Thank you!!

I am often asked why I love my job so much. Yes I love helping others, Yes I like making a difference, Yes I like working with children, but what I love most is knowing the work I do counts in the long run. I recently received an email from a client of mine- she has a non-verbal child on the Autism Spectrum who I started working with when she was around 4 years old. She is now a young lady at the age of 12. She writes....

Hi Cori,
This morning I saw G's close friend's Mom who works at Vaughan public library. This women is aware S. has autism, but not the severity. I told her S. Is non verbal and using a voice output app on iPad to communicate. Next question she asked ( appropriate for a librarian ). Does S. Know how to read ? I said yes and that is because of intensive teaching though her autism treatment centre. School teachers just supported the teaching strategies already implemented by S's Treatment director. Well that person is you! Over the years I have been asked by Friends or people who are aware of S. How she learned to read and I tell them about your commitment to her education. I will always be thankful and grateful for your commitment to teach S. How to read before even entering grade one! Clicker stories on my IPad remind me of those early elementary school years. You should be extremely proud of the work you have done to shape S. Mind before entering school full time. Now S can read , comprehend and type her responses. This is because of your knowledge and commitment to her treatment and care.
Ok, I am tearing up now and have to go and make the dinner pizza which S. Eats at 4:00.

My response to emails like this is "THANK YOU!". Thank you for allowing me to work with your child. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for supporting my approaches along the way. I am extremely grateful for each and every one of my students and clients. They #educate me, #motivate me, and #accelerate me to be the best educator I can be. 

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Tutor vs. Academic Coach

You are one step in the right direction when you decide that you are going to find support for your child, to help them at home with their school work. The next step is figuring out what that support is going to look like. Does your child need help understanding curriculum content? Does your child need help completing homework and assignments? Does your child just need a cheerleader in their corner to help build self-confidence and esteem? Understanding your child's needs is really important before you start shopping around so you can make sure you are getting the best support possible. Knowing what's available out there is really important. Based on my 10+ years of experience, I have found that now more than ever, there is such a great need for more than just the traditional type of tutoring. This is especially true for students who have Executive Functioning challenges, Attention Deficit Disorders, Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities, and other learning deficits we are seeing through assessment outcomes.  With need comes support, and the inception of our Academic Coaching service. We have come to differentiate Tutoring & Academic Coaching to ensure we are meeting the growing needs of all our clients. They are offered as separate services but often merge quite seamlessly. The feedback has been tremendous and a lot of families are seeing such positive results. Here's the difference between the two. 

Tutoring

• Helps students understand curriculum content in any or all subject areas

• Helps students complete homework

• Helps students study for upcoming tests and exams (having a study buddy can be quite beneficial)

• Helps students when it comes time to edit final assignments

• Helps boost confidence and self esteem when going through homework, assignments and test prep at home. Reassurance always feels so good!

• DOES NOT mean that someone is showing up to your house to complete your child’s homework or assignments for them

• Offers remediation and enrichment to catch up or move ahead in the curriculum

• Helps parents out when time is limited after school to help their child with homework, etc.

• The focus here in on the product

Academic Coaching

• Helps students who need support with organizational management and time management

• Helps students take larger tasks and break them down into smaller ones

• Helps students organize and manage their schedules and agendas

• Helps students set up systems at home for homework and assignment completion and test prep

• Involves communicating with teachers to align goals and learning strategies

• Teaches students study skills that target both their strength and weaknesses

• Primarily focuses on processes and then product

• Provides a solid foundation to allow students to learn effectively

• Boost confidence and self esteem when going through homework, assignments and test prep at home. Reassurance always feels so good!

• Reduces the needs for parents to play the role of 'teacher' at home- which often compromises the parent-child relationship

How to Hire the Right Tutor.

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When hiring a tutor you want to take the time to make sure you are finding the right person for your child. Investing in a tutor can have many beneficial outcomes for your child, given you find someone who is a perfect fit. So, how do you make this happen? How do you find that perfect fit? There are many things to consider when you are shopping around for a tutor. Make sure to have a list of questions or a checklist prepared as you conduct your search. This will help you know if you are on the right track. Here are the 5 most important things to consider when you are in the process of hiring/interviewing tutors.

#1. Before you start interviewing different tutors make sure you have a good grasp on your child’s academic needs. Ask yourself why your child needs a tutor. Does your child have a learning disability and needs extra support? Is it a motivation boost they need? Is your child unorganized and need help staying on top of their work? Study skills support? Homework completion? Behavioural challenges? Narrow it down before you make any calls.

#2. What are the tutor’s qualifications/certifications and teaching experiences? Since you are looking for professional academic support, the tutor should be a registered Teacher with the Ontario College of Teachers (or equivalent). If they are not registered, they should at the very least have Education training and a post-secondary degree in the field of Education. Depending on the needs of your child, you should ask if they have any ‘additional qualifications’ (AQs)- which means specialized training obtained at the University level in specific areas (ie; special education, reading, math, french, etc.). Have they ever tutored or taught kids the same age as yours? Do they have experience with the curriculum content your child is working on at school? Have they worked with kids who have similar needs to yours? Dig in and find out! An added bonus would be if they were qualified and experienced in more than one area and grade level. Once you find that perfect tutor you don’t want to have to give them up when your child moves on to the next grade. 

#3. Where does collaboration fit on the tutor’s agenda? Any good tutor will be more than willing to communicate and collaborate with your child’s classroom teacher(s). This is super important for the sake of consistency between home and school. It’s always beneficial for the child to be using consistent learning strategies across different environments. Tutors and teachers should be communicating to share what strategies work and don’t work. It’s also important for the tutor to understand the teacher’s expectations so the tutoring sessions can be geared in that direction. There should always be a bridge between school and home. Open lines of communication work wonders!

#4. When choosing a tutor, you have to find someone who fits into your family’s lifestyle. If you are busy juggling multiple kids’ schedules, you might benefit from a tutor who will come to you vs. you going to them. A tutor with scheduling flexibility is also beneficial, should you want to add in or move around sessions based on test and assignment dates. Standing appointments are important for consistency, however sometimes a little wiggle room is needed. Weekend availability is a bonus if you are the type of family that is scheduled with extra-curricular activities after school, during the week.

#5. Approach is everything! Ask the tutor how they approach their sessions. Two key words to listen for in this responses are; rapport and motivation.  A good tutor will always focus on building a positive relationship with your child before diving into anything too intense. Your child has to feel comfortable with the tutor in order to be productive throughout their sessions. There also needs to be a feeling of trust that comes from building good rapport. On the same note, understanding motivation is key. All learners perform based on some type of motivation- for some it’s getting a good mark, for other’s it’s task completion, for some it’s a simple external reward that has nothing to do with school (for example; getting an extra special dessert for finishing homework). Understanding motivation is a critical part of learning. It’s super important that your tutor is going to use your child’s strengths to boost their weaknesses. We all need to feel success to stay motivated! 

Finding that perfect tutor might take time, don’t rush the processes. Take the opportunity to speak to more than one tutor so you have an idea of how different tutors operate. When I hirenew tutors to join my team of Learning Specialists at Cori Stern & Associates, I always consider the first impression they make during their interview. Tutors inadvertently act as mentors for their students. So you should get the impression that they are confident, personable, friendly, outgoing, warm, and well spoken. Go with your gut feeling! If you walk away feeling good about it, your child will likely have the same impression.

Motivating the Unmotivated

One of the best parts about being an educator is that you also get to be a student. Student learns from Teacher and Teacher learns from Student. It's a wonderful symbiotic relationship. I find myself learning from my students and clients all the time. This is not limited to all the typical learners out there. The same holds true for all my students and clients with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, executive functioning challenges, poor self regulation skills, motor planning issues, and the list goes on....

One of the biggest challenges as an educator who works with students with different exceptionalities, is trying to find ways to motivate the student to learn. There is no doubt that motivation is the key to successful teaching and learning. So... how do you do this with with a student who is labelled as "gifted" but has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), an anxiety disorder, extremely poor fine motor skills and very weak coping skills- all at the same time??? Sounds like a recipe for disaster (especially when his History assignment is due in 2 days). My approach to this is to identify the student's strengths and use them to boost the weaknesses. In this case- this particular student is very intelligent, has strong verbal skills, and loves technology. It just so happens his teacher has the class using Google Docs to produce and organize assignments. BINGO! Smart smart Teacher! He followed the classroom structure of doing his work on the computer in Google Docs- however had the brilliant idea to open his Google Drive app on his iPhone and use the microphone to dictate his thoughts, which we watched get automatically typed on the computer screen in front of us. By the end of our one hour session- his assignment was just about complete and he felt accomplished! I found ways to motivate him by tapping into his interests (technology), reduced the fine motor demand (no handwriting or typing), maximized his verbal skills (dictating), and kept him on task (because he was motivated). What a success! Here's the strategy we used- I hope it's useful to help you #educate #motivate and #accelerate your students!

-Cori

Once signed into your student's Google account on the computer- open up the Google Drive and create a new Google Doc (give it a good title). Once this is done open up your Google Drive app on your mobile device and find the new doc. you just created-open it up!

On your mobile device, pull up your keyboard and press the microphone button- start dictating those awesome thoughts and ideas. Make sure your student talks sloooow and clear. You should see those brilliant words appear on your mobile screen. After each sentence or 2- hit 'done' and they will appear on your computer screen.

The beauty of this is you don't have to remember to 'save' your document because Google does this for you automatically every few seconds. Tada! You did it!

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If you want any further information on the strategies mentioned above, please don't hesitate to be in touch. I love sharing the goods! Looking forward to hearing from you.