Claudia Corrieri has ten years of tutoring and teaching experience. From developing young learners’ English in Asia to supporting undergraduate level students studying at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. Claudia has worked with all ages, and she was using the wonders of the internet for tutoring long before the pandemic hit. Below she discusses the benefits of online tutoring and how she has developed working with students online.
Whilst students have been tucked away safely at home, it has provided an opportunity to engage them through learning materials online. I developed a series of online Powerpoints, particularly for ages five to eight years, so that students can enjoy activities such as circling with a pen on the whiteboard, writing text using the text tools, and adding fun and colourful stickers.
Working online on digital platforms also provides an opportunity for students to listen to nursery rhymes, watch short educational clips, and to respond to materials that are brought to life digitally for them. Whilst online engagement offers excellent learning opportunities, I am also careful to balance screen time with tasks such as colouring and writing into their notebooks. I encourage students to underline, write in colours and to draw mind maps.
I tend to divide up my online sessions into short tasks so that the students remain engaged and excited. Whilst lessons can be planned and crafted, occasionally it also offers up an opportunity to support students through their homework tasks set by online school. Recently, teachers have been setting students tasks to complete through online platforms such as SeeSaw. These can be printed as worksheets, emailed through to me and shared on the screen so that students can read aloud. They can also use the worksheets as guides to complete.
During lockdown, parents have been under immense pressure to maintain their work-life and balance it with supervising children, childcare and homeschooling. Online tutoring sessions, where a tutor can engage a child one-to-one, can offer parents some of the support they may perhaps need, in order to momentarily focus upon other tasks and responsibilities.
Children who find their learning experience fun can often begin to open a dialogue with a tutor, seeing them also as a mentor and a friend. As children share more about their experiences: playing in the garden, their favourite toys, or their relationship with their siblings; tutors are able to craft their lessons to subjects the student enjoys, making their online experience ever more enjoyable. If the student builds a rapport with their tutor, they will often be more invested, focussed and willing to join the online lesson.
Interested in online support? Bonas MacFarlane can create a bespoke arrangement for your child, helping reduce costs where possible.