At MyTutor, we always want to know how we can make things better.
A few months back we rolled out the lesson reports feature, allowing you to give your student the 411 after their first lesson. Well, now we’re giving you the option to use it after each and every one. This means you can track everything you teach, and parents can be even more in-the-know about their child’s lessons.
Keep reading for more about how it works and why it should benefit your experience as a tutor.
- How does it work?
- It saves you time
- It helps the student
- It strengthens your parent-tutor relationships (and gets you more bookings)
How it works
It’s pretty self-explanatory when you use it, but here’s a quick rundown. After you finish a lesson, you’ll be prompted to write a lesson report. It’s not compulsory, but it should take only around 10 minutes, and it saves you lots more time ahead of your next lesson. Here’s how it’s structured:
- Today we covered… This is where you’ll sum-up what you taught and what activities you did in your lesson.
- I was impressed by… Here you’ll praise the student for what they did well – a great chance to boost their confidence and spark their enthusiasm to keep going.
- We’ll keep working at… Next you should outline the student’s areas for improvement, and where you’ll focus your help.
- Next time we’ll cover… Then you can outline what you’ll do in your next lesson (unless it’s a one-off). If they haven’t booked the following lesson yet, this gives the parent an extra incentive to do so.
- Here’s when I’m free… Here you can suggest a day and time for your next lesson; you’ll create a slot that the parent can easily book and pay for after they’ve read the lesson report. This is a great way to get them to book another lesson with you straight away.
You can then send off your report with a note for the parent – they’ll receive it in an email. You’ll also have a copy of it saved in your on-site messages with them.
With lesson reports, the time you spend after a lesson will save you time before the next one
It saves you time
This feature also doubles as a lesson planner. We know it can be a faff putting time aside to plan lessons in advance. By writing this report straight after the lesson, you’ll give yourself a reference doc to plan what you’ll tutor in your next lesson. So although it’ll take around 10 minutes to fill out after the lesson, it should ultimately save you time. Here’s what some of the tutors who trialled the feature had to say:
“Lesson reports make my relationships with parents a bit easier because there’s a framework provided to answer questions like “how is my son/daughter doing”
“Reports keep a record for me to look back on my tutoring”
“I use it to help me see how I will proceed with a student in terms of pace and difficulty”
“Because parents are the ones paying for the service it’s nice for them to have something concrete written down for each lesson. It’s great to let them see the impact the tutoring is having and how it’s going from my perspective”
It helps the student
By making the parent aware of what their child is learning, it means they can reiterate what you say in the lesson report – the praise, where they need to focus on improving, and what they’re learning week-to-week. With their parent echoing your advice, it helps motivate the student and keep them on the right track with their learning.
It strengthens your parent-tutor relationships (and gets you more bookings)
Because parents are the ones paying for the lessons, and because they care about their child’s education (hence booking a tutor), they like being kept in the loop with how it’s all going. Lesson reports give you the chance to tell the parent about the work you’re putting in, and the impact it’s having on the student. With this extra knowledge, and their stronger relationship with you, the parent is more likely to see the value of your lessons and keep making regular bookings. Then by adding a lesson suggestion on to the end of your report, it makes booking future lessons that bit easier.
If you’ve got any feedback or suggestions, we’re all ears! Just drop us an email at support@mytutor.co.uk.