Webinar with Tutor.com
by Lizann Lightfoot - December 10th, 2021
Our Guest: Maureen Haney, program manager for the Military Families portion of Tutor.com. I was a military brat who then married an Airman and became an Airforce spouse. I do outreach with my team to communicate with communities and bases all over the world to let people know the benefits of Tutor.com for military and DoD families. We do virtual and in-person events for kids and adults.
Tell us more about Tutor.com.
Tutoring often gets a bad reputation, but we do more than tutoring. We help any student who needs support, whether that is high school students preparing for an AP or IB exam, or adult learners who are returning to school, or anyone who has a gap in between Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, for example. We also help with all types of writing and papers at different skill levels. We offer tutors to practice foreign languages, or for military kids who are learning a second language at home. We have support for testing anxiety, and all sorts of tips and tricks to help you do your best?
These resources are FREE?!
There is no cost to military families or DoD civilian families. The service member, spouse, and all the dependents are eligible to use it all the way from Kindergarten through college. We have really increased our eligibility in the past year, but if you want to check your eligibility, see our requirements here.
Can I use Tutor.com to help my kid?
Sure, you can either go directly to a tutor and ask them to help your child with homework, or you can use the service yourself to understand the subject your child is studying, and then get assistance and support you as you go through it with your child. Our tutors are real people, so you can talk to them live and get interactive support.
How can Tutor.com help during a PCS?
Any internet-connected device can get access to us, so even if you are driving across the country during a move, kids can use Tutor.com on a smart phone or tablet in the back of a car, hotel room, etc. We are available 24/7, so it doesn’t matter what time zone you are in, if you have an unusual schedule, or if you are stationed overseas. We can accommodate all of that. Tutors work one-on-one with one student at a time, so you won’t get ignored or lost in a group. The tutors can be anonymous, so you don’t have to be on a video chat if you don’t want to, but you can chat any time.
You can “favorite” certain tutors who work well with you, so you can request those favorites first to get consistent results. I went to 9 different schools. Every teacher taught differently, and I often changed curriculum between schools, so the experience will be the same no matter where you go, but we want military kids to have consistency as they go through so many changes.
Do we all need different accounts in the same household?
We want each child to have their own account, so they can store things in their locker and save their own favorites, but you can use your birthdate to sign up for all of your kids, so it unlocks all the options.
Do you save the sessions and the work?
Yes, everything is saved, so you can look at the written transcript of everything you said to the tutor, you can watch everything that was drawn on the board, and you can even play back the whole session as a little video. If you uploaded a worksheet to do with your tutor, it gets saved in your locker. It will be saved for up to 6 months.
Are there tutors who can support kids with special needs?
We don’t have tutors designated for special needs, but all of our tutors are trained to assist learning challenges and disabilities. Because it is all anonymous, it’s up to the student and the parent to self-identify special needs or a particular learning challenge. Tutors do try to recognize skills that are challenging, like dyslexia, and will change their approach, use different skills, or suggest that the student switch from writing to voice, for example. For autistic students who aren’t comfortable with cameras, it’s easier to text-chat with the tutor. So there are methods available to work with those, and they have a plan for special needs, but it helps if you can identify challenges at the beginning of the session.
How do we find specific skills like multiplication?
When you go into Tutor.com, select math, then elementary math. Then you can either type that your child needs help with multiplication, you can grab one of our worksheets for their grade level, or you can take a picture of a homework assignment and upload that so you can work directly with the tutor on that particular assignment.
Are you hiring additional tutors?
Yes, we would love to hire more military spouse tutors, no matter where you are living right now. You can go to tutor.com/apply. We do take our application process seriously, so expect to send a resume and teaching credential, but study up and come prepared to take a test, because we will make you prove that you know your stuff! I’m told that the tests are not easy, haha. But we are always hiring additional language teachers. Our tutors are subject-matter experts. If you need help with statistics or economics, you are going to get a tutor in that specific subject, which means new hires need to select those specific subjects when they apply. The schedule is flexible, but we ask that you work anywhere from 5 hours up to 29 hours per week. We love to hire military spouses, service members, veterans, etc.
Lizann Lightfoot, the "Seasoned Spouse" is a professional writer and speaker for the military community. After two decades with her service member, her family has been through 7 deployments and 6 PCS moves. Lizann has raised 5 children and published several books for military families. Her most recent book is "Open When: Letters of Encouragement for Military Spouses" published Sept 2021 by Elva Resa. You can find Lizann's articles and resources at SeasonedSpouse.com
