Tutors have taken instruction to a new level this summer | Education
The same circumstances that affected teachers after New Hampshire schools were closed in mid-March are forcing summer tutors to adopt different approaches to reaching kids.
Lisa Khalafi, owner of Literacy Links in Bedford, said that before the pandemic she would tutor at people’s homes, at her home or in schools. Now she offers her services through Zoom for a set fee.
Khalafi, who has a master’s degree in special education, tutors students learning to read, struggling to read or diagnosed with a language-based learning disability such as dyslexia.
Khalafi is certified to teach children from kindergarten to 12th grade but said most of the kids she sees tend to come to her in the fourth grade.
“It becomes evident that they aren’t grasping the reading and that they’re struggling,” Khalafi said.
Khalafi said distance tutoring “is working, it’s absolutely 100 percent working because the alternative is to do nothing.”
“But there’s nothing that is going to take the place of being in person, unfortunately,” Khalafi said.
So she is looking forward to working with her clients in person again soon.
Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said that although tutors are not under the jurisdiction of the New Hampshire Department of Education, he supports their work with struggling students. At the same time, he said parents should not stress too much over academics during the summer months.
“It’s OK if students have some time to play. We’ve been through a lot as families,” Edelblut said.
Edelblut said between assessments to determine where the learning gaps are this fall and field training offered to teachers this summer, educators will be better equipped to tackle any challenges they encounter next academic year.
Olivia Koch, a National Honor Society student entering her junior year at Somersworth High School, started helping peers with math and Spanish when schools were closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and is making it a summer job.
“I decided to do tutoring because I realized that there’s probably kids, not just in the high school, but a bunch more kids who need help. And I figured I had all this time so I could do that, and it could be a summer job as well,” Koch said.
Koch, who has experience working after school with children from kindergarten to fifth grade, is interested in tutoring children of all ages. She offers her services remotely on a sliding scale, so anyone who needs help can afford it.
Some private music instructors are also open to the concept of tutoring new students this summer.
Mel Epstein, who lives in Center Barnstead, is willing to tutor remotely or in person if a child is struggling with music. He teaches guitar, piano, keyboard, violin, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, harmonica and voice. He also has experience with drums, accordion, concertina, cello, dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, songwriting and music theory.
“I would be able and happy to do a concentration of studies remotely,” Epstein said.
Epstein said his 30 private students have found comfort in music during the pandemic.
“Everybody is a little disoriented with this COVID. The kids I teach fair much have soldiered on. I know for a number of them, it’s served as a stabilizing thing in their life,” Epstein said.
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