Nowadays, more parents are choosing their kids to homeschool instead of sending them to public schools. In this pandemic era, homeschooling has become the best alternative way in which parents educate their children at home without meeting too many people directly.
Parents choose to homeschool their kids for various reasons, including dissatisfaction with public school educational teaching, pandemic situations, or even different educational philosophies.
The internet provides tons of excellent materials for download. However, the materials are usually presented in PDF format. Therefore, homeschoolers’ parents and tutors must be able to manage the PDF, like how to edit a PDF, add pages to PDF files, split a PDF, delete PDF pages, etc.
As homeschooling has become the leading choice for parents in educating their children apart from public or private schools, the percentage of children being homeschoolers is rapidly increasing. For that reason, the need for homeschooling tutors is increasing to fill out the parents’ needs to teach in the subjects or fields they are not mastering.
For example, technology, higher-level math, science, or foreign language are some fields in which homeschooling parents may hire a tutor rather than deliver the subject themselves.
What are the duties of homeschool tutors?
Homeschool tutors must be responsible for lesson planning, curriculum development, grading, and portfolio preparation. They are also accountable for ensuring the lesson is delivered to the students, as they work directly with them. Moreover, tutors must be flexible and set aside time for administrative tasks.
5 Skills homeschooling tutors should master
Here are five skills that homeschooling tutors should master. So, any homeschooler tutor or parents of homeschoolers must consider the following things before deciding to engage in any homeschooling-based activity.
1. Working with the students based on their expertise
Homeschooling tutors should be able to work with their students in a fun way. Fun learning is key to how students can easily understand the subject. To be able to do it, parents and tutors must know their expertise—and also their limits. For example, someone with expertise in Math and Science can deliver Math and Science materials well. However, the same person may not be able to design and deliver Literature or History materials in fun and engaging ways.
2. Making a lesson plan, developing a curriculum, constructing a syllabus, and deciding on learning goals professionally.
Homeschooling tutors should manage the lesson plan, the curriculum, and the syllabus delivered to the students. The best way to keep everything organized is by saving all the files in PDF format. Homeschooling tutors have the skills to manage PDF files, such as how to add pages to a PDF, edit a PDF, split a PDF, delete PDF pages, etc. In addition, many tools like Adobe are provided on the internet to simplify the tutors’ duties.
One thing about PDFs that many homeschooling tutors fail to understand is adding pages to PDF files. This feature is beneficial when tutors want to add some pages to a single PDF file. This way, the tutor can combine one PDF file with some pages from another.
Here are the simple steps:
- Drag and drop a PDF file into the area available, then insert pages
- After the file is uploaded, sign in
- Select the insertion point
- Navigate the PDF files added
- Organize it, then click save.
When you get the hang of it, you can complete it in just a few taps. So as homeschooling tutors, the expertise in technology—like the skills to manage PDF—is not a choice. It is a MUST.
Files in PDF format can be used to document the teaching and learning plans for the long run. The files can be used for a single student at a certain level or several different students at different levels. The files are also easier and safer to distribute—for example, to parents as a learning report—since PDF will maintain the document’s contents and format.
3. Collaborating with parents in learning activities
Since homeschooling existed primarily because the parents were dissatisfied with the educational system in public or private schools, homeschooling tutors came to fill the gaps. This means they have to run the syllabus they make per the parents’ wishes. If the parents and tutors can be good teamwork, reaching the desired educational goals is not a dream.
The parents and tutors must be able to see the students’ potential strengths and collaborate to design and present materials that will support those strengths to develop further. Therefore, parents and tutors need skills in PDF editing, adding a page to PDF files, reorganizing PDF files, etc.
4. Guiding and advising students and parents to achieve their educational goals
Homeschooling tutors should be top communicators who can guide and advise the students—and parents—to effectively reach their goals. Discussion is essential because there is no fixed curriculum in a homeschooling setting. Top communicator tutors can build up students’ and parents’ confidence to continue their alternative education journey.
5. Keeping up with the latest technology
The up-to-date technologies are helpful when they are used in the classroom. The teaching-learning process would be more effective and fun with updated teaching methodologies.
Knowing what to do with a PDF file is one example. Most tutors mistakenly understand a PDF format as a file that cannot be edited. However, they now know that there are many things we can do with a PDF file, including adding pages to PDF.
In this modern era, especially in this pandemic era, homeschooling is one way the teaching-learning process keeps working. The growth of homeschooling nowadays is automatically followed by the increasing demand for homeschooling tutors. The quality of the tutors should also be increased to stay up to date with technology and teaching methodologies.
Supported by the tutors’ ability, the student’s goals can be reached quickly and effectively. This modern era gives more choices to the parents on how they educate their children, and homeschooling is one of the answers to fulfill their desire.
Author bio:
Indriyas is Outreach Manager of Adobe. When not writing, she can be found baking and taking care of her cats.