CC Foundations Tutor

[wehave8]

I have been asked to be a tutor for CC Foundations. I do not want to take this lightly. I do not want to waste time or money for the students and families.

If you've tutored, could you please share what it took to prepare for class?

 

Pam

[tm_burriss]

I am interested in this too as I have been asked to tutor. One of my close friends does this and I know she spends quite a bit of time preparing and timing herself so that she gets everything done during class in the recommended times. She also spends a lot of time preparing to make sure she herself has it memorized before she presents it to the class.

[Kathie in VA]

BTDT. I tutored a few different levels. Prep time varied. In the beginning I spent hours the night before going over the material to decide how to present each subject. Sometimes I planned to do the read and erase off the board option. For some I'd teach a bit to ensure understanding but had to keep that very short. For some we would sing the songs a few times and then read/erase. I made up some games like a hot potato thing and went around the room, word by word... after erasing it from the board. It also depended on the ages; younger kids did more singing then the older kiddos. Then again the youngest ones couldn't read so we couldn't do the read/erase option very well. Biggest thing to remember is that the goal is to get it into their SHORT term memory... that is what the 3 min per subject is for... then spend time reviewing. it is their job to get it into long term memory. That is their daily work. The review is for fun, for a reward for those who practiced at home, and an incentive for the others to study at home.

 

Sometimes I spent hours the night before, other times I was busy so my prep was limited to maybe an hour. It helped to have options of approaches laid out like read/erase, sing, hot potato, etc.

 

hths

[Hedgehogs4]

I gave tutoring a decent amount of prep, but like PPs said, it varied. I was tutoring 1-2nd graders so reading levels varied, as did attention spans. I think the hardest part was trying to vary the way we did things and yet remain consistent in how we did them at the same time. I spent time inventing games for the kids to play and came up with some good ones. The parents were very pleased with the job I did.

 

The year that I tutored, CC was not "fun" for me at all. I was utterly exhausted at the end and really missed out on the fellowship with other moms, but YMMV. There are some tutors who love tutoring and would not want to be in the helper / observer role. I am not one who typically gravitates toward children's ministry or activities with groups of children, as these things drain me completely. I was doing it because I wanted to be sure my son had a good tutor. I only tutored one year as a result. That is not to say I regret it or did not enjoy it because there were times that I did, but for us, CC was meant to be a fun time and an opportunity to get to fellowship with other families. The years that I did not tutor were much more that way for us.

[akvtmama]

I recently attended the Tutor training at the practicum and found it to be very helpful. I encourage you to go I you can.

[G5052]

Training is mandatory, although sometimes they have different ways of handling it if practicums aren't available to you.

 

I never found it to be that difficult. You are leading/tutoring the memory work, so you are just planning your approach for that portion. The fine arts and science parts may require a little study, but your director should be gathering the materials for you, so you won't have that. And some campuses will combine the classes somewhat if there are limitations on the facility, so you may not have that prep every week. I usually prepped while my kids were at martial arts, and then packed that night when we got home while it was on my mind.

[amselby81]

I tutored the youngest class this year. I think it was harder in the beginning of the year, not really knowing what to expect. It got easier, as I found my groove. I'm a procrastinator, so I would usually wait until the night before to begin preparing and planning. It would take about 4 hours. Organized and smart tutors would prepare two nights before CC day. I'd suggest doing that. I don't know why I don't do it.

 

Many ideas should be given to you at tutor training. I have also gotten many ideas from CC Connected and pinterest. We would sing songs, repeat memory work with silly voices, use hand motions, erase words from the board (even though my kids couldn't really read, it still helped). For review time, I'd play different games. We'd play candyland, using the CC review cards (the little ones that go on a ring.) We'd put together a Mr. Potato Head one item at a time, after someone answered a review question. I had subjects written on popcicle sticks, and had kids draw sticks to choose which subject we'd review next. The possiblilities for review games are endless! The science and art time is organized by the director, and we would meet up before the beginning of each quarter to discuss how we were going to do each project.

 

I'm not going to say that it's easy peasy, but it isn't really hard either.

[wehave8]

Thanks for the encouragements and great ideas!

It's totally a new community starting up so we'll all be new to this.

Hopefully the other moms will be patient!

 

Pam

[DiannaC]

I have tutored the little ones for 2 years now. I typically spend an hour preparing every week. You don't have to memorize everything, because you can look at what is on your board or in your book. Because I listen to the songs with my kids, I memorized most of it, but it isn't required. The tutor trainer at our practicum said it shouldn't take you that long to prepare because you aren't teaching, but drilling. Once you find what your kids like (silly voices, songs, motions, drawing) then you use those things. It should be fairly simple because you are modeling for moms. You need to be able to replicate what you are doing at home & so do they. I think some tutors make it way more complicated & elaborate than CC wants it to be.

[mrs.m]

I worked a week or two ahead at home and used those methods in the classroom. I essentially spread the prep throughout the week. I had a few review games that I rotated through. Remember that the idea is to use stick in the sand method. Keep it simple and the families will appreciate it. Busywork isn't needed. I did do a bit of prep for fine arts and the science experiments but that wasn't too time consuming. I used the materials CC suggests for tutors to have on hand such as Classical Music for Dummies.