Tutoring: Academic Tutoring, Study Skills Menlo Park and Palo Alto


Language Arts: Reading, Written Language, Spelling, Handwriting Math: Remedial or Enrichment - Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus Computer Skills: Word Processing, Keyboarding, PowerPoint, Inspiration Study Skills: Time Management, Motivation, Test Preparation, Homework Strategies Content Areas: History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Foreign Language Summer Programs	ACADEMIC TUTORING for ALL AGES At QWERTY Education Services in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, expert educators with varied backgrounds and distinct teaching strengths provide individual tutoring services tailored to the needs of each student. Academic tutoring directly supports the student in the school curriculum or provides a separate program of enrichment or remedial work. A combination of these approaches is often appropriate. Tutors meet individually with their students in our offices, typically for one-hour sessions on a regularly scheduled basis during the school year. We provide brief, written reports on each tutoring session. Summer tutoring is available in a variety of forms, including individual tutoring and special-interest clubs. A tutoring relationship is an effective means to better understand a student's strengths and weaknesses. Individual tutoring is an excellent way to develop confidence, organization, motivation, and study skills in successful students as well as in struggling students. A tutoring relationship can be the scaffolding which allows a student to climb to greater heights of direct responsibility for his or her own education in the long run.

What Good is a Tutor?

Michael prepares a student for a math exam.

Tutoring and the family system: A tutor can be a welcome resource even if teachers and family are available for assistance, and especially when they are not. The tutor can be an important adjunct to the family system, allowing parents with limited time or emotional energy to focus their interactions with the child on other areas which only they can best provide. Parents often report important gains beyond the academic goals.

A tutor can be a mentor who guides even the most capable students to:

broaden, deepen, or focus ideas about the content of their work.
enhance the expression of those ideas in oral and written form.
utilize resources (books, computers, teachers, family, peers, etc.) most effectively.
tackle difficult, discouraging, or uninteresting tasks with greater enthusiasm.
manage time, identify goals, set priorities, and maintain efficient organization to become comfortable, independent learners.
evaluate and develop their own participation in the learning process, including understanding educational strengths and weaknesses and advocate for their learning as appropriate.
respond to concerns about social interactions and personal matters which may be interfering with the ability to put their best foot forward in their schoolwork.
face the many often small but important decisions in their lives which can either clarify values and build character or, alternately, muddle priorities and erode integrity.

Not all tutors are alike. Depending on where you find them, tutors may be teachers-in-training who seek more instructional experience, classroom teachers who seek to supplement their regular income, retired teachers who want to maintain some involvement in their work, full-time tutors with specialties in a variety of areas, etc. Each type has its own merits. Throughout history, private tutors have been highly valued as the basis of or as a supplement to a strong education. Tutoring has been a critical part of the formula for success for a large percentage of students in our local schools, whether or not that student has an identified learning problem.

At QWERTY, each tutor is either a credentialed learning specialist or works with the support of a learning specialist to enhance our understanding of our students' learning.

Paula helps a young child with reading skills.