easy to understand, or are they convoluted? How do you plan to check your student’s understanding of the topic, and test if he or she met the planned objective? Before logging off, try going over the steps with the student one last time to ensure full comprehension. Always set aside some time for the student to ask additional questions as well.
Whether you’re following a pre-made template or creating your own, your goal is always to organize your thoughts and actions into a plan that makes you and the student feel comfortable. Planning ahead is essential to minimize distractions and errors, and maximize both your and the student’s success.