​Congratulations! You finished 13 years of schooling, what an achievement! But, with this achievement comes a lot of responsibility. You need to decide what to do next. This can be a really challenging decision for many young adults, so we’ve put together a few ideas to help make your decision easier.

Think About What You Are Good At
This goes beyond what you were good at as far as subjects go. Many aspects of careers and life in general are more related to the fundamental skills you learn throughout your childhood. Do you like caring for others? Do you work well under pressure? Are you a strong leader? Do you have patience, attention to detail, people skills? All of these come in to play when choosing your post high school pathway.

Take a Year off
This may seem counterproductive to some, but you may have been so focused on study and homework, as well as extracurricular activities for the last few years, that you actually have no idea what you want to do. Take a year and go on a working holiday, undertaking various activities along the way. You will learn a lot about yourself, the things you like and what you don’t like.

Don’t Let Other People Make the Decision For You
This is where I messed up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a good teacher and I like the job, but it doesn’t fit well with the lifestyle I yearn for. No one made the decision for me to be a teacher as such, but I was told that I had to go to university. Now I think that I may have been more suited to an apprenticeship. Advice is definitely something you need, but don’t be scared to take a different path if it is truly what you believe is right.

You Can Change Your Mind
If you make a decision, and then decide it may not be the right one, you can always change. At least you now know that is NOT what you want to do. Do your research and take your time to decide on the next step.

Even if you finish a course and begin a career, that’s not to say you will be stuck in that job forever. You may be able to use the skill set you acquired to take you on a different path. Or, you can always apply for another course.

You Don’t Have to Love Your Job
Wouldn’t it be great to love your job so much that even if you were a billionaire, you would still want to go to work? I’m not sure that this is often the case. You need to like your job. You need to be good at your job. Other than that, choose a pathway which will fit in with your preferred lifestyle as much as possible. If you like to travel, for example, you may choose to be an air host/hostess or a national/global company representative. If you want flexibility you might like to choose a business course so you can work for yourself when you please.

Hopefully these tips help you think outside the box a little as you think about your post high school pathway. 

The main purpose of teaching aids are to help both the tutor and the students in learning. One of the main problems with education and tuition in general is an over reliance on the text book. Usually, teaching aids are very effective especially to students who are visual learners. These are students who learn fastest when they see the things that they're learning from, such as flash cards, PowerPoint presentations and such. Teaching aids help students in a creative manner without making them feel bored with the knowledge and information that they're being fed with. They are also an interactive way to connect with students. The following are 6 teaching aids you can use for tutoring:

1.) Puzzles
This teaching aid is a really engaging way to connect with your students and and activate their mind. With puzzles, not only is it a proven way to engage with your students but this also effectively aids in preventing. With puzzles, this is proven to enhance focus and memory retention with lessons.

2.) Whiteboard
You usually learn fastest when you write things down. This is the reason as to why you remember things faster when you write it down on paper. This is the same for whiteboard as a teaching aid. Resources that involve writing down are also a proven way in helping students remember specific information.

3.) Pictures
For students with a good photographic memory, this is also one of the effective teaching aids out there. When you're explaining something to students, having pictures to back up your information helps the students with their memory and focus. When they're trying to recall that information, they'll then think back to the pictures that you showed to help them remember.

4.) Play money
This is surprisingly an amazing way to learn math, especially for kids who struggle with numbers and counting. An additional bonus for this teaching aid is that they will learn how to count money and handle money in general, which is a great life tip.

5.) Charts
This teaching aid is highly effective specifically with subjects involving maths, statistics and research. With charts, students can compare and observe the difference in percentage or ratio between different categories. This is usually used upon comparing statistics in years. Charts help simplify a large amount of data into colorful blocks, which also aid in imagination and creativity for the students. This is known as the most important tool in representing data.

6.) Flash cards
Since flash cards can be one of the teaching aids that can come off as games, this is a really interactive way to teach students. It gets them out of their boredom and maybe actually learn a thing or two while feeling engaged with you as the tutor. This is effective in numerous subjects and topics as well.

In the end, these 6 best teaching aids are effective ways in teaching many students today. It depends on yours and your students preference as to which of these you find are the most effective in getting students to grasp the knowledge you give them.

​As tutors, we’ve all been there. The student who has absolutely no interest in what you are teaching them. They don’t do their home work, they are unorganised and they dread your sessions together. Here are some ideas to help tutors engage these students. Your students may even begin enjoying your sessions together!

Get to know your students
Too many teachers and tutors are all about the content and teaching students on an academic level only. But in my opinion, relationships are the number one most important thing for you and your students. If your students likes you and feels a positive connection with you, they will be more open and motivated to learn. If you know your student, you can begin tailoring the lessons towards their interests and learning styles.
It is important to begin establishing your positive working relationship early in the piece. I’m not saying that you should spend the first few sessions just chatting and getting to know each other. It should be a consistent effort, along with the academic components. Ask students questions like the following:

• How do you get on with your teacher? What is it that you do/do not like about them?
• What are your hobbies?
• What do you like/not like about school?
• How was your weekend?

The information you can gather from questions like this is invaluable and you will be gradually building the strength of your professional relationship, building a mutual respect.

Send reminder messages
If there’s one thing that annoys me most, it is a student who is unorganised. They forget their books, worksheets, protractor, calculator and even pens Every. Single. Time. It leaves tutors wondering what students have learnt, what is on the test and how am I supposed to teach the required content consistently and effectively?!
I tutor mainly on Sundays. So on Fridays, the reminders go out to the students (or the parents of the students) who always forget their resources. These resources make a huge difference to the effectiveness of our sessions.

Communicate with parents
It’s all well and good to set homework for a student and expect it to be done by the following session. But in reality, it is unlikely to be attempted by disengaged students. For my unmotivated students, I always tell the parents that I have set homework and a list of the activities requiring completion. I’ll be honest, sometimes it still doesn’t get done!

The next step depends on the individual tutor. I have put my foot down before and given a student an ultimatum. He had huge potential working his way into year 12 and I had been tutoring him for two years already. He had fallen into the habit of not completing the homework I set for him. After a few weeks of trying various strategies to get him onto his homework, I told him that I couldn’t be his tutor anymore. Wow, what a change!! His habits changed instantly, and he would not miss a single question.

These are just a few ideas to increase motivation for your disengaged students. Increasing engagement will increase both yours and your students enjoyment, as well as making the parents lives easier. 

 Self-control is an essential trait that anyone should develop, and this is relatively true for our kids since there are lots of distractions in their environment. Right now, your child might be glued to a screen, and they may not be able to focus on schoolwork or you can’t even talk to them when they’re in the middle of their game or chat.

This can be quite frustrating for parents, so it’s essential to guide your children and help them develop sufficient self-control. In fact, practice makes perfect, and having this one crucial trait will bring them success in the long run.

The first thing you need to do is to set some rules in your home and develop study routines that are mandatory and should be followed by your kids. In the long run, you’ll have yourself a self-control champion that will always stick to the regimen.

Now let’s break it down a bit more so you’ll want what we can make of this new perspective.

• Patience and practice are the keys to success

Like what we’ve tackled on the first part of this article, it will take time and effort to develop self-control because it is comparable to a muscle that we often exercise and go to the gym to train our muscles and make them much stronger than what they are now.

It will take time, and a lot of patience before your kids develop self-control, but as long as you keep at it they will eventually have it and there will be no real limit to what they can achieve once they develop it. In fact, one day your kids are going to put down their mobile phone without being told beforehand.

• Failing is part of growing

We all know that it’s not easy to stick to the rules, so when your child fails to follow it, you need to be clear that they are responsible for their action. So, when they don’t study for their exams, then there’s a big possibility that they will fail the test.  

Sometimes you need to let them fall on their face and experience failing. So, when they fail some of their tests at school, they will eventually learn from that experience and your kids will find new ways to cope with bad habits since they now know the result of their previous action.

That is why you need to be firm and impose the rules that you’ve set especially when it comes to their schoolwork. Creating study routines and setting a definite schedule is the way to go, so your child will also develop good study habits – and we all know that this is the recipe that will lead them to academic success.

• Kindness goes a long way

Remember to be kind both to yourself and your children because there are days when your kids might be their worst selves. So, when they are misbehaving, you might immediately lash out and punish them for their actions.

But you need to understand that the pain you’re feeling is just a symptom, sign or a signal that both you and your child is just stretching your mental muscles and learning how to walk. You need to control your feelings and take it slowly since it’s all part of the process. Keep breathing and take one exhausting day at a time.

You and your child will eventually reach your ultimate goal of developing self-control and sticking to good study habits.

To master any form of activity consistency is the key. If you want to master a sport or an instrument you need to practice consistently, to improve your skills at an accelerated pace. Tutoring is no different. With consistent practices comes a steady growth of knowledge and skills. With consistent tutoring the student will remember the last lesson better, making it easier to take the next step. It gives the tutor and student also the chance to build up a relationship of trust. Trust is an important factor, to increase the acceptance and susceptibility of the student towards the tutor. The best results are achieved if a regular schedule for tutoring is made with the parents, student and tutor.

But what if my child has no work to do anymore? This is a common question we here from parents in Melbourne. Here comes in one of the major benefits of private tuition. When the regular work is done, the tutor can focus on common misconceptions, extra activities and explore subjects the student is particularly interested in. This "extra time" is very valuable for the student. It will help the student understand the added value of tutoring more easily, when there is time for extra exploration and activities.

It is not recommended to take a long break from in-home tutoring. As stated before consistency is the key of successful private tuition. After a long break the students habit is broken and it will take time to get into the rhythm again. More time will be needed to rehearsal old subjects to refresh the knowledge of the student.

Every parent wants their children to do well in school. School is one of the most important pillars in the life of a child. You don't want to see your child struggling in school. Especially after a long break it takes time for a child to get used to the rhythm of learning again. Risking that your child has a lot of misunderstandings, starting in school again after a long holiday break. This can sometimes even lead to long term motivational problems. In-home private tuition is a proven method to give your child the best start possible, for a new year at school. A child that understands what he or she is doing, enjoys school a lot more. A professional tutor in Melbourne can give the head start to improve the school results of your children. In addition the enjoyment in learning will increase as well, because of the better results and less misunderstandings.

To sum it all up tutoring during long holiday breaks has many benefits for students of all ages. Having a reliable in-home tutor for consistent lessons for your children, will improve the school results of your children. It is the ideal preparation to give your children a boost during the start of a new period at school. On top of that frustrations will be reduced, because of a decrease in misunderstandings your children will experience. A private tutor can customize the lessons to fit the needs of your children a school can never achieve. Do you want to know more about a private tutor in Melbourne? We can help you!

​Goal setting is paramount for your students to excel in their studies. As a tutor, your cardinal responsibility, in this regard, is to make sure that your students understand what goal setting is all about, and what they should do to achieve those goals. Moreover, you should remember that the goals you set should be strategic and geared towards achieving specific milestones related to what you teach your students. Capturing all that pertains goal setting is vital for you to experience positive outcomes for your tutoring students.

Why Goal Setting Is Important For Teaching and Learning
Goal setting is important for teaching and learning in various ways. First and foremost, goal setting allows students to have a clear picture of what they expect to gain from their learning experiences. For example, if they are learning a particular topic in maths, goal setting will allow them to know what to expect to gain at the end of the topic. In addition, goal setting helps students put in the efforts they need so as to achieve the positive results they expect after learning. Also, the process of goal setting facilitates an effective teaching process and, consequently, helps you as a tutor to give your students the best learning experience.

Brainstorming the Right Goals for Your Students
Setting goals is not as simple as it seems. The right goals need to be set for the right results to appear. Therefore, as a tutor, you should guide your students through a brainstorming process for them to identify the right goals for their learning. Since most of them might not be aware on how to go about it, you should facilitate the process. The basic thing is to be aware of what needs to be achieved within a particular time and set the right goals towards achievement of the same. This will require you to know and understand your students well.

The Importance of Setting SMART Goals
SMART goals are:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Acheivable
• Realistic and 
• Timely

Setting SMART goals is the right way to go. To begin with, SMART goals will allow you to be specific in what you need to achieve. Also, it will be possible for you to measure the goals set, thus allowing you to evaluate them effectively. Moreover, SMART goals ensure that your goals are achievable within the required time frame. In addition, these goals are realistic; hence, they have a practical way of working on them. Lastly, they are timely, meaning that they have a specific timeline for their realization.

Regular Goal Reviews
Goal reviews play a significant role in measuring whether set goals have been achieved or not. It’s through such reviews that you are able to know whether you and your students are implementing the required strategies to achieve set goals. As a tutor, you will know where you are and what needs improvement to help your students pursue their goals to the fullest.

Keeping Yourself and Your Students Accountable
Accountability is imperative for the achievement of teaching and learning goals. Without accountability, you will not achieve the results you seek. For this reason, make sure that you are doing your part to see the achievement of your goals. Also, make sure that you encourage your students to put efforts towards the attainment of set goals.

Conclusion
Goal setting is a vital process in teaching and learning. It enables you to identify specific areas that need improvement for your students and help them become better at them. Students in Melbourne can benefit greatly if they are assisted on how to set goals. Thus, be on the forefront towards improving the learning experience of your students by helping them set SMART goals.

 As a teacher and tutor of many years, this is a question I get asked all the time. Students are torn, unsure of their abilities and what is going to get them into their dream course, career or apprenticeship. The problem with many public schools as well, is that they spoon feed their students up until the VCE level, and then expect them to take responsibility, work harder and faster and finish all their homework. Students are completely taken by surprise by the pace and difficulty of all VCE subjects and are often overwhelmed.

Making decisions for the wrong reasons:
There are a few instances where students choose their subjects based on myths or the uneducated recommendations of others:

• I’ll do methods because it gets marked up

Do not do this! I can tell you first hand that regardless of scaling, you will get a better score in Further Maths 99% of the time (pretty much unless you are a genius and get 50 in both). I did Further and Methods in year 12. I spend more than double the time studying for Methods and still received a higher score for Further.

• I’ll do Further because it’s the easy Maths

Further Maths is NOT easy. It’s different. It has a lot more practical applications than methods, and you can rely and the calculator quite heavily which makes it easier, but not easy. So many students choose Further as what is meant to be their easy subject, intending not to study. I can tell you that even if you are a Maths wizz, if you don’t study, you will not reach your potential in this subject.

• I’ll do Further because Mum says I must do Maths

What you must do is your homework. Think about all of the possible career paths you are interested in and what their prerequisites are. If Maths is required, then yes, you must do it. If not, you have the option not to do it. Make choices based on your needs and preferences and make sure that you are not making subject study decisions to please anyone else.

Making decisions for the right reasons:

• Doing the Maths you enjoy most

You may have looked at the study designs or been given some descriptions of the topics in each subject. Further Maths is directed more towards practical analysis using statistics geometry, linear equations and networks. Methods is more of a pure math subject with various functions, calculus and advanced probability. If you do not enjoy Maths at all, you might like to consider not doing it at all.

• Doing the prerequisite for your course

Make sure you do all the subjects required to enter into the course of career you intend to do following high school. And, if your course does not require Maths, please refer to the first point.

• Keeping your options open

If you are not sure what you’d like to do after high school, I recommend Further Maths to keep your pathway options open. Many apprenticeships prefer students with some mathematical background and it is a prerequisite for common courses such as teaching and nursing.

I hope this article has helped in your decision making for year 12 Maths. If you are still unsure or need further guidance, make an appointment with a careers counselor at your school.
 

Math is a tricky subject for many students. The way it is generally taught doesn’t help, with so much emphasis put on processes and skill development. This leaves students with no in depth understanding of what they have leant, or the contexts within which to apply it.
​
Texts books are set up to teach students a skill, then allowing them to practice it. Once the skill has been mastered, the next exercise will teach another skill. Yes, there are application and problem-solving questions within the exercises, but students know that they need to apply the skill they have just learnt, as this is what the exercise was all about. As far as context and understanding go, many students are in the dark.

As a teacher and tutor of many years, I so often hear students say; “It’s easy until I do the test, and then I just don’t get it anymore.” If you think about the standard process of learning in Math through textbooks, it is obvious why this is all too common. Students learn skills which they know how to apply individually at the time of learning. Once the test arrives, all the questions are presented at once, requiring the use of a variety of skills, knowledge and understanding. As students have not had the chance to develop any contextual understanding of what they are learning, they have no idea which skills and knowledge to apply to each question.

Skills development is a fundamental part of learning Math, but it is also essential to reach a higher-level of understanding. This is a revision activity I use to help students contextualise their knowledge and develop a more in depth understanding of the unit as a whole:

Learning Intention:
To consolidate understanding of a unit of work
Success criteria
I recognise links between ideas
I can explain in detail how different ideas within the unit are related
Optional extension- I can provide examples which can be linked to the concepts and formulas presented.

Preparation:
Create cards or cut outs of all the keywords, formulas and concepts learned within a unit. This activity will work with most units of work, though it suits some more than others. The example I provide is triangle geometry and trigonometry. This is learnt as a part of a broader geometry unit in senior school General Mathematics in Victoria, Australia.

As you create your cut outs, take into consideration the level of understanding your student(s) have, along with time constraints. For very capable students, you may like to leave out some cut outs and ask them to add in missing formulas or concepts. O the other hand you might like to simplify this activity for less capable students by targeting a narrower range of concepts and giving considerable support.
​
Lesson:

1. Hand cut outs to students along with butchers’ paper and textas
2. Instruct students to group and organise cards, but not yet paste them down. As they collaborate and organise their thoughts, encourage them to think outside the square and not create a linear flow chart. It is ok to create multiple links between a variety of ideas, as long as you can explain the relevance of each join.
3. Once they are happy with the positioning of their cut outs and can envisage how the links might work, students can begin pasting and linking related concepts, keywords and formulas. All the links made must have explanations written alongside them, explaining why and how these cut outs are related. Ask students to colour code as and how they see fit.
4. Their maps are likely to become messy, with arrows and words everywhere. As they begin creating links, students are likely to discover other links which are also relevant. This is a good thing. Remember that it is the process of doing this that assists in their understanding and organises their thoughts. The product is far less important.
5. Offer suggestions and critique throughout the lesson, prompting students to think about additional links and why they are relevant.
6. As an optional extension, ask students to provide three (or any limited number you think will work) application examples (from text books or revision sheets) which include all ideas on the map. Complete the examples and place arrows to all the concepts and formulas encompassed within. 

This lesson creates not only a physical map of the unit, but also helps students to categorise and classify information in their own minds. Suddenly, all the skills learned can be grouped and classified. Furthermore, these groups may also be related.

This is just one mind mapping technique which will work as an invaluable revision tool, not only for Math exam revision, but many other subjects as well.

The cost of private tutoring varies depending on a number of factors. Tutoring as a profession requires no accreditation. This means, that anyone can say that they are a tutor, for any subject, and at any level. This is problematic for several reasons: Firstly. they may not have adequate subject knowledge, and secondly, they may not have the teaching skills and knowledge required.

Here is some information about different types of tutors and their approximate costs:

High School Graduates:
These tutors have finished high school in the last few years. They are likely to have knowledge in the subjects they are offering tutoring for. Many of them have received top grades in their VCE. However, they may lack teaching ability and may also struggle tutoring low achieving students. Many high achievers struggle to break concepts down to their basic components, as the understanding comes so naturally for them. High school graduates normally charge anywhere from $25-$50 per hour.

Undergraduate students, studying to become teachers:
These tutors are far more capable in their teaching capacity. Not only have they recently finished high school, they are currently studying to become teachers. They are learning about various teaching techniques and undertaking placements in schools. Undergraduate teachers cost between $40 and $70 per hour in my experience.

Qualified Teachers:
Qualified teachers having finished their teaching degree, specialising in one or two subjects. They may be employed within a public or private school. Qualified teachers have knowledge of a wide range of teaching techniques and up to date knowledge of the Victorian Curriculum and VCE curriculum. Qualified teachers are hard to find as tutors, as they are normally teaching in schools full time. They normally charge $60-$90 per hour.

Qualified Teachers with specialist knowledge:
This is the top pick for a tutor. Not only are these teachers qualified and experienced, but they have recent experience in the exact subject area you require help in. So, if you are struggling with Maths Methods for example, a tutor with specialist knowledge would have taught Maths Methods within the last few years. This gives them an in depth knowledge of the subject matter, an understanding of the exam structure and focus assessment areas. Specialist teachers generally charge $75-$100 per hour.

Of course, other factors also come in to play. As a tutor of many years, I also charge different amounts depending on my travel time. This is for two reasons. The first, is that my travel is causing wear and tear on my car, and I am using petrol, but the main reason is that I am not earning money in that time. Earlier this year, I was tutoring 5 students in one day, but it was taking 8 hours in total. When you only work for one hour at each place, travel is a significant factor.  Some tutors, who work from home, may charge less as they do not have to travel at all.

If you’d like to see improvement in your child, our recommendation is to spend a little extra to get an appropriately trained tutor who will be able to effectively teach all concepts and bring about understanding.  To find out about our maths tutors and costs, contact us today or click here to learn more!