Does anyone tutor?

[disny_luvr]

I am thinking about tutoring and was wondering if anyone on the DIS tutors as well. I have been teaching for five years and am looking for a way to make some extra money to put towards our upcoming Disney trip. What are the pros/cons of tutoring? How much do you charge an hour? Any input would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[oldbay]

Cons - People cancel, much like when someone might cancel a haircut with no thought, people cancel tutoring without a second thought all the time. Hard to avoid unless you lock them into prepaying for a certain amount and then still if they cancel this would likely just extend the time the prepaid was for.
- students that need tutoring also are not usually too excited about the subject they are getting help with, it can be hard to get them excited about the subject.

Pro - easy way to make $$ if you can get students.
-You are your own boss.

 

[muscarello4]

$45 an hour, CASH, for a high school math tutor. Ka-ching, baby!

 

[thcraun]

I have my own tutoring business working primarily with high school students. I love it. It gives me the flexibility to be home with my daughter while making a nice income. I live in the DC area, so tutoring can be very lucrative. That being said, the rates really vary based on experience, whether you work independently or for a company and what areas you specialize in.

If you want to do homework help and academic work, you can work independently utilizing your school contacts, etc. If you want to do test prep, I would recommend starting through a well-established company like Kaplan or Princeton Review so that you get the proper training to be successful.

Most tutors work between 5 and 15 hours per week as a second job. If you are an experienced teacher, I would not tutor for less than $25/hour. The average for a new tutor working for a company is between $20-30 to start in our area. As I have been doing this for many years, I make substantially more. You can charge more as an independent tutor, but it is a challenge getting new students versus having a company to recruit students for you.


Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

 

[notsosnowwhite]

I tutor and offer "homework help" - basically helping students with attention issues complete their assignments. At our school teachers generally charge $20 per hour. Tutoring has been a painless way for me to make some extra money. The only issue I have ever had is getting parents to pay on a timely basis. I would make the payment expectations VERY clear - will you get paid per session? Per week? Per month? I send out a monthly statement if not paid, but I still often have to be upfront with parents and ask for payment. This is not due to lack of funds or financial hardship - just forgetful parents.

 

[disneycruising]

I live in the Cal bay area. We paid our tutor $65 an hour and she came to our house. We always paid for 8 sessions up front.

 

[Willow1213]

My husband tutors middle school and high school math. He charges $25-30 per hour and has no problems with getting paid on a timely basis. He gets paid cash or checks from parents on a weekly/ per session basis. His main problem is cancellations. He has a strict day before policy. If you don't tell him you need to cancel by the day before, he still charges for the lesson. This is very important since he drives to the students houses and he still has to pay for gas even if you "forget" you have something else going on.

He has 22 students a week before cancellations. Some weeks he makes more money than I do after tax! The only thing I don't like is having to work my Disney trips around the school schedule and we don't have kids yet.

Good luck!

 

[SamSam]

We paid $20 an hour to our daughters tutor...high school Algebra 15 years ago.

 

[akcire]

My neighbor tutors, but has also started working with a homeschool kid too.

She is a teacher with more than 15 years of experience, who now stays home for her kids. She tutors kids a couple of nights a week--reading recovery, composition, etc.

Her newest thing is helping a student during the day (while her kids are in school) with the program he needs to complete high school. The kid had a really bad beginning of the school year, four of his family members in unrelated incidents died--anyhow he didn't want to go to school anymore (understandably he was a bit freaked out). My neighbor tutors him with essentially a homeschool program so he doesn't fall behind--this also allows him easy access for therapy and gives him a sense of purpose. A couple times a month they come over to my house for lunch--he needs more socialization and I like to cook. He is a nice kid.

She thinks he may be going back to school next year, and if he does she said she would look for another kid who either doesn't want to attend school or has been expelled for disciple.

 

[joliesmom]

My daughters in 3rd grade and we pay her tutor $50 an hour. We have been with the same tutor for 2 years and I think she's amazing! We have had her tutor in both math and reading at different times. We have never had to cancel at the last minute and if we did we would still pay her.

 

[Pembo]

My son has an amazing algebra tutor. She charges $20 for an hour. We pay when we go. She teaches all day and tutors 4 nights a week ...she's a rock star.

THe school district also maintains a tutor list and those tutors get $27/35 per hour.

I tutored one summer for kids in my school and charged $15/hour. I wasn't there to make money but to help kids that really needed it.

 

[FLAngie]

The teachers at DD's elementary school charge $25/hour. They come to your house.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

My DD has had several tutors over the years. Some have been wonderful and one was terrible. We paid them all $25 per hour in cash each week. We went to them.
The one that was terrible was a super nice person, but she did it out of her house and her husband did not view it as a job. She had a baby at the time and he would run to the store or go workout leaving the baby behind. The tutor spent most of the time watching the baby and not really helping DD. I let that go for a while and said something to her, but nothing changed so we would a better tutor. The tutor that really helped her was a retired teacher that I had in school. It was actually very funny.
It think that tutoring is a great way for teachers to make extra money. I know that most high school teachers get around $40 an hour here. My daughter was in elementary school at the time of the $25.

 

[holden]

DD7's reading teacher comes to tutor her once a week. She charges $35/hr. She has worked miracles with DD! DD started the year reading at a level 4 (the rest of the class was on level 10). Her teacher just told me yesterday that DD is caught up with the rest of the class now! I don't think she would have come this far wthout the tutoring! It has been worth every penny.

We are going to have her continue throughout the summer (2x week) to keep up with DD's skills.

I feel that $35/hr is very reasonable. When I taught high school English, my fellow teachers charged $50/hr for tutoring.

 

[coinkc]

My daughter just had her first session with a math tutor yesterday. He has been teaching for 30 years and currently teaches the same Geometry class that my daughter is taking just in a different school.

He charges $40 an hour and we went to his house. I paid him in cash and plan to at each session. He didn't mention a cancellation policy so I don't know what would happen in that case.

Good luck if you decide to start tutoring. My daughter came out and told me "I feel smart again!" so it was definately the best money I have spent in a while!

 

[momejay]

I've had a tutor for my daughter for years. She charges $40 an hour. My DD is now in highschool. The tutor comes to our house. Basically my DD needs to hear that school is important from someone other than Mom. (because Mom knows nothing at this point...if ya know what I mean) She helps study for tests & they do projects together.