Lucie

Tutoring Experience

I have taught secondary school students a number of courses such as What is Science, Start with Biochemistry and History of Science. Those courses were online-based Canva presentation courses where I engaged with students in discussion throughout our lessons, commonly with a Kahoot course embedded at the end of the session.

I have drafted these courses and their content on my own and have outlined a simple set of learning objectives I followed. I also tutored a course Comprehensive Science III which was mainly chemistry and physics focused, also for secondary school students. In this course, I taught material outlined by the FVLS (Florida Virtual School) so I gained experience also by seeing how they structure a course curriculum.

The greatest insight I obtained was by discussing the course content with my students after each of the course modules, I graded their work ranging from quizzes to lab reports.

I was first supervised by a senior tutor, so that she oversaw all my techniques and steps, and when she saw I could take on the responsibility and that my work with students had the quality needed for the company’s prestige, I was trusted to handle a GCSE equivalent Chemistry course next year (2022-2023) as a personal tutor.

Tutoring Approach

Online sessions would be organized via Skype or Google Meets. In my lessons, I usually start with a set of learning objectives on a material which we would have agreed upon with the student.

I like to use brief presentations (I use Canva) to introduce the topic. I do encourage students to discuss the topic as I frequently ask questions, commonly using Padlet, Twiddla. Since Biology and Chemistry are both subjects in which figures are absolutely essential, I use specialized software such as ChemDraw and BioRender to help students visualize the materials. For all systems, be it IB, AP, GCSEs and A levels, I like to quiz students from a specific topic using available past paper questions. It is important to work with the course criteria throughout the two years of study to familiarize students with how the test looks and what they can expect on the exams. I put special emphasis on transferable soft skill development, such as accurate, critical and analytical (essay) writing which is especially important in (Life) Sciences. Extensive communication with the student is needed, however, in order to tailor the lessons to their particular need.

So, on the first lesson, I will communicate with the student to find out exactly where they feel confident and less confident, while working on their weaknesses and embracing their strengths in the subject.